Entry level Java

[Methot, Chris]

I am working an issue that can only be solved by simulations.  We can't
really build and test it and if we could there is little likelihood it
would be stable enough to be repeatable at this point.  As a novice I
hit on Swarm and decided to use Java because of its insistence on
correct programming technique (garbage collection and logic checking).
I am just completing my first Java course (I can flash and scroll text
with the best of them).  

Now I am looking for Java samples along the lines of Hello_world and
simpleCBug.  Jheatbugs and Jmousetrap are a little too ambitious for me.
I tried "porting" simpleCBug but got hung up on minimum restrictions for
Java Swarm like main().  I tried the SDG csss tutorial sample but the
tar file has no Make file, many unneeded Java files and I am not able to
get it to compile.  

I found that in January of 2000 you felt that Java was not a good
candidate for novice programmers (me).  Despite that, your slides from
SDG csss indicate that it seems superior for that purpose.  I believe
you felt that there would be a time when that would change.  I checked
the mail archives to see if this had changed.  

2 Questions:
Has there been any additional simple self-teaching progressive Java
examples added since January of 2000?  

Would it be possible (with some guidance) to port Hello_world or
simpleCBug (ultimately ending up with the examples I need) or perhaps
they are designed to teach Objective C++ Swarm and have lots of
extraneous stuff not needed in Java Swarm?  

Thanks!

Chris Methot


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