The Quest!

Every worthwhile journey has to have an end goal. I have been giving this some thought to give my travels into the world of Java a purpose. I need to define a point where I can say “I have arrived”. An obvious option for this would be to write an application of some sort, and go through the iterations of developing that application. This leaves quite an open playing field and I have considered the following points to help me decide what this application will be

• It has to do something useful (that I would actually use it for!)
• Do something that’s already been done so – I’m not trying to suddenly make a monumental and revolutionary breakthrough in software here…
• Employ areas of technology that I am familiar with (in my case systems integration through XML messaging – although the app doesn’t need to be centric to this otherwise it will feel too much like “work”)
• Could be something topical, i.e. mobile devices and media are big

 

With the above thoughts in mind I’m thinking about some sort of application that could run on a mobile (using the Java ME) and can also work on a desktop which involves connecting to a server that runs a web service (Axis perhaps??). If its going to be media related then I’m thinking podcasts, rss, streaming (hmm, maybe too much??). I’m just thinking aloud here. Wouldn’t it be great if you could have an app that could make your podcasts easier to manage and synch with your mobile which was lighter and a bit more user friendly than iTunes….

 

I think we have a winner Houston.

Installing NetBeans IDE

How did all of this come about? Well, I’m keen to learn how to develop mobile applications and seeing as most devices have the Java Micro Edition (ME) platform; it just seemed like a good idea to find out a bit more about it. I have had the Java SDK installed on pretty much all the PCs I have used since I was at university – but haven’t ever really got around to doing anything with it. I did a little bit of Java there but only enough to get me through the assignments where it was needed ;-)

 

So, today I look up “Java ME” in my Safari Books Online and a book pops up called “NetBeans™ IDE Field Guide: Developing Desktop, Web, Enterprise, and Mobile Applications, Second Edition”. A few others came up too, but seeing as this was all about the NetBeans IDE – it seemed a good place to start in my eyes. So I have now downloaded and installed NetBeans 5.5 from http://www.netbeans.info/downloads/index.php - pointed it to the JDK on that has been sitting there doing nothing for months and am ready to Rock n’ Roll! I don’t know if it’s the best IDE, but I’ve heard of it before so I figure it can’t be too bad.

 

I’ve created the inevitable HelloWorld app that writes a line to a console, found my way around the IDE a little so now I think I can manage creating new projects, packages, assigning the “Main” project, compiling, running, setting break-points and debugging. I am even impressed that with a few clicks and key presses I can create skeleton code for unit tests with JUnit which just makes the test-driven development process so much simpler. I’m about to get onto version control and working with CVS so I feel I’m slipping comfortably into the world of Java development. I am aware of the fact that I am a C# programmer and this is really Microsoft’s attempt at having a language that looks and runs like Java – and if you add in CruiseControl.net, NUnit and CVS you essentially have the elements that the Java lot have had for years.

 

Believe me when I say this – I am no super geek. I’m not that great a programmer really, but I find it interesting and it earns me a living. I don’t necessarily know the best way of doing things, but I will give it my best shot and if I find a quicker or more efficient way of solving the same problem later then great, but initially, it doesn’t bother me if my programs aren’t the most well written, flawless, bug free super efficient systems they could be. Essentially, all I really care for is that it does what its supposed to  …eventually!

 

Well if you’re reading this, thanks for joining me on my journey into Java. I hope its interesting and exciting and by the end of it I will have hoped to have learned a mountain of new things about the language and programming in general.