Mans! The Forums Is the Dead!

[Nick]

Most of my opinion of java was trying to figure out what was wrong with zimbra or some other crazyness from stack traces that went on for miles. If its more like C# then I see how it would be friendlier.

[zourtney]

Zimbra! I remember you...yeah, if it was Linux dependencies headaches, I don't blame you.

As for Java the language, it's pretty much syntactically identical to C# 1.x/2.x. Verbose but easy to learn. .NET has added a ton of language and library features since then...and Java seemingly has not. Too many languages, not enough time to keep up The Win8 stuff looks intriguing...

[Brad]

I'd seriously recommend learning C# over Java any day. Learning .NET is actually useful in real-word situations. Also C# .NET apps can be pretty speedy... not so much for Java.

I'd really only use Java if I absolutely HAD to have portability between Windows, Linux, Mac OS, etc...

[Cody]

Well that's some helpful advice. The only reason I tried Java is because I've heard it is easier to learn than some other things. But perhaps usefulness outweighs ease of learning.

[Brad]

In my opinion, C# is no more difficult to learn than Java. As Courtney said they syntax is pretty similar. Lots of resources too. Easy to make start making useful Windows applications too...

Also I hate the GUI libraries for Java, Swing I'm looking at you...

It's not a bad thing to know Java... I mean they do teach using it at several different colleges around here.

[Brad]

Does anybody else ever feel like are constantly rewriting the same sorts of things over and over again just in a different format or language? I've got great ideas for programming projects but am constantly getting bogged down by having to write the same basic stuff and get burnt out before I make it to any of the interesting parts.

I don't know how many times I've written basic UI stuff like buttons and drop down menus, or write code to read in text or XML files...

It'd be awesome to create reusable libraries so I didn't have to do this... but by the time I get around to reuse the library the technologies have changed and I have to refactor the code anyway...

Alright complaining break over back to your regularly scheduled programming.

[zourtney]

@Brad: yes

!!!

[Nick]

Aren't there frameworks and such designed to solve just such a problem?

[zourtney]

Surely. That's why every framework is created. It's just a matter of finding them and them actually having what you want.

My best (programming) friend has been jQuery for a while. Very worth knowing if you have to do any JavaScript whatsoever. Even with that, though, you end up doing mundane things like hand-coding dialog box controls.

[Brad]

I had a big long reply about frameworks done on my phone, but it refused to let me post it... so this is all you get.

Frameworks can be really useful but not everything is readily available in an open source framework. I don't know how many different versions of 2D tile engines I've written... and basic 2D rectangle collision detection and response. Not a whole lot of good extensible open source frameworks available for this. I mean sure, there are some physics engines but they often take a lot of work to make usable in a given situation.

Certain technologies seem to be really lacking in frameworks also, Actionscript 3 for example his pretty poor free open source framework availability.

Anyway, regardless of frameworks there always seems to be some kinds of code which I feel like I just keep writing over and over again.

[zourtney]

So true, so true

[zourtney]

October 19th! That date just keeps coming up...

[Cody]

October 19th!

[Cody]

So I had this awesome idea. I was going to make a vacuum chamber tank thing for my vacuum table so I could get some extra suction power. Well...if you have a vacuum tank it can easily be converted to a pressure tank. And who doesn't love a pneumatic potato launcher!? Safer and most likely cheaper than the traditional combustion design!

....

And then, because the world if brimming with retarded people, it came to my attention that making such a device is almost certainly illegal. Stupid people I give you a big thumbs down.

[Nick]

Whats cheaper then PVC and starter fluid?

Though, with a good pressure tank you could probably get a much stronger blast...