fred rosenberger

Part of the problem is we don't know your environment. I spend my days on linux boxes.  setting up a cron is trivial.  I'd have no clue how to do it using AWS, so for me, cron is the way to go.

Whenever I hear/read an argument like this, all I can think of is:

Hammers are better than screwdrivers.  They don't require any twisting, nor a strong grip.  A hammer can drive any size nail, while a screwdriver can only be used on screws with the correct head, therefore hammers are much more versatile.  People have been using hammers a lot longer than screwdrivers, thus proving the hammer's greater versatility and lifespan.

Crazy, right?  The best tool depends on what job you are trying to do.  It doesn't matter if the tool is a hammer, a screwdriver, Java, Python, or a welding robot  - each has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Jesse Silverman wrote:fred: I don't necessarily need to *see* anything, but am curious about the subject matter chosen for such a serious investment. -- *
Do you still feel the same way about whatever is illustrated/written, or has it taken on new meaning with no regrets?

My back piece is a pair of folded wings.  I would say I do not feel the same, but no, I don't have any regrets.  Honestly, 99% of the time I forget I have it.  It's on my back, so I never see it. And my wife and daughter have seen it so much that it doesn't really register with them, either. At least, no more than a birthmark, or (benign) mole would after 20 years.

I have two.  One (my first) is a full back piece, the other is about 4" across on my right calf.

I have to say it was pretty amusing to go into the tattoo shop, see all these big-jock types getting something small on their arms and complaining about the pain...then my artist would say "you ready?"  I'd take off my oxford button-down, they'd see the nerdy, middle-age dork with a (partially complete) piece and they'd all shut up real quick.  

I think you should first work on making this code easier to understand.  Variables are not being sent in text messages.  They should be given full, descriptive names.  When i look at your code, I see things like:

nr
tot
negnr
n

i have no clue what any of those are or represent.  If I saw code like this from a teammate, I'd immediately reject it and have them go back and make it readable.

The same for your formatting.  While Java does not require you to indent block inside of loops and conditions, your fellow programmers do.  Why is line 14 indented?  Why isn't the block starting on line 16? and then more on 17 for the if?  and so on.  

You may not think that sort of thing is important...but if you want someone to understand what you are writing, you need to follow the norms/expectations/conventions that are well established.

also...why do you think it's incorrect?  What evidence do you have?

At a very high level, it doesn't matter that you have "a list of lists".  You could have a list of anything, and the concept is the same.  You need to look at two elements of your list, and determine which one should be before the other.  

1) forget about code.  how would you do it, by hand?  Write out the steps in English.
2) break the problem down into small pieces that are independent.  For example, it doesn't matter HOW you get the list/array of numbers, but once you have it, what do you need to do with it?  Write that part.  For the time being, you could even hard-code  your array, and worry about getting user input later.

alpha nyamudeza wrote:i am completely new to this language

Are you new to Java, or new to programming in general?  If the former, you start any project the same way, as Campbell pointed out.  Your first steps have nothing to do with what language you use.

If the latter...this is a fairly ambitious first program.  Is it a class assignment, or just something you decided to do on your own?  

I am not a lawyer, or a citizen of the UK...but my understanding is that over there, the burden of proof is on the defendant in these cases:

"While specific legal requirements may differ depending on local laws, the common laws of libel generally only require the claimant to prove that a statement was made by the defendant, and that it was defamatory – a relatively easy element to prove. The claimant is not required to prove that the content of the statement was false. On the other hand, as a defendant in the common laws of libel, proving the truth of the statement would be considered an affirmative defense."

from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_defamation_law

something else to try...

Comment out everything in the method except what's necessary for the loop.  Don't print the menu, don't update the total, don't print what they ordered.

Consider adding (temporarily) a few print statements... "entering menu_received method", "Top of do-loop", "user response is...", "leaving menu_received method"  

Right now, all the other print statements are noise - at least, until you get the loop logic correct.  Once you solve that problem, you can comment out the above, and uncomment the rest.

The first steps are always the same, regardless of the language.  How would you do it by hand?  Can you explain it in English as if speaking to a child?

Until you can do those steps, don't even consider what programming language you want to use.

Keshini Weerasuriya wrote:Is thr any way of finding the maximum and minimum of an array without using any loops, or if conditions??

My answer would be "who cares?"  If there is, I wouldn't want to ever see it in production code, so to me it doesn't matter if it exists or not.

Hanna Roberts wrote:For example the file could look like this:
This is an example what the file Hello     world This counts too &&& %% 3345 ^%%

For future reference...examples are great, however you should really try and write a spec.  You want to write out the exact rules that take into account every possible scenario.  That's what Piet wrote in his post after yours...it is unambiguous as to what counts as a word and what doesn't (at least, I can't think of a case it doesn't account for).  With your example, it certainly helped, but wasn't definitive.

Does anyone but me still call it the octothorpe?