Kenn Cowling

OOP-4 completed.

I'm not sure how soon I'll get to the servlets exercises. With luck it won't be too much of a challenge to do them with Apache, rather than the defunct Orion.

As noted I've been using Eclipse for coding, and Notepad for intermediary steps. I disable Windows file extension hiding, so my major inconvenience with Notepad was having to click All Files when opening a .java file.

That said, I spent a few minutes today looking into other text editors. The first one I decided to audition was Notepad++ (I'm guessing one '+' was added since Janeice mentioned it in a 2010 post above). I used it to open a .java file, and bang: the default formatting seems to be the Cattle Drive standard. Seems like a winner.

I've been using Notepad and Eclipse. (I should probably get something better than Notepad, but I'm used to it.)

I mostly use Eclipse for code formatting. I created a "cattle drive" editor profile that puts the braces in the right places, uses spaces instead of tabs, etc.

I test/tweak my code using Notepad. I store and compile my source code in my C:\java directory. When passing arguments via command line, it's easier to use DOS. Finally, I copy my result from Notepad before e-mailing to the instructor, to make sure it contains no funky characters (though it might also be safe to copy from Eclipse).

Glad I found this, I had the same concern!

I'm still early in the course (Java 4a) but I think it's extremely worthwhile. I agree with most comments here, but for me, the Cattle Drive is the difference between being given a fish and being taught to fish.

It can be easy to google for fish. It's more helpful to use programming books or online tutorials which offer coding exercises, however if your solution is vastly different from the one provided (even if the task is accomplished) then it's not much different than being given the fish. On the Cattle Drive, I've been given hints that allow me to figure out the more effective solution on my own, and also tips on how I can recognize when my solution is less than optimal. I'm not just learning Java, I'm becoming a better programmer in both style and efficiency.

For what it's worth: I've been a software developer for a decade, but mostly with a legacy language. I have only 5 years (part-time) with core Java, mostly with a company that cared "when" and not "how".

See the bottom right of the above image: the company is an AppDev reseller. For what it's worth: a few years ago the company I worked for provided AppDev courses in ASP.NET. I went through the first dozen or so modules and thought they were very good. (I never put that training to use in a significant way, but that's a whole 'nother story).

Compare the course outlines from LearnNowJava and AppDev, it looks like the training is the same:
http://www.learnnowjava.com/Topics.aspx
http://www.appdev.com/promo.asp?page=WB00085

Obviously the LearnNowJava price is far lower. I believe the reason is found in the LearnNow FAQ: with LNJ you have to pay extra for features such as sample code and hands-on exercises, whereas paying the full price to AppDev gets you the entire package. That said: even though I had access to those extra features in the ASP.NET training, I rarely used them.

Overall: if my observations are sound, then I think the LearnJavaNow package is a very good deal, and I might well subscribe myself... after spending time at the Cattle Drive (I plan to begin this week!) I have no experience with the JPassion training.

Thank you for the welcome and the information, Mohamed. At this point I don't need to worry about deployment, I just want to start with basic tutorials. Thank you for confirming that I can get going without having to worry about adding a db or container. If/when I get to use Grails I believe the dev environment will be set up with STS and Eclipse, however I will take your advice and begin with just Grails... that's the way the Grails tutorial is written, and I might as well keep things as simple as possible at first, I can always link with STS/Eclipse later. Thanks again!

I'm new here, so forgive me if I've posted in the wrong forum.

I am a Java greenhorn: about three years of core Java development with a smidge of Swing. I may have an opportunity to work with Groovy on Grails and want to get a head start by working with it at home, beginning with the basic tutorials.

I now have Eclipse EE on my home PC. It was easy enough to find instructions for downloading and installing SpringSource Tool Suite and Grails, however I'm unsure of what else is needed. Should I install a DB such as MySQL? Do I also need a webserver, and if so, which one? I installed Tomcat 7 on a work PC and got it to work well enough with Eclipse (so I could tinker with JSP), but an acquaintance suggested Glassfish instead.

Also, is there a preferred order of installation? For example DB first, then webserver, then STS, then Grails? The same acquaintance mentioned that he'd encountered some serious problems with his own PC when switching between DBs and webservers. So, I'd like to avoid potential pitfalls (or am I worrying too much?)

Thanks in advance for any hints and suggestions.

(Edit to remove unnecessary info)