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Learning Java for Computer Science
I want to be a game designer, pure and simple. Specifically, I love level design. However, this means that I need a Computer Science degree, which means that I'll be doing a lot of... computer science. To this end, I've enrolled in an introductory Comp Sci course for the 08-09 school year. (That's not to mention all the other crap that made scheduling a complete chore this year. I'll save that for another entry. sweatdrop )
Well, to cut a long, long story short, I've now got a shiny, almost-new Comp Sci textbook here in my room. I've felt like a TOTAL nerd just sitting here and reading it, but sit read and read it I have been. (Okay, Yoda.) Now, I've always been a programmer for simple things--I even managed to code my own web browser, feature-light as it was. However, I've never studied Comp Sci in a way that would come close to the amount of detail I'm about to have to go into. As a proper programmer... I'm looking forward to it!
The course is to be taught in Java, the standard entry-level Comp Sci language. If you've ever worked with programming at all, you'll know that the hard part when you're first learning a language is the syntax. I'm grateful that this language happens to have syntax that is extremely similar to both Visual Basic and C#.NET--Both of which I know. (The aforementioned browser was coded in C#.NET.) This means that I'll have a nice edge over my classmates, which spells out more time for me to screw around and see what I can make the poor machine do. (If computers could talk, they'd be complaining to me about being wasted on useless tasks, like trying to compute an exact value for "How big of a number the RAM can handle without crashing." The answer to that one? I don't know. The stupid thing crashed. sweatdrop )
In spite of all of that, though, I'm sure I'll still be making atrocious errors in my code, which I hope the IDE will catch before runtime. Speaking of which, I need to decide on an IDE use. I've got JCreator LE and Eclipse on my box right now, and I think I have J#.NET Pro installed (Though I don't think that trying to apply Java written for a Java compiler would work too well with J#.NET!), but I just don't know which one to use. If I recall, my copy of JCreator LE was installed from a CD that I borrowed from my friend Julie when she was taking the course last year, so I'll go ahead and assume that that is the IDE that the course requires you to use.
And now, to wrap things up, I read back over my post, and I've gotta say: I use the second person way too much. I'll be sure to lessen that in future posts. Tenga buen dia, everyone!
--Busbee
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