Jack Moore Iii wrote:Okay, but how do I know I wrote the correct code? Do you mean write the code in notepad then try to compile it with the least helpful compiler and figure out why it's not compiling myself? Which is the least helpful one I can use then?...
Well, the problem with IDE (its quite helpful in real life, but a little problematic during OCPJP preperation) is that - it does a lot of things for you - e.g. it will import packages automatically, it will tell you compile time errors right away(during typing the code) and so on.
But, when you write a code in plain text editor and compile it manually, using javac, then you'll get to know that your code (during first few times) have some basic errors like class name is not proper (
string, instead of String), or necessary packages are not imported. And this will teach you basics like what are exact class names(is it HashTable, or Hashtable?), where does a particular class lies. These things are helpful in OCPJP.
However, once you've written the code and is compiled successfully, IDE would really help you to debug the code (especially threading code - it is pain to debug it without IDE). There's nothing wrong in using IDE - only thing is that
you should not use any
help from IDE. You can very well use IDE - just make sure that you've turned off auto-complete (and other) features.
I hope this helps.
And Welcome to CodeRanch!