After the first week

Java Boot Camp feels like a summer CS class: lectures, quizzes, exercises, even exams and machine problems. The main difference is that we're in an office building in Makati, and my classmates come from other universities; some are already employed. Classes start at 9 and end at 6, and that's when we finish early.

We've already finished module 1, and right now my brain feels like it's been assaulted with several condensed chapters of a Java textbook. I'm still grappling with some of the concepts, especially encapsulation. I guess I need a lot more experience in using those concepts to improve my code; it's still hard for me to translate my notion of objects into concrete code. At any rate, I like the idea of object-oriented design and the flexibility it promises; with enough practice I ought to get the hang of it.

The first machine problem gave me a run for my money. I got my code to work almost according to the specifications, although I had trouble implementing my idea of the library books as objects. I had thought of each separate instance of a book as one particular copy, but I hadn't thought of a way to distinguish copies of the same book. I also had trouble deciding on which collections to use to store the books; that was the first time I used Java collections. Being my first crack at object-oriented design, my code tripped up on some of the best practices, such as having methods that do only one thing. Succeeding projects will probably drill those best practices into my head; nothing teaches better than hands-on experience.