Re: "Hello world!" without a public class?

From:
Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.java.programmer
Date:
Sun, 6 Jan 2013 00:44:08 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID:
<40a19d18-6655-4256-85b9-6954e2f10b84@googlegroups.com>
Stefan Ram wrote:

=BBclass HelloWorldApp {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.out.println("Hello World!"); // Display the string.
    }
}
=AB
 
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/getStarted/cupojava/win32.html
 
  There is no =BBpublic=AB in front of =BBclass=AB in Oracles Tutorial!
 
  What should I teach in my classes?


Depends on the kinds of students you have, I should think.

There's pedagogical merit in teaching the good habits first and the
exceptional cases later. So you could begin with only 'public' classes
overall, let alone for the main one, mentioning briefly at first that
there is a way to drop the 'public' that you'll explain later.

As for 'final', that's harder. Hardly anyone in the field uses it,
myself included, because most classes basically aren't inherited so it's
not really risky to leave it out, and also there's a benefit to making
classes heritable for test purposes.

I think as a teacher I would use 'final' nearly always for classes, and
explain to the class (of students) that I'm being picky, but for good
reason. Also I'd mention that heritable classes support a certain style of=
 
test code, and teach it once inheritance had been covered.

    1.) =BBpublic class HelloWorldApp=AB (because this is most common IIR=

C)

First time you deal with class definition, show all these forms once.

    2.) =BBclass HelloWorldApp=AB (because this is in Oracles tutorial)


Mention that this rarely occurs in practice.

    3.) =BBfinal class HelloWorldApp=AB (because this class is not design=

ed

        for inheritance and Bloch says that one should not inherit from
        it in this case and the students can as well get used to this
        right from the start)


package-private again - same brief mention.

    4.) =BBpublic final class HelloWorldApp=AB (combination of =BB1.)=AB =

and =BB3.)=AB)

Go with this but explain that practice can differ.

Break the 'final' later when there is a pedagogical and good-code reason to=
..

Just off the top of my head - I haven't put nearly the thought into this th=
at
you have.

--
Lew

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