Dabble

Today I started with Github, trying to see what I could get started there. I signed up for a meet-up but it won't be until the end of the month. Here is their current Hackathon:  https://github.com/blog/2067-hacktoberfest-contribute-to-open-source-in-october if you want to try your hand at it. I still do not understand how to get started  - I just don't know where to start. But I will get to it sometime this week.  So I tried to start a lesson on youtube for beginner Github. Zzzz...

However, during the lesson, I noticed the guy had a few apps on his desktop that got me curious. So... looked up those and therein became a diversion..  I had fun with Java... Dr. Java specifically. So here is that computer science lesson then I found online at the Princeton.edu website:

http://introcs.cs.princeton.edu/java/mac/

It was great to pull code that looked like what I used to do in the past and really enjoyed playing with something that was recognizable. We did the Hello World thing. Here is a screenshot of my creation:

I was pretty proud of myself, even if it was a simple task. Java, party of one please.  It's like the basis of all languages... er well universal enough to get into easily if you've done Unix like I did many... many years ago. Why Java? Here is an excerpt from the school's FAQ page about it: 

Why Java? Why not C or C++ or C# or Python or Ruby or Matlab? The program that we are writing are very similar to their counterparts in several other languages, so our choice of language is not crucial. We use Java because it is widely available, widely used, embraces a full set of modern abstractions, and has a variety of automatic checks for mistakes in programs, so it works well for students learning to program. There is no perfect language and you certainly will find yourself programming in other languages in the future.

Source:  http://introcs.cs.princeton.edu/java/faq/