Article:		Teaching Java the Extreme Way
Subject:		For experienced programmers only
Date:		2002-10-23 19:52:58
From:		anonymous2
To whom would you target this type and level of curriculum? I can't possibly imagine anyone who has no intermediate to advanced programming experience being able to grasp your first assignment. I am taking an intermediate java class, and what you are describing is some pretty complex stuff. Writing an interface as the second assignment? Sure, if the sttudents are at least second year computer science majors. Besides, a lot of java is procedural (loops, conditionals, etc). So, prodedural principles are inherently part of the OOP process. Perhaps I am not understanding the target student population, or I am underestimating the abilities of others, but the level of material you are suggesting is months away from a Programming 101 course. I think you would have a class full of confused students.

Showing messages 1 through 1 of 1.

• For experienced programmers only
  2002-11-21 12:09:36  Daniel H. Steinberg | [View]
  
  

  Perhaps you misunderstood the article. The student code is the five lines listed on the bottom of page one of the article. The have to write a class using the code public class Friend{} and then put a single method in it that has the code public String getName(){ return "Daniel";} .

  
  

  I'm not seeing the complexity in this assignment. Second, I do want them to think of OOP first. They will certainly benefit from having loops and conditionals in their bag of tricks -- but you don't have to begin there. I think a for loop is harder to understand than the method described above.

  
  

  Third, the use of interfaces is an important concept to understand early. It sounds as if the courses you have taken are teaching procedural programing using the Java programming language. Feel free to follow-up with me via this forum or email.

  
  

  Thanks, Daniel