Explaining Java's Graphics System | Java's Poor Documentation

One of the hurdles in teaching graphics early is that Java handles graphics in a way that's hard to explain. This results in the graphics code that's handed to the student being treated as a piece of "black magic" for some time. At least with Swing being a standard part of Java now (though the observant student will wonder about that javax.swing thing) it appears more functional.Sun's explanation makes interesting reading. If you're into doing jigsaw puzzles, this will be right up your alley. I especially like this particular comment near the...

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Teaching Graphics Early

I'm a firm believer in teaching students to program a graphical application as early as possible. Since the intricacies of callbacks, contexts, and so on is too much to lump on a beginner, this usually involves having a certain amount of "black magic" code in examples at the outset. However, I think the payoff overcomes the disadvantages.In the days when the console or command line interface was the normal computer interface, beginners were plenty satisfied with learning to write programs to that interface. Now the normal user is familiar with...

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Mini-Review: Head First Java, 2nd ed. by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates

Head First Java, 2nd Edition Head First Java is a great book for describing many of the confusing aspects of the Java language. It is easy to read, written in a light style, and it uses lots of graphics to break up long runs of text. Many of the graphics in the book illustrate key concepts of Java. Not For Raw Beginners, But Close to It For an experienced programmer new to Java, it can be used to learn enough about Java to get a strong...

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Trying Out LiveCDs

I'm still looking for a Linux or FreeBSD LiveCD for my high school computer class. I've had some success, but there's more to do. The idea is to have an OS disk that we'd run off of during class with the tools we need all there, ready to go.No Room, No Room!The computers in our lab at school have very limited disk space. Windows XP is installed on them, along with programs needed for other classes. That doesn't leave much room for graphics programs and development systems that I'd like to use for my classes, both the middle school and high...

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The Groovy Language

I've had a chance to play with the Groovy programming language just a little now, and I have to say it looks great for my needs as a teacher. It provides enough access to the system to allow the students to make nice GUIfied applications. The syntax is clean and simple--I wouldn't have to spend a lot of class time explaining purely "structural" code.It's also got the strong real-world presence I'm looking for in a language. The Grails element has made Groovy a popular web-development language. This is great for the students in my class who will...

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OpenSolaris

My OpenSolaris LiveCD arrived yesterday and I've had a chance to get a first brief look at it. I ordered it as part of my search for a LiveCD that I can use as a development environment for my high school computer class. I chose OpenSolaris in part because it's not already represented in the school's computer lab (I try to expose my students to as many different OSes as I can), I like Solaris in general (ever since it got over its teething pains after the change from SunOS), and I figured there'd be a high likelihood of the JDK being pre-installed...

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Singular Web Template Free Download

Free CSS Templates are provided by aapzin.com as free download for everyone. All CSS Templates are absolutely free to download, modify and apply for your websites without restrictions. All of them are W3C standards-compliant free CSS templates. Download Template Support Us Feel free to use our templates for any purpose. Please support us by providing a credit ( Designed by Aapzin Solutions ) at the footer of your websites. Thank you very...

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