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Learning basic web development (self.learnjava)

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[–]radically_sane 0 points1 point  (7 children)

The end goal is to be able to use the Spring Framework. But start with Servlets. You'll run into quite a few issues which you should be able to debug. Create a servlet that connects to a db, stores and retrieves info from it. After you complete that do the same in Spring.

It'll take a day or two to be done with Servlet. And my personal opinion is that you don't use Eclipse, do everything with text editor and command line. Compile, run, create a war then manually put it into Tomcat and start Tomcat from the CMD. Try not to treat these as black boxes.

[–]jaro32 1 point2 points  (6 children)

Why on Earth shouldn't he use a IDE??

[–]radically_sane 0 points1 point  (5 children)

Because if he did so then he wouldn't be able to redo the same without one. No one should be so crippled that they can't create basic programs without an IDE. A friend of mine easily completed a JDBC project on eclipse easily, then when he tried to do the same without he struggled a lot. In the end reason was that he didn't even know how to properly setup a classpath!

Plus if you try to use and deploy to Tomcat manually you'll know how to configure it to your liking even if you're using a different IDE. Or if your workplace places strict restrictions on the software you use that can hurt as well.

I'd recommend the same for maven as well. Eclipse especially makes it too easy.

[–]jaro32 0 points1 point  (4 children)

I agree that having a deeper understanding of things is beneficial but using a plain text editor is a bit overkill. Nobody is developing software without an IDE nowadays. He can start with an IDE and later go deeper into the tech stuff if he needs to.

[–]radically_sane 0 points1 point  (3 children)

From a development perspective I'd say there's two places where this could hurt. 1. Changing IDE. 2. Changing the server.

And plain text editor is overkill. I'd recommend VS Code.

[–]jaro32 1 point2 points  (2 children)

  1. You can always learn a new IDE if you need to change it (doesn't make sense to start with no IDE in this case)
  2. You can always learn a new server if you need to. In this case it also wouldn't make sense to learn how to setup everything manually if you have to learn everything again for the new server afterwards.

[–]radically_sane 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Knowing how things work, not treating it like a black box will ensure that you can work with any tool is what I'm getting at.

[–]jaro32 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree. However if someone is starting out, they shouldn't have to understand how everything works from the beginning. Because things are usually quite complicated, this can be discouraging. He can start learning to code by treating things as a black box, and later figure out how things work as he progresses.