CSE 201 bad teacher

August 10, 2009 2:21 PM

I'm in a CS 201 Java intro class with a not very good teacher, I need a place where I can search for and ask beginner questions, lots of them, like, what is this called and what does it do? ect. public static char [] bar(String [] a) Thanks everyone
posted by Benzle to computers & internet (14 comments total)

You can try Stack Overflow. Your example declares a public method called 'bar' that returns an array of chars and takes an array of Strings. You'd follow that up with some curly braces that would contain the actual code for the method ('when you get the array of strings called 'a', do the following stuff to them, then return this array of chars'). The 'static' bit basically means you can call that method without actually having an instance of the class on which the method is defined. I'm sorry if this answer is too jargonified, how much programming background do you have already?

Have you considered augmenting the teaching with some better books? When I was in ugrad CS and there was a course with a weak instructor, everyone would generally find out what book covered the materially in the most approachable way and word would get around, and then everyone would use that book (most notably using Sipser for theory, but that's going to help you for this material).
posted by jeb at 2:30 PM on August 10 [1 favorite]

Back in my CS days, we had open lab times where students would pour in to work in projects. When deadlines started to roll around, we were all in the labs working collaboratively to get things finished. Perhaps there's a similar lab your school?

Additionally, there were grad students at certain times in the lab to answer our programming questions. They (normally) wouldn't just write up the project for us, but explain what we needed to do and gently guide us in the correct direction. And answer specific, "Uh, what's a stack or for loop?" questions.
posted by jmd82 at 2:31 PM on August 10

People recommend javaranch.com but I would recommend you download eclipse and get some good tutorials going. It will be possible to find out the definitions of all the words in your example by reading alone, but to find out what they mean and what they do, you should practise by writing your own code and experimenting.
posted by mjg123 at 2:32 PM on August 10 [1 favorite]

Also, if your class has TAs, and the TAs post TA hours, this is pretty much exactly what they are there for. Many CS classes are actually taught in practice by TAs during TA hours. Hard science classes at the intro level don't necessarily attract the most gifted instructors.
posted by jeb at 2:34 PM on August 10

I'm sorry that you have such a bad teacher, but have you considered getting a tutor, or possibly some better books or online tutorials? Your question seems so basic and fundamental that there wouldn't be a lot of resources online, and people wouldn't be willing to help out.

It would be like someone taking an English class and asking "What does 'The dog goes into the room.' means? I know to a beginner, code seems like a completely different language, but it's composed of basic building blocks, and learning those basic building blocks don't lend themselves to forums of unpaid strangers.
posted by meowzilla at 2:36 PM on August 10

Seconding tutor, you'll go far with just a little coaching.
posted by furtive at 2:48 PM on August 10

Definitely get a tutor or spend some time in office hours to get a firm grasp on the basics (and if you are questioning what this particular method signature means then you need help with the basics). Put in the serious effort now to learn this because all practical applications of computer science require you to be able to decipher this kind of statement. You will not succeed unless you get a handle on this.
posted by mmascolino at 2:54 PM on August 10

If you can get over the kooky style, O'reilly's "head first java" is a pretty good way to drop into java. Bruce Eckel's book "Thinking in Java" is also well regarded.
posted by jenkinsEar at 2:55 PM on August 10

Sounds like you need this free ebook:

How to think like a computer scientist (java edition)
posted by damn dirty ape at 2:57 PM on August 10

Not a direct answer to your question, but as an additional resource to go along with a good book, tutor, or forum, you might want to check out JavaBat. You can do short practice problems, with immediate feedback on whether they're correct, and links to tutorial information about the various concepts you'll need to deal with to solve the problem. Disclaimer: I've only actually used it a little bit. It seems pretty cool though.
posted by dreadpiratesully at 3:24 PM on August 10

Eckel's book is good. Note that you can get it here (the third edition) in a free electronic version.
posted by Roger Dodger at 4:39 PM on August 10

Eckel's book is excellent but it is a seriously big book that you will need to commit yourself to reading in order to understand Java. The first 9 or so chapters of that book will be core to your curriculum in all likelihood. However with that said, if you really do read and study and work through the example questions, you will know the language inside and out.
posted by mmascolino at 6:42 PM on August 10

Eckel's book. And if it's too long or too boring, that might be a warning that you're not cut out to be a programmer.

Your class text.

Eclipse, or BlueJ (a IDE for teaching/learning Java).

The book A Little Java, A Few Patterns. Don't be put off by the cutesy-ness, there's some real meat too.

And yes, stackoverflow. If you mefi-mail me your stackoverflow handle, I'll make a point of looking for your questions there.
posted by orthogonality at 8:25 PM on August 10

Definitely stackoverflow. I'm nthing that to impress on you that YOU NEED THIS RESOURCE. Don't worry about asking beginner questions. If nobody has asked it before, then it's valid.

From the producers of Stack Overflow: Joel says that the only bad simple question is a duplicate simple question. I say simple questions are OK as long as they're actually interesting (in some way) for other users to consider and answer.
posted by seanyboy at 12:38 AM on August 11