Passed Object Oriented Test

I took the Java Blackbelt object oriented test and passed! I gained 3 points toward a yellow belt. I was surprised that I passed because most of the questions seemed so difficult. I still struggle to understand casting and inheritance.

The objectives and questions test object oriented concepts using Java programming elements. The exams consist of questions that have been beta tested by other users. Questions are added to the real exam after enough users vote for it and the exam moderator approves it. Feedback can be used to indicate that a question is not appropriate for the exam level or have other difficulties. As needed, questions go into a repair zone for rewrite and are then reintroduced for further beta testing. Each test has an exam moderator that reviews questions and has the final say in whether questions are inserted into the ‘real exam’ question base.

I have contributed by writing comments suggesting corrections to grammatical errors and misspellings. These tests are useful because they are helping me to prepare for the real test. I like experimenting  with the code snippets and exploring the Javadocs to understand unfamiliar code API. I still haven’t passed the Java SE basic exam yet. I take beta tests, read the SCJP Certification book, read Sun’s Javadocs and review Sun’s Java tutorials.

A Java App of My Own

I continue to make the rounds each day visting JavaBlackBelt and Examulator. I have talked about my goal to learn Java and developers have recommended that I create an application. One of my friends recommended creating a “mad lib” application.

Requirements

1. Read a file and display a paragraph of text.
2. Insert words read from a file, insert the words where needed and display it.
3. Add a user input to dynamically insert content.
4. Add Junit code to test your code.

Overloading vs Overriding

Do I feel overloaded? You bet. We all have different roles derived from our relationships with each other. At work I’m told what to do; at home, I’m managing the well being of my family. Overloading a method means to use the same name as a method in a parent class and rearranging the order or changing the number of parameters passed into the method.

Ever had a decision overriden? I ask Dave a question about ContractPal (we have 3 Daves at work). Depending on which Dave I ask, determines what kind of answer I will get to my question. Each Dave is a competent programmer and has a work title with ‘developer’ in it. One Dave specializes in writing low level back end code, Dave two is a wiz at front-end technologies like Ajax and Dave three is an enterprise architect making sure everything works together. An overrided method will have the same name and parameters as its super class (parent) but its function is modified: it does something different. Java differentiates between parent and child methods using the this.method and super.method to differentiate the overrided methods just like I use a last name to differentiate between Dave A. and Dave M. and Dave W.

Staring at the Wall

Ok, so here I am staring at a wall again… I have wandered into javaBlackbelt and got my butt kicked. I’ve tried taking the “basic” Java SE test and failed twice with the same score of 50%. I keep finding that I’ve forgotten another yet “basic” fact about Java. The climb up the wall seems a bit tedious but I’m going over things again. It seems that I will not forget now that Constructors are named after the class it will ‘construct’, that it can use any access modifier including private. It can be chained together–wow, what a concept. Sometimes, my study of Java blows me away. Why did I ever think I could document code? Oh yeah, I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

Thank you Sensei, can I have my butt kicked again? Yasa! and everything spins out of control. Confidence? Well, I’ve got to pay the price–keep pushing.

Constructors

Java constructors remind me of legos. Using the right shape, size and color you can create some fun and useful objects to play with. When you invoke a method, the arguments used must match the declaration’s parameters in type and order. 

•  Parameters refers to the list of variables in a method declaration.
• Arguments are the actual values that are passed in when the method is invoked.

A constructor may call other constructors of the same class

Sorry, you failed this test–again!

I took the Java SE – Basic test on javaBLACKbelt.com and scored 50%. I carefully reviewed the questions I missed to understand my errors. I really feel motivated to study the javadocs. I guess I don’t know Jack–I missed some obvious stuff. For example, I didn’t know that java.lang is automatically imported into all programs. This makes sense since the javadocs state: “Provides classes that are fundamental to the design of the Java programming language.” It even contains the class “object” which is the base class of all other Java objects.

Registered on javaBLACKbelt.com

I registered on JavaBLACKbelt.com today. I like the concept of a community of users creating tests using contributions from the community itself. It is a fascinating example of Web 2.0. However, I found ‘Take a Test’ user interface confusing. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to actually take a test.

Basic Input Output io

I watched a couple of cbt nuggets videos today. I followed along replicated for myself what was shown on the video. I learned about basic input and output, streams. I like the idea of streams–reducing everything down to the most basic element in programming: a stream of ones and zeros. It reminds me of the transporter used in Star Trek–simply reducing a complicated object into small enough pieces that can be serialized and reconstructed at a different remote location.

My Ambition

What is driving me to learn Java? I wish I knew. Perhaps my writing will shed some light by revealing some of my thoughts. What do I like about programming? It is challenging; much like a puzzle. It is frustrating; much like trying to get kids to listen and do what they are told. It is exciting; it finally works!! Sometimes it is a black art.

I volunteered today to help build an interactive portion of our Software as a Service (SaaS). The lead programmer looked astonished and somebody asked if I wanted to be a developer instead of a technical writer. Yes! I want both. I still write but I hunger to learn the art of programming. I want to understand design patterns. I hear the siren song, it calls to me and I come.

For a time, I dominate. I finally understand something that wasn’t clear before, pick up the connections as fine as threads, sort out the useless and develop a precious, pearl of great price. Here I reveal on the digital canvas, my ambitions. I’m not worthy, I’m not worthy.

Stack and The Heap

I’m now studying chapter 3: Assignments. This chapter starts out by reviewing the Stack and the heap. Memory management has always carried a two edge sword. In my previous experience learning C, this was one of the trickier aspects of making a program work properly. This is a lot like driving a stick shift vs. an automatic transmission. On the one hand, I don’t have to be too concerned about memory until I start pushing limits. When the garbage collector doesn’t clear out memory fast enough, this can actually cause problems… Anyway, I hope that future versions of Java might open up methods for manual garbage collection.

Question of the day: