codofobia

I have passed the exam but barely so. I got just enough score to pass. One wrong answer and I would have failed. I never coded a single line in my life, all I knew is through books. I get very much afraid to write the smallest programme. Any of you had this problem? What is this? Codofobia or something? Is there a solution?

When I first started programming, coding seemed impossibly hard. My first attempts were indeed frustrating--my code was filled with syntax errors. However, over time, you realize that it really is not that hard. All it takes is practice. My suggestion would be to just jump in--write a lot of short snippets of code. Over time, I think that you'll find that your codophobia will get better.

Hi,
Congragulations on passing your SCJP.
When i started with java, even i had to face a lot of problems in debugging. But now i've got myself a good book from O'Reilly(Java Examples in a Nutshell). I recommend this book, as it helped me a lot and now i've gained some confidence.
Regards,
Girish

congratulations. all the very best for the future. without coding , you can not get to the nitty gritties of any thing. you have to do a lot of coding for bright future. Foundation shall be always strong then only you can build high rise mansion.
Your Friendly Bartender
Shailesh.

Congratulations Vasuma

Start small ... a little piece of code copied from a book. Get it working, play with it by changing a piece here, a piece there. What breaks it? Everyone learns to program, in the beginning, by manipulating code examples. Find code for an object that does something and try to modify it. If there's a peice of code for a progress bar in grey and blue; try changing it's color, size etc. Try writing your own class to test the bars behaviour.
Try to stay from complete application examples until you get a feel for how the little things work. Then gradually work towards writing multiple class code.
Hope that helps.
------------------
Jane Griscti
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java� 2 Platform

Thanks js, shailesh, girish and jane. I will try to follow your advice. Girish, can I get this book (Java examples in a nutshell) online? Jane, yours is a nice idea( mess with working code and see how JVM reacts). I will work on that.

Hi,
Vasuma.I have searched the net for this book.But i could not find it.This book is costing Rs.~230/-.I think it is worth a possess.
All the best!
Regards,
Girish

Thanks Girish. I got a used book at amazon at a very good price.
Am going to get in couple of weeks. I want to work on the examples and take the test again. My target is a score of 90 plus. I am sure all you guys will help me in realizing my goal.
------------------
Sun certified , with the lowest score possible.

Hiya Vasuma,
This is only my opinion, but I would say do not waste your time retaking the SCJP. Start the developer's exam, you will learn so much more. The SCJP is a very good starting point, but knowing the theory of Java is not the only thing people interested in a Java career need. I am a Java consultant and you must now know JSP and servlets, J2EE (EJB, JNDI, RMI, etc), also think of the great possibilites with J2ME (programming PDA's , cell phones, etc.). Also, UML is a must to develop class diagrams. You passed the exam my friend, a 61% on the exam does not determine your future potential, go get the developer's assignment, pass it then look at Java architecture. Have fun and remember this is only my opinion, the choice is completely up to you

Greg,
Thanks for your valuable opinion. Obviously I am looking at a career in Java. But I am not getting the confidence to make a beginning. So I thought SCJP will be a starting point. I did it, but without writing any code on my own. I want to do that, gain some confidence and then take a fresh shot at scjp. Dont you think developers' exam needs a deeper understanding and also some hardcore practical experience? As I dont have practical experience, I am trying to compensate it by taking these exams. I have UML exam and also one of the websphere administration exams in my mind. I dont know if I am on the right path or not. Please guide me, and correct me if I am wrong in my choices.
Thanks,
vasuma
------------------
Sun certified , with the lowest score possible.

I agree that it takes some experience to take the developer's exam, however the best way to gain coding experience is to just write code, and you will write much code in the developer's assignment. Also, remember that you have a year (I believe), to complete the assignment. When I started out, it took me 5 months to gain almost expert knowledge in swing and JDBC, and only 2 weeks to learn servlets and JSP. RMI seems complicated but once you understand the principle, there is almost no coding at all to do. So, I say go for it, you will succeed

I will consider it seriosuly Greg. Thanks for your advice. I will keep posting about my progress and plans.

Not bad for someone who hasn't ever coded a single line. You must
be a genius! May I ask why you bothered to do the Java certification in the first place?

Originally posted by vasuma puljety:
I have passed the exam but barely so. I got just enough score to pass. One wrong answer and I would have failed. I never coded a single line in my life, all I knew is through books. I get very much afraid to write the smallest programme. Any of you had this problem? What is this? Codofobia or something? Is there a solution?

