2 x IT questions

[macdanger2]

I'm starting a masters in Sept which involves a certain amount of programming (mainly Java, C, C++).

Anyone know of a good website where I can learn Java/C/C++??

Secondly, I need to buy a new laptop for this (my current Toshiba is 7-8 years old and slow as hell). Any remommendations?

Thanks

[macdanger2]

Budget for the laptop would be ~ €400-700

[macdanger2]

I was having a look online there and the price seems to be made up of a combination of:

Processor type: i3, i5 or i7? How much of a difference does this make?
RAM, 2/4/6/8GB - from what I know, this makes a good bit of difference to how fast the laptop will work? 4GB+ anyway I'd say?
Space - 320 - 1000GB, I'd presume that anything above 500Gb is plenty?
Brand - have been looking mainly at Toshiba & Lenovo

Thanks

[lynchbhoy]

imo
toshiba or lenovo are good. I was always a lenovo/ibm thinkpad guy myself - but anyone who has a tosh loves it.

the only thing I would say is go to pc world or wherever and just check out the keyboard and mouce pad.

some of these are horrible, in fact my current lenovo keyboard is not as good to type with as my last one - hence so many (more) typos in my posts since christmas.
the new mouse tracker pad is ok, but there are no distinct keys to depress for right/left mouse click which isnt quite as handy.
its a personal pref thing.

i3 is old tech, i7 is great but you prob will get away with i5
def 4gb ram minimum
500gb hard disk min - though you know yourself to get an external HD to back stuff up on.


i'm not a programmer though so cant say what websites to look up.
whatever you install should be handled handy enough by 500gb hard disk - but check this out in advance. I recall that compilers etc were large enough. shouldnt need more than an i5 processor -but better check out the softwares processor/hd/mem requirements in adv.

java is highly sought after and after a few years exp, you should be coining it in !
best of luck

[Syferus]

If you want to speed up a laptop SSD is the way to go for a HDD but they're pricey (maybe 200 Euro for a 256GB model). Stuck one in my MacBook Pro and it was like upgrading the processor in terms of real-time impact to the speed of the machine.

[imtommygunn]

http://www.freejavaguide.com/corejava.htm

Try that for java. Install it on your machine and play round with it- it's easy to set up.

http://cforbeginners.com/

Try that for c++. The web-site isn't pretty mind you.

There used to be a good tutorial on the sun site for java but since oracle took over seems to have gone.

I would recommend the same for c++. Install gcc and you should be good to go.

Might be worthwhile downloading eclipse for editing in. They're all free.

[93-DY-SAM]

I'm a software developer (have previously developed with Java for 5 years).  I'd recommend that you go for something with as much processing power and RAM as you can afford.  You'll be thankful for this when you want to compile builds, run database's, web servers etc, etc on your local machine.  You might not need this initially but if you get serious about development it's worth every penny.  Like all things in life, the more power the better

I personally wouldn't be overly worried about the size of the hard drive as it doesn't really impact performance (unless it's nearing capacity) and it's not that overly important unless you're into video editing or photography.  You'll find 250GB or so will be plenty as you'll probably also use an external hard drive or a cloud drive service (Dropbox, Google Drive etc) to store files or an online code repository - I'll come to that later.  What will make a difference to performance in relation to the HDD is a SSD (Solid State Drive) as Syferus has pointed out.  However with the budget you have I doubt you'll get close to anything with a SSD as they are still pretty expensive in comparison to a regular HDD.  You can also retro fit one later if you wanted.  Unless you are developing using Microsoft technologies you should also look at dual-booting you new machine with a flavour of Linux.  It will use less resources than Windows meaning you can do more on a less powerful machine.  It takes a bit of time to get up to speed with but it'll be worth it.   

In terms of learning resources, there are literally 1000's of these on-line, some free and some paid.  I'm not really up on the latest Java stuff as it's been a while from I looked at it.  Again personally I find a good old fashioned book is still the best, backed up with these on-line resources.  You'll find that most of these tutorials are based around Linux or Mac - you can adapt these to Windows but sometimes it takes a bit of messing to achieve the same thing.

You should also look at version control and the Git version control system.  Sites like https://github.com/ allow you to create code repositories to manage your code.  This comes back to disk space, you only need to check out from the repository the project you are currently working on and everything is safely backed up on-line.    Github is free for non-commercial projects.

Lastly the best site on the web by a mile for coding help and advice is http://stackoverflow.com.  It's been the saviour for me on many a day.   

