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about this first learning guide to java programming on repl

Welcome!

Thanks for connecting! This document site is for Java newcomers to get up and running with some simple Java projects on the repl platform.
This is the first of three guides.
This first guide introduces basic programming concepts like data values of various types and how to display and store them using variables.
The second guide moves on to the input of data and calculations.
The last guide moves on to programming constructs like loops, conditionals and functions.

Each guide includes notes and slides which explain and demonstrate. There are starter code projects on the repl platform with example code and most importantly try some Java programming tasks to carry out.

The guides are documents and have been published to behave like mini-websites.
There is a navigation menu bar at the top of the page to access pages and sections.
Pages have an outline on the right to help find content and some pages have collapsible content, just click the triangles to expand or collapse!

using the Guides

How do I navigate this guide?

There is a top of page menu bar with drop-down section menus each with a list of topics
Each topic page is organised as described below.

What is a guide document for?

This document is a guide to learning how to write simple programs in the Java coding language.
There are three sections in this guide which is itself the first of 3 guides.

What is the content of the document?

Each page will introduce some Java code.
There will be some notes to read and some code to work with.
There will be a Java coding frame (repl) on the page.
The fame will contain some code which you can read and run.
You should try to understand how the code works.
You can show your understanding by developing the code.

What do I do to learn?

Read the notes and try to understand what they are explaining.
Read the code examples and run the code.
Read the instructions which will describe what you should do to develop the code tasks.
The activities in the guides are based on the PRIMM methodology. Put simply each new idea is presented and the learner is encouraged to engage in a sequence of learning activities.
predict the outcome of a program by reading the code
run the code to compare expectations with actual behaviour
investigate the code by editing small changes and considering the consequences
modify the program to change the functionality
make a similar program which uses the concepts introduced

how is a topic organised?

Each work page will look similar this:

how to use a code feature

program requirements

a description of what the code should do for the task / activity

learning-point

a key idea that you should try to remember and understand

introducing the code

develop the code

the practical work you should do with the code, reading understanding, re-using

user interface design

a sample of what the working program will display, use it to check the program works correctly

coding frame

the space where you will read and write code and where you can see the program results
there will be sample code to read and run
the will be comments guiding you to re-use the code to update and add to the code
usually it will be best to open the repl frame in a new tab
the project will have a java code file and often additional documentation files to provide guidance within the project
the code itself will include comments which offer guidance on reading, understanding and writing code

how do I get started?

Use the menu bar and go to the first page
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