Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!aioe.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: glen herrmannsfeldt Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer Subject: Re: Arrays in java Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2012 08:01:13 +0000 (UTC) Organization: Aioe.org NNTP Server Lines: 55 Message-ID: References: <5bvrv7l6m37aha6n3ri5giatrarpeb6boe@4ax.com> <80b9a66d-0b65-435b-adbb-3e61c83c6a54@googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: H0vc4U5LIRkRHNPyGCs2dA.user.speranza.aioe.org X-Complaints-To: abuse@aioe.org User-Agent: tin/1.9.6-20100522 ("Lochruan") (UNIX) (Linux/2.6.32-5-amd64 (x86_64)) X-Notice: Filtered by postfilter v. 0.8.2 Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.java.programmer:16060 Patricia Shanahan wrote: (snip) > This seems to assume that there is one thing that can be called > "learning Java". > I don't think of knowing a programming language as a binary property, > but in terms of a continuous range of levels of knowledge. Seems fair. > One end of the range is "never even heard of it". At the other end of > the range is the sort of knowledge that James Gosling has for Java, or > Bjarne Stroustrup for C++. Somewhere in between is the point where you can work on a program and end up with fewer errors than when you started. For C, when you can post to comp.lang.c without too many people laughing at your posts. > The highest level of language knowledge I've ever achieved for any > language is that needed to produce a working implementation on a real > computer, which I've only done for K&R C and Fortran 77. That requires > familiarity with the language's defining documents as well as full, > detailed understanding of how it really works. I don't have quite that > level of knowledge for Java. There are some languages that I know well enough to read, but not well enough to write. > What does "learning Java" mean in the context of a beginner? I suggest > that a reasonable default is "know the language well enough to write > professional quality code in it". > Putting it in the context of this thread, I would say it includes > knowing that "int[] productIDs = {10,20,30};" is normal code to declare > an array reference and initialize it. I am not sure it includes knowing > which weird arrangements of "[]" placement are permitted for > multi-dimensional arrays. I suppose if you know one way of writing something that is enough. You don't need to know all of them to successfully write programs. > I contend that reading the JLS is not necessary for that level of > knowledge of Java. Reading good secondary sources is likely to be more > effective. After learning enough languages, I do tend to go for the authoritative source, but that might not be best for everyone. (snip) -- glen