CST 338 - Week 2

Introduction to Classes

Other than C, I haven't used any non-OOP languages extensively. Java is what I have the most experience in, so OOP concepts are almost inseperable with what I know of programming in my mind. It seems like the most efficient way to build programs, as it allows you to build parts of programs that you can break off and reuse elsewhere.  I didn't know about UML diagrams until this module, but plan to use them from now on. The hardest part of reading through larger programs is keeping track of what each class is actually supposed to do.

This week was our introduction to classes and object-oriented-programming in Java. These ideas are central to Java and modern programming in general, so this week was a helpful review of the basics. Unfortunately, my family received some bad health news so I had little to no time to spend on the course this week. I'm trying to read, watch, and respond to everything in the program along with doing extra study when I can, but I've barely had a spare hour these past two weeks. But, tomorrow starts a new week so it's another chance to get some work done.

I only had about half a day to work on our Slot Machine program this week and luckily that all I needed to get it working. It was a good tutorial on how to make a simple, but functional class in Java. It covered all the basics from setters/getters, constructors, helper methods, and how to use static variables throughout multiple instances of an object.