Grade 10 in Grade 11 Comp Sci

[huskiesgoaler34]

I just finished Grade 10 Comp Sci and I finished with a high 80 or possibly a 90 if I'm lucky. I am happy, especially with the fact that I got a 94 on my ISU (thanks Tony for the calculator help). I am transferring to a new high school because my family moved and I was placed in the Grade 11 Comp Sci course. I know they are learning Java so I was just wondering if you think it will be an easy transistion going from Turing to Java in a week. I have little knowledge on Java (except how to put Hello World onto the screen) and I have only been programming for a couple of months. Will it be difficult for me? And will I ever look at Turing again or is this the end of basic programming for me? Comp Sci is a possible career choice for me. Thanks.

[Insectoid]

You will never use Turing again, ever, except for your own experiments.

Turing->Java is a massive undertaking considering that Java is (unintentionally) designed to be very hard to learn, AND is a completely new paradigm (OOP). Odds are you still won't fully understand it by the end of the semester, unless you've got a great teacher.

Good news: Gr. 11 CS has no prerequisite, so there may be people in your class with no programming experience at all, and the teacher will have to start from scratch.

[huskiesgoaler34]

Thanks. I have been viewing some tutorials here about Java and it's pretty hard putting Hello World onto the screen.
All I have to say is it's going to be a long semester.

[DemonWasp]

Java is a very verbose language. Learning to do "simple" things will take a while. Eventually, you will learn that most of the common things you need to do can be done with a few simple calls to the standard Java API or miscellaneous Java libraries.

Once you understand Java, it becomes possible to build a very clean object-oriented code base that will enable you to write larger, clearer programs (if you choose to -- it won't force you to be a good programmer). This isn't to say that it's difficult to make good designs in other languages, just that Java is much better at it than Turing (and indeed an awful lot of other languages).

You will not learn Java in a week. You will learn how to do some very simple things in Java in a week. In a year, you will learn how to do some complex things. In 2-3 years, you will know how to do a lot of very powerful things, by leveraging the work of others. If you want to learn, a good place to start is The Java Tutorial Trail.

[andrew.]

I think before learning Java, you should first understand the concept of objects. For me, that was the biggest thing moving from Turing to Java/C#.

[Insectoid]

I didn't understand OOP until I tried Ruby- it got the concepts across a lot easier and now I often find myself begging for objects while working in C.

[huskiesgoaler34]

Thanks for the input. I am taking a look at some tutorials right now. Tomorrow the new semester begins so I will start tomorrow. I am excited but also sad to leave Turing behind. I think everyone liked the simple English commands such as loop, for, if, put, get and simple programming structures such as procedures and functions. My teacher last semester told that it will be a big change and a look at real life programming. I am looking forward to it and I know it will be challenging. Just don't know how much I will learn in only 5 short months.

[Insectoid]

If you like code that reads like english, try out Ruby. It was designed with that in mind. There still are for loop and functions in Java (all the basic structures are there) but they're a lot more powerful, even if it seems may seem tedious to write them.

[huskiesgoaler34]

First day went well. Kind of different being with the older kids. Most kids have yet to program a computer and I already have a solid base with Turing and I now a little Python. Teacher told us today that we will start with HTML. It seems simple with the paired tags and all. Can't wait until Java. I am really starting to take a liking to Comp Sci.

[TerranceN]

Then I recommend that you don't restrict yourself to what they will teach in that class. Programming at a highschool level rarely (if ever) gets past teaching syntax.

"Real life programming" is a lot more than syntax; its also problem solving and communication. I suggest you take the time to learn a language (almost any language, even Turing is fine to start) and start making things pertaining to what you wish to create in the future, and you will be forced to learn (or create) algorithms that solve your problems, and in building larger projects you will learn the value of clear, self-documenting, code.

Also, as I stated previously in this thread, finish your projects as much as you can, it gives you stuff to show off and be proud of.

It takes about 10 years to become an expert ant most things, so don't be discouraged if it takes awhile to wrap your head around some things. For example it took most of a whole school year to wrap my head around OOP.

[huskiesgoaler34]

yeah, i find i learn more from the internet and the tutorials here then in class. i have a couple of turing programs that i have completed but i will go back to make them completely bug proof and error proofed (well...in some cases, somewhat complete). it will give me something to be proud of.

thanks for the advice. have some bits