PS. Just interested to know why you're learning Java/C/C++?  I know if it was me wanting to learn to program again it'd be web technologies I'd be focusing on.  In saying that Java isn't a bad place to start, but C and C++, no thanks    

[mouview]

If the laptop is purely for coding and work-related material think about getting a version of Linux, (Ubuntu or Mint are good), on it. Any packages you need can usually be downloaded and installed quite easily as long as it's on the 'net.

[Jimmy]

I'm starting a masters in Sept which involves a certain amount of programming (mainly Java, C, C++).

Is that the Masters conversion course in Queen's in Belfast by any chance?

[macdanger2]

Thanks for the help lads, might go for one of these:

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Lenovo_Z580_1336876.html

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_E1-571_1334871.html

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Toshiba_Satellite_Pro_C850-1HD_1394124.html

Is Windows 8 still crap or have they fixed a lot of the bugs with it??

@ 93-DY-SAM, going to be learning Java / C++ simply cos that's what's on the masters course, depending on how I get on with it, I might look at doing more programming. Will try to focus more on Java though if that's going to be more useful.

@ Kimmy, no, not in Queens - it's a masters in business analytics in smurfit - it's part stats & part programming.

[lynchbhoy]

Thanks for the help lads, might go for one of these:

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Lenovo_Z580_1336876.html

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_E1-571_1334871.html

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Toshiba_Satellite_Pro_C850-1HD_1394124.html

Is Windows 8 still crap or have they fixed a lot of the bugs with it??

@ 93-DY-SAM, going to be learning Java / C++ simply cos that's what's on the masters course, depending on how I get on with it, I might look at doing more programming. Will try to focus more on Java though if that's going to be more useful.

@ Kimmy, no, not in Queens - it's a masters in business analytics in smurfit - it's part stats & part programming.

whatever you buy - if you dual boot it with linux/unix etc - install win 7.
win 8 still too new and prone to errors. Just ensure the software you are getting is win 7 compatible- thats the only caveat

[armaghniac]

For programming the laptop need not have a huge disk etc, but you may want to also use it fo recreational purposes, storing videos etc on it.

Think of battery life also.

Windows 7 is tried and test at this stage. You'll obviously need 64 bit versions if you have >4GB of RAM.

[Line Ball]

I'm starting a masters in Sept which involves a certain amount of programming (mainly Java, C, C++).

Anyone know of a good website where I can learn Java/C/C++??

Secondly, I need to buy a new laptop for this (my current Toshiba is 7-8 years old and slow as hell). Any remommendations?

Thanks

Are you for real???

Its like if I was thinking of doing a degree in German and coming on here and asking if anyone knew of decent websites where I could learn German.  Should you not know a little about the subject of your masters?

Second piece of advice - learn to use spell check

[heganboy]

PS. Just interested to know why you're learning Java/C/C++?  I know if it was me wanting to learn to program again it'd be web technologies I'd be focusing on.  In saying that Java isn't a bad place to start, but C and C++, no thanks

I couldn't disagree more. There are java programmers by the bucket out there, however there is a dearth of C (and to a lesser extent C++) who have the first clue. The C guys also make more money...

It is possible to program in Java without having the first clue how a computer actually works, which is fine for a significant portion of development work. However if you care about performance or scale, then a C background is huge.

[Bud Wiser]

I'm starting a masters in Sept which involves a certain amount of programming (mainly Java, C, C++).

Anyone know of a good website where I can learn Java/C/C++??

Secondly, I need to buy a new laptop for this (my current Toshiba is 7-8 years old and slow as hell). Any remommendations?

Thanks

Are you for real???

Its like if I was thinking of doing a degree in German and coming on here and asking if anyone knew of decent websites where I could learn German.  Should you not know a little about the subject of your masters?

Second piece of advice - learn to use spell check

Good man Line Ball, great to see the spelling police are still around.
Here is a quote from yourself when you made a mistake.

"Thanks for correcting my spelling of Paul's name- I'll sleep better tonight knowing how to spell his name now.

The selectors took him off in 2010 - tell us something we don't know.

Mc Conville?

Where is this talent?  Mc Cartan played in America - can't make out what you are saying.

You then go on to make two more mistakes and then pontificate to a lad just looking for a bit of advice?  People, lots of us, myself included make spelling mistakes and sometimes even when I see them do not have the time to correct them. When I see others make spelling mistakes I get over it. You should do the same.