Prelude to Chunk #2

It is official. I am now responsible for writing chunk #2, Introduction to Java, having received the OK from Darrel.

You might think it is a pretty selfish choice: no dependencies on other authors, little or no code to write, no need to agonize waiting for Greenberg’s book to arrive to get started. But please wait; I can assure you my choice was inspired by more noble reasons.

My involvement with Java technology at a professional level goes back to the first release of the JDK. It was a pretty innovative proposition back then, and I immediately embraced it with enthusiasm. However, to be an early adopter of new technology always carries a degree of risk, and you have to weight its merits and drawbacks against competing and more mature alternatives available to justify your choice. This exercise gave me a pretty good historic perspective of Java, experienced firsthand.

On top of that, there is the wonderful challenge of introducing a pretty techie subject to a non-technical audience. Almost as challenging as when my granny a few years back asked me to explain to her how the Internet works. Now, how is that for motivation?

Mass What? Some Initial Thoughts

"Mass Writing Project". I had never heard the term before, until that brief article on Sesame caught my eye. I tried to search “Mass Writing” on Wikipedia without any joy; a cold “No matching entries found” was all I got. Even a Google search for “Mass Writing Project” did not help too much. But eventually it all became clear upon receipt of the joining instructions from Darrel. “How cool is that?” I thought. So, here I am. I still don’t have the Processing book, not to mention the voucher, and no chunk assigned yet. I guess the only thing I can do right now is to download and start playing with the IDE. And maybe posting some stuff about myself as well in the meantime.

Welcome

This blog is part of a collaborative writing project for the Open University. For more information please visit the main project blog.