Re: Newbie looking for resources for learning WO
Re: Newbie looking for resources for learning WO
- Subject: Re: Newbie looking for resources for learning WO
- From: Nathan Dumar <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 11 Jul 2004 14:40:16 -0400
Janine,
Not too long ago, I did what you're about to do. I had almost no
previous experience programming. You're even using most of the same
resources I used.
First, make sure you have a lot of patience. Learn Java first (at
least enough to understand what's going on), then WO. WO is a very big
learning curve. Be prepared to spend a lot of time learning before you
can actually do something substantial.
Subscribe to at least one mailing list for WO Dev (apparently you
already have). Read all the posts, every day, even if you have no idea
what they're talking about. The exposure will make learning easier
when you get to that material in the future.
When you get stuck, look first at the easiest and most obvious stuff.
Go back and read the documentation for everything you're working with.
Look in the index of each book for the same. Most of my problems were
from trying to use something incorrectly. If you're still stuck, and
you've tried everything you can think of, turn to the Dev groups and
ask.
Learning the "WO way" seems to me to mean understanding how WO goes
about doing things, and writing your code to harness the power, rather
than working against it. For example, when you fetch a record from a
database, it becomes a Java object, and should be treated as such, not
as a database record. You almost never deal with keys. Matter of
fact, you almost never deal directly with databases. WO does.
Learning what WO can do, so you can do it the WO (easy) way, is the
learning curve I mentioned. The best way that I've found to really get
my head around that is to read the list postings and try to understand
why each suggestion is given. Sometimes you'll just have to ask, why
that way? The responses I get are almost always very patient and
helpful.
Welcome to WebObjects, Janine. I hope you succeed.
Nathan
On Jul 9, 2004, at 5:00 PM, Janine Sisk wrote:
Hi all,
I have been collecting info on Web Objects and Java, in preparation
for jumping in and learning how to use them. I have three books, by
Ravi Mendis, Josh Marker and the Wrox book. I also have a collection
of links to things like Apple's WO docs and Sun's Java tutorials.
I think I have plenty of resources to learn the mechanics of how to
make WO do whatever I want it to do. But I feel like I'm missing the
view from a few steps back, one that tells me how to design my apps in
a way that takes advantage of WO's strengths instead of struggling
against them. I think I've seen this referred to as doing things in
the "WO Way". I also haven't found a good description of what WO
is/does that isn't drowning in marketing-speak. Although I know enough
about what it does to know that I want to learn more, I am finding it
difficult to describe to others because I don't fully understand it
myself.
I would really appreciate it if those of you who are self-taught could
share how you went about this - what resources did you find the most
helpful, and were there any that steered you wrong? Was there a
particular order of tasks that made for a smoother learning curve?
Anything like that would be most helpful.
thanks,
janine
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