Vasuma, you have great potential so in order to harness this
may I suggest you work on a small project at home. Think of
say an address book manager or something useful like that. Coming
from a RDBMS background (10+ years in the Progress 4GL) I believe
that you should learn how to talk to a database using Java. Java
by itself is not sufficient to land a job. As somebody else
wrote you need to have specific Java skills such as XML, JSP,
JMS etc. I find that there millions of resources on Java on the
Web, unlike Progress, so I am sure you will very quickly come
up to speed.
Felix

Originally posted by vasuma puljety:
Greg,
Thanks for your valuable opinion. Obviously I am looking at a career in Java. But I am not getting the confidence to make a beginning. So I thought SCJP will be a starting point. I did it, but without writing any code on my own. I want to do that, gain some confidence and then take a fresh shot at scjp. Dont you think developers' exam needs a deeper understanding and also some hardcore practical experience? As I dont have practical experience, I am trying to compensate it by taking these exams. I have UML exam and also one of the websphere administration exams in my mind. I dont know if I am on the right path or not. Please guide me, and correct me if I am wrong in my choices.
Thanks,
vasuma

Felix,
I will try to do that. For this I need to have a database system , right? I have websphere installed in my machine. I have not done anything on it so far though. It came with DB2. Felix, will you help me by giving me a gameplan on how to do the address book as suggested by you. I mean the steps.
1. Create a table having name, address, phone number, email and fax as the fields.
2. Create an html page where in you ask to enter a new name or edit an existing name.
3. when a new name is entered you display the fields to be filled. You display the information back to the user for his confirmation and then write the information to the database( JDBC).
4.When an existing name is entered, you have to access the databse using JDBC and return the record. Let the user edit the record and then display it back to him for confirmation and then write it to the databse.
Am I right? I will start doing this and keep asking you questions.
I am no genius. Had I been I wud have got a better score. I regret for not having come to javaranch long before. So many friendly and helping people here.
Thanks once again for givng me a constructive idea, felix.

[This message has been edited by vasuma puljety (edited June 14, 2001).]

Great start my friend! Here is what I would add to your process. First of all, learn the MVC model (Model View Controler). This is the best way to seperate your logic from presentation. I made a discussion forum with this model, have JSPs as your presentation, a servlet as your controller and any database as your model. There are many ressources on the net explaining the MVC. JSPs are not complicated and the goal is to have the least amount of Java code in the JSP page. Use javabeans to store the info you recieve from the database (this kinda makes a little caching system at the same time, with JDBC the goal is to try hit the database only in times of need to improve performance). Anyways, have fun and if ever you need more advice, let us know

Hi Vasuma
You have some good ideas there. However, please don't fall into
the same trap that I do, which is to make the project overly
complicated. Start with something real simple first. Therefore,
rather than have to write Web pages as well (unless you are
very comfortable with that), you might just want to write a
Java application as opposed to an applet.
First, get your application to create records.
Next, get your application to allow for updates of those records as you mentioned.
Finally, get your application to provide a search facility on
some key fields.
I myself have not yet tackled JDBC as I am taking one step at
a time (meaning: I am prepping for the SCJP which you already
passed!). For any database related questions, feel free to
ask though!
By the way, when you have done the above three steps successfully
then you can do more nifty stuff like doing it from an applet. You might even want to explore the servlets so that database access is done on a Web server. It would be good if you had two PCs at home so you can test if it really works over the network.
Felix

Originally posted by vasuma puljety:
Felix,
I will try to do that. For this I need to have a database system , right? I have websphere installed in my machine. I have not done anything on it so far though. It came with DB2. Felix, will you help me by giving me a gameplan on how to do the address book as suggested by you. I mean the steps.
1. Create a table having name, address, phone number, email and fax as the fields.
2. Create an html page where in you ask to enter a new name or edit an existing name.
3. when a new name is entered you display the fields to be filled. You display the information back to the user for his confirmation and then write the information to the database( JDBC).
4.When an existing name is entered, you have to access the databse using JDBC and return the record. Let the user edit the record and then display it back to him for confirmation and then write it to the databse.
Am I right? I will start doing this and keep asking you questions.
I am no genius. Had I been I wud have got a better score. I regret for not having come to javaranch long before. So many friendly and helping people here.
Thanks once again for givng me a constructive idea, felix.

[This message has been edited by vasuma puljety (edited June 14, 2001).]

Greg,
Can you explain the JSP and java beans part? What did you mean when you said caching the info in beans instead of hitting the databse? I mean, if I want to search based on a key field, I have to access the databse. Don't I need to do that? How do I store all the information in beans? I am missing something somewhere. Also, can I also use the class diagrams and UML stuff to do this small project? If you are an expert in UML too, please throw some light.
Felix, a database question - I have websphere app server which came with apache http webserver and DB2 databse. My operating system is win 2000. Now, if I want to install Oracle database on my system and access it through my java programmes, how do I proceed? And, all the very best for your JCP exam. I am sure you will pass the exam with a decent score.

Hi there -
I think this has been a most interesting thread. Vasuma I wish you the best of luck. As others have stated I'm astonished that you were able to pass the certification test with no coding experience (I don't think Sun would like to admit this is possible). If you aren't exaggerating and have truly NO coding experience my advice is to start small - write the smallest program you are confident in coding - even if it's the ubiquitous "Hello World" program. And then take an incremental step. If your first program uses beans and JDBC and does anything interesting AND works then you truly are a genius. Let us know how you progress.
- Tod

Hi Tod,
I dont think it is that dificult to pass the sun exam without doing actual coding. And nobody has ever alleged me to be a genius. I am an average guy. I took a while to understand the concepts. I read Thinking in java and the certification guide. I never did the coding part. Even now I somehow put it off, finding a reason for not doing it. I was just curious to know if any of you guys had this problem before but all these guys have come forward to advise me, pat me on my back, help me out by giving good suggestions.... I am really thankful to all of them and want to start doing this small project.
------------------
Sun certified , with the lowest score possible.

