New Year’s Resolutions for Java Coders
An interesting post I found here and have taken some of the points, making myself how many I can implement. Which ones if any would you adopt from this list…
- I will realize that design patterns are a guide, not a religion.
- I will bother to research the security issues relevant to my work.
- I will spend an hour teaching a child the rudiments of programming, even if it’s just “Hello World” in JavaScript.
- I will learn how to use Unicode.I will not respond to requests for help by informing the questioner that they are not only asking the wrong question, but should change the language they program in and/or their OS to Linux distribution.
- I will create one bona-fide playable game, even if it’s Tic-Tac-Toe 2007.
- I will recognize that not all programs are self documenting, and that this is why comments were invented.
- I will contribute to an open-source project because they need my skills, not because I like the project.
- I will explain my grep patterns in comments.
- I will be nice to the people who pay me.
- I will go back and do something interesting with all my failed, half-finished projects.
- I will not use the term “Alpha” when what I really mean is buggy, untested, crap-tastic software.
- I will always write Ajax that degrades gracefully (or I will realize that Ajax site navigation is the new “skip intro” of internet design).
- I will not try to learn a new language.
- Instead I will surprise everyone by programming something completely unexpected in one I already know.
- I will write ten lines of code everyday for someone I love.
- I will stop writing apps that are just giant, nested loops and releasing them as popular software packages. (Here’s looking at you, Wordpress theloop.php.)
- I will learn how to write a script that emails me errors instead of sending everything to /dev/null.
- I will finally pay for all of the shareware apps that I use daily. No, really.
about 2 years ago
“I will spend an hour teaching a child the rudiments of programming, even if it’s just “Hello World” in JavaScript.” <- is a good one, but Hello World is bad choice in my view, I remember what got me in programming (i knew Turbo Pascal before, but programming was boring to me) and it was the abillity to do cool GUI programs. I think you can only get child to program if its fun, so I will try to look for some click-driven game framework, but it all should be in native language and that could be a problem.
“I will contribute to an open-source project because they need my skills, not because I like the project.” <- is good also, but I would like to do it to sharp my skills in working with alien code. Its a problem for me and I should overcome it.
“I will not try to learn a new language.” <- the best one, I forgotten so many languages, i knew ruby, bad idea
I will try to learn only things that I will use in the future.
“Instead I will surprise everyone by programming something completely unexpected in one I already know.” <- i was thinking about programming in java exam style just to mess with people
or look up so dumb java puzzles (dumb, because I think it should not exist) and use it in my work-I could always forward people to place when some great java guy is using it 
“I will finally pay for all of the shareware apps that I use daily. No, really.” <- i plan of looking for/writing some of those, because not free is always bad in my view(learn once, run not everywhere)
P.S. cool list
about 2 years ago
Made it to my desktop as a todo list. Happy new year.
about 2 years ago
If you want to teach kids to program using a nice simple click-driven framework, take a look at
about 2 years ago
Scratch – http://scratch.mit.edu/ (oops – to ready on the old Enter key)
about 2 years ago
How does the items on your list relate to Java?
about 2 years ago
The list revolves arround a language, and I call it Java.
about 2 years ago
“# I will not try to learn a new language.”
Learning different programming languages opens your eyes to different paradigms and styles. I learned JavaScript, Erlang, and Python last year and used all of them effectively in my work. Exposing your brain to foreign ways of thinking helps protect it from atrophy.
“# Instead I will surprise everyone by programming something completely unexpected in one I already know.”
I did this last year by developing a daisy-chaining API for selecting business objects in a web application. The idea was to have an API which was convenient to use in Java code (particularly with an IDE), resulted in easily readable code, better supported refactoring tools than String-based queries, and made building a REST servlet very easy.
about 2 years ago
A good list – I can especially relate to the 1/2 finished projects, would you be willing to share some?
Thanks for not writing a new GUI Framework for J2EE in 2008.
I wish there was a better language than JavaScript that was already on everyone’s computer. Java is free (but not necessarily on everyone’s machine). in fact the number of free languages is probably gotten quite large.
I do miss the simplicity of C sometimes, but Java is by far my favorite language to teach.
CIao,
David