EPTThe question is, what should I start with? All I know of computers is the what composes a computer (RAM, etc) and nothing more.
Need computer advice
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Wala.Revolution
7584 Posts
The question is, what should I start with? All I know of computers is the what composes a computer (RAM, etc) and nothing more. | ||
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fusionsdf
Canada15390 Posts
if statements, variable, while loops things like that | ||
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blabber
United States4448 Posts
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mahnini
United States6862 Posts
On December 23 2008 10:42 Wala.Revolution wrote: Next year I'll be taking AP computer science. My teacher told me that I don't need to have any background knowledge but since I have some time and I want to learn all thing related to computers, I want to study ahead. The question is, what should I start with? All I know of computers is the what composes a computer (RAM, etc) and nothing more. computer science is considered one of the harder AP courses. you best be ready. it's gonna be java | ||
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Athos
United States2484 Posts
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LuckyFool
United States9015 Posts
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pewpew
United States132 Posts
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IzzyCraft
United States4487 Posts
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Mastermind
Canada7096 Posts
Practice the basics of variables, conditionals, loops, arrays, and objects. If you get those concepts down, then any introductory Java course will be a breeze. | ||
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fusionsdf
Canada15390 Posts
quite expensive though, so if you dont plan on becoming a programmer maybe borrow one from the library or look online or something head start isnt a book I would personally reccomend, but it contains a lot of the fundamentals and is a pretty easy read. There are lots of people who reccomend it (even some on this forum), so maybe try that one out its one of the cheaper ones too | ||
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Wala.Revolution
7584 Posts
Unfortunately, I don't know if the the course offered at my school is A or AB (one semester or a full-year college course). So read upon basic programming, with O'reilly, Head Start or dummies book? Is this course (well concept of computer programming) similar to math? I'm taking BC calc right now and I'm not having too much trouble. When you say "subtle learning curve" that means opposite of exponential-like curve right? Thanks for the help! EDIT I emailed my teacher for the text book but none of my teachers (with other subjects are replying during the winter break. | ||
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caelym
United States6429 Posts
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mahnini
United States6862 Posts
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fusionsdf
Canada15390 Posts
On December 23 2008 12:17 caelym wrote: computer programming is a lot about solving problems, so you'll have to be good at formulating systematic approaches to reach a "solution". u dont need any math really, beside some basic logarithm knowledge. but if you're good at proving things, you should do well in the course. It was the best class I took in high school, look forward to it. yeah its mostly logic and problem solving | ||
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GeneralStan
United States4789 Posts
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micronesia
United States24782 Posts
On December 23 2008 12:02 Wala.Revolution wrote: The language will be java. Unfortunately, I don't know if the the course offered at my school is A or AB (one semester or a full-year college course). The easy test is really easy and won't usually net you college credit. The harder one was pretty hard when I took it... but that was the last year of C++ so it could be rather different now. | ||
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0xDEADBEEF
Germany1235 Posts
Eclipse is a great IDE (Integrated Development Environment). In case you didn't know, nobody programs in Notepad or similar simple editors, people either use programmer editors with lots of features (one of the main benefits being syntax highlighting) or an IDE which integrates tools like compiler, debugger etc. as well. Then look for a tutorial on how to create the standard "Hello World" program in Eclipse, to get to know the absolute basics. After that, read a good Java book (DON'T get a "for dummies" or "in 21 days" type book), and write a small program. I think a nice first exercise could be to write a program which produces this *exact* output: http://99-bottles-of-beer.net/lyrics.html Normally you would have to shorten the code as much as you can (I have done it in Python with 243 characters) but that's not necessary as a first exercise. Your first program should ignore object orientation, your second one should use it, and your third one should include a GUI. | ||
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pinenamu
United States770 Posts
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Divinek
Canada4045 Posts
If you're learning java then yes you'll have to learn all the basic stuff at first, but you really want to be able to wrap your head around classes and objects since the whole crux of java is that it is object oriented and alot of people apparently have trouble with this. | ||
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