Hi Vasuma,
The JSP spec by Sun uses JavaBeans to store the information for later use. Take for example any database, lets say I want to select all the employees from an employee table, then I would use the SQL query SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEE, now every time you use an SQL query to recieve information from a database the database must open a connection then close it, this is hard on ressources and performance. So, lets say you have to recieve the same information many times, instead of always using the SQL statement you call it once, store the info in a Collection (Vector, Arraylist, etc) and then store the info in a Javabean. Now, do not get confused with enterprise javabean, the tw are not the same. In essece, a Javabean is a class which is serializable and only contains accessor methods (getters and setters). So, lets say you get the employee name from the vector, and store it in a set method such as setEmployeeName(String name) . Then, whenever you need the name of the employee call the getter method such as getEmployeeName() . There is a tag in the JSP specification which allows you to call your Javabean and then use the info in your HTML pages. It is the basic tag of all JSP pages. Start off making a site using JSP and javabeans and a servlet as the controller, also check out this site, this guy was my prof at university, he taught me the mvc model, check out his site at http://drdb.fsa.ulaval.ca , there are tutorials for Java and JSP and Servlets using using a framework from Jakarta, very good reading. Anyways have fun

hello ,
i am on the way with the address book application. i am doing it on websphere application server. i want to use jsp, servlets and jdbc. the database is db2. now, when i wanted to deploy a servlet in websphere, i needed the compiled java code( the calss file) to be put in the target directory, but when i tried compiling it on my machine using javac command, it says "javac is not a recognised command". what does it mean? How do i set my classpath? I tried editing the autoexec.bat, but it doesnt help much. I tried some books but nobody says anyting about classpath setting, only say the code is to be compiled. Please help me...

Hi vasuma,
Which version of the JDK do you have? Normally with JDK 1.3 you don't need to worry about your classpath; however, the path statement in autoexec.bat must include your jdk bin directory.
First try compiling from the command line using the full path to your jdk. For example, mine is installed in c:\jdk1.3\bin so I would type:
c:\jdk1.3\bin\javac filename.java
If that works properly, edit your autoexec.bat and make sure the same path is in your PATH statement. You'll probably need to reboot once you've made the change. Then try the compile again, should work.
If your still having problems, post in the IBM Application Servers forum and maybe someone with more knowledge of the Websphere install can help.
------------------
Jane Griscti
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java� 2 Platform
[This message has been edited by Jane Griscti (edited July 02, 2001).]

I agree with Jane, just make sure your bin directory is in your path

Thanks Jane and Greg, It worked. I am able to compile from jdk1.4/bin using javac filename. but once compiled, I am not able to run it . I am able to run only by physically moving the file to the bin directory. For example,
C:\jdk1.4\bin: javac c:\someDir\Somefile.java works.
c:\jdk1.4\bin: java c:\someDir\Somefile doesnt.
I have to move Somefile from someDir to jdk1.4\bin compile there and then run from this directory (jdk14/bin). Where am I amiss?

Jane and Greg, I was trying to compile a servlet from the jdk/bin directory and it is giving errors saying javax.servlets package doesnt exist. Looks like I have to download servlets package separately. Right? If so, where from from sun site? And if I want to compile my servlets into class files ( which are then to be deployed in websphere app server) where should I download this javax package to? To the same directory where my jdk is there? I would appreciate if you can answer my above question and this together.

Aren't you a little embarrassed to be asking questions like this when you've passed the exam? Surely you should be answering them now.

Hi Vasuma,
You shouldn't have to move everything to the bin directory to get it to run. Double check your JRE installation.
I'm not sure where WebSphere installs everything but I would think the servlet classes would be in there somewhere. Would you mind re-posting your questions in the IBM Application Server forum? I think the moderator and user's of that forum would be able to give you better advice.
Thanks

------------------
Jane Griscti
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java� 2 Platform

no, jane, this is not about the websphere. i have downloaded jdk1.4 separately. i need servelet class files to be deployed in websphere.i can do it in visualage and then export from there, but i want to do it the rudimentary way.

Tim, the whole point is that - that i have cleared the exam without doing any coding.
Jane, i got it. i was adding the bin directory in classpath in autoexec.bat. i got it when i added it in the path. Now that I know how to do it, it looks so simple and basic. Tim, I am not surprised that you are annoyed.
Jane and others, be ready to answer my doubts in jdbc, servlets, jsp and possibly ejbs. I love this place. How did I miss this before?

------------------
Sun certified , with the lowest score possible.

Where should I download the servlets package to?

When you download the servlet api, I believe you put the jar in the /lib directory of the root of the java sdk. Then, include it in your classpath. I suggest using tomcat as a servlet and JSP container, it is open source and free and works great once it is properly configured, check out www.apache.org and click on jakarta.
------------------
Greg Georges
Sun Certified Java Programmer for the Java2 platform (SCJP)