Wow I wish you all could see the smile on my face right now!It's a Saturday morning in Ireland - cold, wet and miserable and the world will probably end tomorrow due to paradox but I don't care,my Java program compiled on the first attempt with no errors!Oh and that was using notepad and a command prompt so I'm doubly pleased with myself :mrgreen:

It's time's like these when you see a chink of light at the end of the programming tunnel and it's nice to see it. Day 6 of Java now and I can see why so many people drop it after a few weeks in college. "College is for cruising",as my friend used to say.

Easy for him,he was only doing Forensic Science which consisted of two years of revising the leaving cert and two years of analysing substances they really couldn't get homework on without breaking several major anti-drug laws

You can understand why the 90% of college students who picked a degree with Java programming drop out.Who wants to spend five hours a night hitting "Javac Question1.java" and screaming at the stupid stupid machine and then it turns out that you capitalised your variable declaration. That's what caused those 23 errors you've been dealing with for the past 5 hours and also what's going to cost you 700 euro for a laptop repair after you realise that!

Incidentally companies that offer repairs,like Dell or Acer, love beginner Java programmers and keep statistics on how many there are at a certain time. It's not very hard for them, they just look for bitemarks,bullet holes and "COMPILE DAMN YOU" burned into the motherboard with a soldering iron :lol:

My advice - if you're starting Java invest in some "accidental cover" insurance


P.S. It's bad when you're stuck but don't be put off if you're thinking about it. You're first program based on user input feels soooooo satisfying,even if it is incredibly basic!