HI everyone

[H2O]

I'm new to this forum, new to Java, and new to NetBeans but before I retired I was a mainframe computer programmer and started with Fortran when it was brand new.

I'm looking for any tips and or traps anybody would care to pass along to a new guy.

I'm running Windows 7 Pro, 64-bit and I've got NetBeans up and running without any problems so far....knock on wood.

So I don't have anything to complain about or ask a question about but I'm pretty sure I will have a question or two.

Thanks ahead of time for your replies.

friends,
larry

[Todor Kostadinov]

Hi Larry,

Welcome in the Java world, welcome in NetBeans also.

What do you mean with your name H2O. Do you mean water? If yes why exactly water?


Yours sincerely
Todor J. Kostadinov


-----Urspr

[H2O]

I'm using H2O as my username because nobody else is using it. It's short, sweet, and to the point. Also, because I have 2 BS degrees..........one in Chemistry, and one in Chemical Engineering. Plus I like water when I'm thirsty. Like right now. Thanks for asking and thanks for the welcome(s).

[throwcode]

Hey H20, can you tell us what areas of development your pursuing (SE,
EE, ME, web apps, etc). This will help us to direct you.

Regards,
Don




On 2/8/2011 2:07 AM, H2O wrote:

[Brian1]

Hi H20, welcome and everyone. I am also new to Netbeans but at least you
have your head around things, expecially with your background in Fortran
and C. Maybe I can pick your brains. I have successfully downloaded Netbeans
and it looks great with the folders and the like. But when I go to compile
it is looking for the Base folder. I thought I had MinGW the .exe file. A
few files show up as compilers but not the .xe. Any advice on how to get a
compiler working and any preference. I have read the Sourceforge documents
but none the wiser. Any help from you or anyone would be greatly
appreciated. Brian
----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Millhofer" <address-removed>
To: <address-removed>
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2011 6:38 PM
Subject: [nbusers] Re: HI everyone

[H2O]

[H2O]

[Erik Steen Jakobsen]

Hi guys

I still thanks the guys at sun and net-beans for the effort.

but ...

Damn I getting depressed seeing the 6.9.x.
I don't know who the sorry ass looser was who decided to de-develop
net-beans down to an "enriched" notepad.
But it is sad so see the Visual in MVC reduced from "image" (who says
more than 1000 words) to "text" (which is visual in a strange
intellectual way). For a rad -developer net-beans has become as valuable
as an accountant at an modern art-exhibition - ie: dysfunctional artwise.-)
Before - and thanks heaven for nb 5.5 , 6.5 , sun creator - I could let
a designer produce my web-pages and I could concentrate on mockups (
quickly displayed in meetings with clients ) and business-logic.
Now I have - if I want to use netbeans - to have a trained programmer to
produce a serious hampered visual expression.
Thanks and no thanks for netbeans > 6.5
Erik

[Todor Kostadinov]

Citation from you : " ... simulation of a chemical processing plant ..."

Such a simulation could be an interesting task I think. Now I understand your name H20.

You could think this way - Swing is your friend, it could help you to make things you thought it was very hard (impossible) to achieve. Of course Swing runs in a separate thread.

Yours sincerely
Todor J. Kostadinov

-----Urspr

[Todor Kostadinov]

Hi Brian,

in Java we do not produce "*.exe" files. When we make development in Java you produce "*.class" files, with or without NetBeans.

When you speak about "*.exe" filed and about "MinGW" I think you want to make a C or C++ development. It is completely all right, but
you must tell NetBeans where you compiler is. And NetBeans can understand you.

Yours sincerely
Todor J. Kostadinov


-----Urspr

[Brian1]

Particularly to OH2 got the compiler sorted thanks used the Mac instead and it located the compiler on my hard drive . Thanks for the posts

Kind regards,

Brian


On 10 Feb 2011, at 16:30, "Stadelmann Josef" <address-removed> wrote:

[H2O]

[mdeggers]

Welcome to the world of Java programming.

Like you, I'm a former C / FORTRAN programmer (mostly scientific stuff
on IBM mainframes and Crays).

A couple of books I've found useful in getting started are from the Head
First series.

Head First Java, Second Edition

This will get your head around basic Java, thinking in an object-oriented
fashion, and getting your feet wet with the standard libraries.

Head First Design Patterns, First Edition

Designing how your code works is pretty important. You can get yourself
into a lot of traps by making poor design choices up front. These traps
will lead you to scrap tons of code, which gets to be frustrating. This book
goes over the basic design patterns that will help you organize your
thoughts.

One of the nice design patterns introduced is MVC (model, view,
controller). While normally considered for web applications, it's also nice
for Swing applications. A well-designed Swing application can be
moved to the web by replacing the controllers with servlets, and the view
with JSP (JSF, Tiles, whatever). Your heavy lifting code (simulation)
remains largely untouched.

The Spring RCP was especially well-suited for this migration. Unfortunately
it doesn't seem to be very active any more, and integrating it with the
NetBeans IDE is a bit of a chore (some library conflicts, etc.).

JUnit in Action, Second Edition

I'm a big fan of testing. Requirements change a lot, and JUnit helps to
make sure that the code still works. Unit testing will save lots of wear
and tear on your brain. NetBeans has great support for JUnit.

Concurrent Programming in Java: Design Principles and Patterns

Since you're looking at threads, this is the book to use (second edition).
I've used the first edition to torture an XML database with a threaded
client. Lots of fun.

Version Control with Subversion (free on the web)

I don't think I can work any more without some sort of version control.
Subversion is pretty reasonable (not as agile as git, but not bad). Along
with unit testing, a good version control system allows you to try out
ideas, discard them, merge them, and go back to them while keeping
sane and your code working. NetBeans has reasonable support for
subversion, although some of the branch and tag management is easier
to do outside of the IDE. For those people who are command-line phobic,
there are nice free GUI tools available on all platforms.

Finally, it sounds like you're going to build a very complex system
(eventually). While native Swing will get you started with a user interface,
you've already seen that there is a lot of work involved in managing the
plumbing.

Fortunately, there are several frameworks available to help with this. I
think the most comprehensive framework available is NetBeans's RCP.

Unfortunately, it's a huge, complex environment, and there are not any
up-to-date books on the subject. The only book published has gotten
mixed reviews (Rich Client Programming: Plugging into the
NetBeans Platform). It's also old, so there have been many
improvements to the platform. The good point is that the book is written
by the originators of the technology.

Fortunately, there are a lot of online tutorials, videos, and reference
cards at http://netbeans.org/kb/trails/platform.html.

I know, information overload, especially for a hobbyist. Hopefully you
(and others) will find the information useful.

. . . . just my two cents.

/mde/

[H2O]

Thanks very very much for the information and the link(s). I went to the bookstore, found, and bought the following:
Head First Java, second edition,
Head First Design Patterns,
Head First Object Oriented Analysis & Design,
Java Concurrency in Practice,
Thinking In Java ( Bruce Eckel ), and
Effective Java

I've got a lot of reading / learning to do to get up to speed.

Also, I've used ports to allow programs to communicate with each other before in C/C++ but not in Java yet although I suspect the principle is the same, but are there any users here in the forum who have done something like that? I'd like to know what your experience was like. I was thinking of going that route because using ports would allow the separate parts of the program to run on any computer in the world with a little modification. Distributed computing as it were. Also, it would eliminate a lot of the cyclical references that come up in complex projects. I'm pretty sure this one is going to take a couple of years for me to put together. And your hint about getting the design right first is well taken. I've already gone through the stage of writing some C/C++ code along the lines of this project and scrapped it as unusable.

Man oh man......I'm in love with this forum. So many helpful people.