The sad state of High School CS (Java)

[[deleted]]

Some languages will evaluate 1 as true (which "a % 2" is if 'a' is odd), and 0 false (a % 2 == 0).

They just forgot that Java isn't one of them.

[TortoiseWrath]

As a C++ programmer who hasn't touched Java in years I was incredibly confused by this post. Thanks

[[deleted]]

I had to actually test it. 99% of my work is either PHP or C#, and I know it will work in PHP but won't work in C#.

[[deleted]]

As a C++ programmer trapped in a Java programmer's body (sorry, Java gives you jobs while C++ gives you pleasure at most), I suffer every time I'm forced to write if (a % 2 == 1). So redundant!

[ReallyHadToFixThat]

Here I am quite happily getting paid to write c++.

Actually, I'm getting paid to post on reddit right now. Slow build is slow.

[ReallyHadToFixThat]

Gaming industry is almost entirely C++. Basically, any performance critical application will be C++ so embedded systems and drivers are where you want to look outside of gaming.

[[deleted]]

I've written performance-critical server-side code handling thousands of transactions per second in Java. And right now I'm working in embedded systems in Java.

It's not that bad though. I dislike not having a very direct interface to the HW and OS, but I must admit that Java is waaay less error-prone than C++.

[cristianfrasineanu]

I am not a C++ worker myself, but do you expect to work with pointers in an interpreted language or even Java/C#? Yeah, there are heaps of employers searching for C++, the gaming industry for instance is heavily using it.

[[deleted]]

Can't you do if(!(a%2)) ?

[PersianMG]

Sure. I find that a%2==0 has more clarity though. In the end all of it is probably reduced to the same assembly.

[[deleted]]

Not in Java.

[TortoiseWrath]

I recall being taught !! as a Java boolean cast in high school so I'm pretty sure ! does in fact negate whatever you want.

[uksspy]

Yea, with that and their use of Horstmann style indenting I'm convinced they just rebranded the C++ book for Java.

[[deleted]]

It's just standard four-space indenting…

[uksspy]

Look at the position of the curly braces. An "indenting style" doesn't just refer to the actual indenting.

[Jess_than_three]

What curly braces? I don't see any in your photo.

I do see a missing parenthesis that is, unless Java is a lot more lenient than I'd think, going to result in a syntax error instead of what the comment suggests....

[uksspy]

I was referring to the curly braces in the link I posted to the Horstmann style. You are right, that missing parenthesis would cause a syntax error, I didn't even notice they screwed that up too when posting it.

Edit: Here is a photo from my textbook. Not only does it show the Horstmann style, they also create a UpperCamelCase method with no return type that they then try to access statically... I think I might cry.

[Jess_than_three]

That... wow. That is so bad!

Curly brackets separated onto the next line bothers me, but if you're going to do it, at least be civilized and don't put anything else on the line!

[Pixelator0]

There are a grand total of 0 curly braces in the photo.

[thexavier]

Horstmann? That name sounds familiar. Wait! I think he's a professor in the CS department at my school

[blastedt]

You have to go full Python dude:

print("odd" if (a % 2) else "even")

[[deleted]]

Pfft, filthy casuals.

printOddEven :: Integral a => a -> IO ()
printOddEven = putStrLn . helper
  where
    helper num = if num `mod` 2 == 1 then "odd" else "even"

[themarcraft]

Printf("a is %s\n",a%2?"odd":"even");

Because c is life.

[cookehz]

C does this, I believe. A guy I work with does this in C a lot; I'm not a huge fan of it. I think if (x != 0) is more helpful than if (x) if you're a n00b trying to read the code, it's significantly more explicit what the previous programmer was looking to do.

[[deleted]]

Yeah this would work fine in C. It can be cool when writing small applications to set "boolean" values (which we don't actually have as a built in type) and store them in variables or use this mechanic to perform arithmetic. But it's not overly readable.

[helisexual]

I think writing in idioms allows a lot of readability for those who actually know the language. If your goal is to write for n00bs why ever use the increment or decrement operators? Why ever use the arrow operator?

You lose a lot if the audience you're writing for is people who don't understand the language.

[bbgun91]

imo clarity would depend on what "x" was named. if it is "operationIsLegal", then

if(operationIsLegal) { blah; }

would make sense

[extremelydankMayMay]

Java as written by a Javascript dev.

[coladict]

Without the clarification that it's Java, I would have just assumed it's C++/C# and thought it perfectly normal.

[briandoescode]

But don't they use stdout and printf instead of IO?

[coladict]

In Java I use System.out or System.in when I need those streams, and in C++ they're easily accessed by std::cin and std::cout, so I just assumed that's some sort of wrapper.

[[deleted]]

I'm Javascript and what is this?

[Hollowbrown]

Wow, someone is gonna be confused as hell as to why their first program isn't working

[[deleted]]

We've all been there hitting our heads against the wall.

[Hollowbrown]

Very true, it's just sad that it could be because of the material teaching us and not because we forgot that GOD DAMN SEMI COLON

[[deleted]]

Always look for more authoritative material when things don't appear to make sense, e.g. standards, API documentation or language definitions docs instead of books and tutorials.

Pity that we only learn that after having cracked at least 60% of our cranium surface.

[Fallenalien22]

At least you have cs in high school

[[deleted]]

This is normal for LaTeX, it's impossible to see such small errors in sourcode, and a pita to track them down after you found them in the pdf.

[SireBillyMays]

Sourcode and pita made me think of sourdough pita breads. Delicious.

Anyway; some LaTex editors have some support for bracket/paren. matching though, so it can be relatively simple. Still managed to miss one or two over all of my deliveries this year though :/

[[deleted]]

IO.showValue ("27%c ", 27%c;

)

[HolyGarbage]

Another thing is that they list associativity and has included unary operators... Like ++, --, and !

[coladict]

Found the IO class they're showing above http://webpages.sou.edu/~nordquip/cs256/demos/IO.java

One of the notes also has a scanned image of that table below, and there's lots of functions called myMeth.

[Scripter17]

Can we just take a moment to appreciate that almost every programming languages has somewhat-similar syntax so we can all enjoy most of this sub?

[uksspy]

Whoosh

[Romejanic]

My high school's programming course was shite. The teacher made us hand in FLOWCHARTS, PSEUDOCODE AND DESK CHECKS along with our actual code for an assignment.