13 replies to this topic

[k_nitin_r]

Hi!

@Baniboy

Linux-based phones are pretty neat because they are open and there's a lot more that you can do with them when compared to other types of devices. Apple locks down most of its phones and mobile devices so I'm pretty sure that the iPhone 2G that I have right now is the last purchase that I would be making from them unless they come up with something truly revolutionary and amazing that would blow my socks off.

Qt is a library that you would use when programming in C, so comparing Qt to C isn't really appropriate (Qt... cutie... the cutie always wins over all else because she turns out to be the one that survives through all else at the end of the movie in the fact of earthquakes, zombie attacks, mutantation-inducing viruses, and stuff of the sort). It is like comparing the engine to the automobile when saying that they are both really powerful when in fact one fits within the other. Python is definitely so much easier to develop with because of the fact that it is a scripting language and you can get away without having to concern yourself with things like memory management and type declarations. Python has another unique feature - you do not use brackets to define blocks, such as functions and control structure statements, but rather you would be using indentations. That's right, you would indent all of the statements within a function to indicate that they belong to the function. It's a case of convention over configuration and there's really not much to learning it since you're pretty much indenting your code already when following coding conventions.

BTW, I'm not really sure of what you mean when you say that two squared is zero, because my Y2K-compatible brain and my trusty calculator would both agree that it is four. Perhaps I need an upgrade - new brain and a new calculator. Are you running Ubuntu 10.04? Ubuntu was released quite recently so if they haven't included Python 2.6.5 yet, I would look for any updates that Ubuntu provides from its package repository. Using the repositories ensures that the automatic update checks for the latest versions instead of having to stay signed onto mailing lists or watching RSS feeds to stay informed. In either case, it is just a minor version update so you do not really have to concern yourself with sticking to the latest version - it is probably just a bug fix or something minor that will not stop you from achieving what you want to do and should not affect development in any way, unless the bug that they've fixed is relevant to something that you want to do.

Learning Java is one of the best things that you can do because when you do start developing programs with Java, you can write a piece of code once and can expect it to run on all kinds of devices, or at least that's the theory that holds good in most cases and as with all other things in the world, there are exceptions. Java does tend to consume a lot of memory but since memory is cheap, it isn't something that we need to worry about. When running Java on a mobile device, the virtual machine (or runtime) takes care of memory management in a more aggressive manner, so yet again you don't really have to make any changes to your code but instead the device manufacturer has things tweaked to run perfectly on the mobile device. I had a Nokia Communication 9210i and that could literally run the compiled Java bytecode (.class files) without requiring any packaging. That was so cool, because I could just write a piece of code, compile it, copy it onto a memory card or hook up the phone to the serial port and get the file across, and use the file manager to execute the Java code just as I would execute any other piece of code through Windows explorer. Java is also used to build enterprise applications and right now, I see just two platforms that are making it really big and those are the Java platform and the Microsoft .NET platform. Other scripting languages, such as PHP and Python, are quite popular but in terms of performance, they do lag a bit and are more CPU-intensive than their Java and .NET equivalents. I still do use PHP for my development because I'm not expecting to build a web based application that attracts thousands of users within the first couple of months, but I'm not saying that it is impossible. If such a load does exist, I would probably do whatever I can through caching while building a Java or .NET based version of the web application.

[roger112]

Thanks man for the info.

I have been trying to learn how to program on my own for the past six months..I have read a few books on programming especially PHP and Java.

I now know how to do PHP but Java has been the stumbling block. Its not one of my biggest passions I have to say...mainly because its soo freakin strict! lol!!

Well my thinking is that if I can grasp the basics, I can then apply them across other languages, especially web programming, which is my biggest passion and I'm starting a web design business anyway.

My biggest question is, should i persevere with Java or try out Python? I'm passionate about open source software anyways...can someone help?

[truefusion]

roger112, on May 5 2010, 07:18 AM, said:

My biggest question is, should i persevere with Java or try out Python?

If you are planning on making a living from this some day, then i would say go with Java. If you are just planning on sticking to personal projects, then i would suggest Python. Personally, i would always pick Python over Java, but you can't always have it your way out in the world.

[k_nitin_r]

Hi!

@TrueFusion

I believe Java and Python are just as popular, except that Java is more popular for enterprise computing projects while Python is more popular for web development and scripting projects. We rarely hear about enterprise service and messaging buses for PHP and Python, though interfaces for Python and PHP do exist, but they are commonly associated with Java. Sure, Java may be more of a memory hog, but it does ensure that the system is able to run across multiple platforms without modification and maintains binary compatibility, which is more than what we can say for most other development platforms including the Microsoft .NET platform. There are, however, disadvantages of using Java. You can't really match the development speed that you get when working with PHP or the Microsoft .NET platform and you don't really get the cool development tools that Microsoft has to offer. Sure, we have Eclipse and NetBeans but Microsoft commercially builds and licenses Microsoft Visual Studio and the Team Foundation server while providing express versions of Visual Studio for free.