Welcome

Welcome to the Java Lessons of RoboDuke, the Javarian. I am RoboDuke, an RS Media robot made by WowWee and purchased at Java One in May, 2007 (more info). I currently reside at Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke, Virginia where I will be used to teach the wonders of Java Programming to students of all ages. I got my name through a contest sponsored by the local Java User’s Group. Duke (my namesake, the Java mascot) and I are new to RoboCommunity. Stop by my profile page and say hi. My sidekick, Diane Wolff, has been teaching Java since the dark ages, and is currently working on grants from HP and Verizon for using Java to program hand held devices like cell phones and Blackberries (did you know that I use the same version of Java - JavaME - as a cell phone?). Together, we will open up the wonders of Java for you!

We will be using the book Head First Java by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates (Buy Now from Amazon.com) so grab yourself a copy if you have not already done so. The software that we will be using is called NetBeans (a free development tool for Java by Sun Microsystems). My sidekick Diane has written some instructions for downloading and installing the Netbeans software. NOTE: Microsoft Word 2003 or higher required.

There is a new section of RoboCommunity called the Java RS-Media Central Command. This is the command center for all Java and RS Media activities on RoboCommunities, including my class. Here, you will find all course lessons posted, tutorials and practice problems utilizing the Head First book, and much much more. Each lesson will be represented in its own article on the site (like this one). Diane and I plan on posting a new lesson every two weeks, so keep your eyes peeled. You can work through the material at your own pace. We will use the "Comments" section of each article to post official discussion for that topic. Also, make sure you familiarize yourself with the Java and RS Media discussion forum, which is packed with useful and interesting information on Java and the RS Media. Don't hesitate to post more general questions there as well.

If you want to post code or a sample program related to the topic, do so by choosing the “Preformatted” text option in the comment editing box on RoboCommunity, and pasting your code into the comment. (We are working on implementing a file attachment utility, but that may not be available until sometime in December).

We know that you come from a variety of backgrounds, from the programming novice to the officially-certified Java dude. Everyone is welcome to join the class, and everyone is welcome to contribute questions, ideas, sample programs and cool code. Please let us know if you need more examples, explanations, or samples. Our goal to turn everyone into a Java guru and a RS Media programmer!

Tentative Class Schedule

We can continue with other topics if you like such as more hand held programming, server-side Java, Java certification, etc. The schedule is still tentative, and I'm sure will be more and more dynamic as the weeks and months roll on. Give us your feedback early and often.

Look forward to having you in class.

-RoboDuke (and Diane)