Java Me This...

My LinkedIn followers may have seen my updated experience as a SGUnited Trainee - ORACLE JAVA PROGRAMMER for 6 months with NTUC LearningHub and thought that I left JetBrains.

No, I am still with JetBrains. Yes, this course is intense but I had an agreement with my manager and team that this won't affect my current responsibilities. Though some countries have opened their borders without any quarantine or testing requirements, I still don't see myself travelling in the near future till October 2022 or later. So why not take this opportunity to learn a programing language - Java.

The SGUnited scheme is a trainee program for Singaporeans to to be trained in different areas for new job opportunities. I was told that this Java training course costs around SGD17,000. After Singapore government subsidies, I only had to fork out SGD500. However, this SGD500 is paid using my SkillsFuture credits which is again sponsored by the Singapore government.

Am I looking for a new job as a developer? No. My main intention of going for this course is to learn Java and how to use JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA concurrently. After this six months training, I aim to be able to do future demos of the IntelliJ IDEA to existing/potential resellers and customers.

The first week of the course is an introduction to programming and web development, with the focus on HTML5, CSS and JavaScript.

I had some experience with HTML before, but the training on HTML5 served as an update. CSS is rather new to me, but once I understood the concept of CSS, it doesn't seem as daunting as I thought it would be. JavaScript is a challenge, but it served as a basic introduction to the Java lessons when it starts in a few weeks.

The class was introduced to Atom IDE and I too used it during the intro week. I switched on IntelliJ IDEA on the side and decided to use it currently.

After four days of using Atom IDE and IntelliJ IDEA, I decided to go forward with IntelliJ IDEA wholeheartedly. It isn't because I work for the company that produces the IDE, but because it just made sense.

Some of my favorite productivity saves of the IntelliJ IDEA are as follows:

1. Auto-save on the IntelliJ IDEA and subsequent auto-load in browser. During the class, most of the students forget to save their update HTML tags and/or didn't reload their webpage. As a result, some of the complained why they don't see any changes. I found that with IntelliJ IDEA, the IDE auto-saves the changes. You can also choose to open the HTML page with your preferred browser within the IDE. Once the page is loaded, all you need to after you finish with the edits of the tags, you just have to mouse-over to the browser.
2. Coding without the mouse with the IntelliJ IDEA. I have heard many times from developers how they like to do coding without the need of using their mouse. It is until I have tried it myself, I understood why this is a favourite feature.
3. Color selector within the IntelliJ IDEA. While my fellow students had to open their browsers and search for the RGB numbers to change colors, I was able to do that within IntelliJ IDEA. Combined this feature with the auto-save and auto-reload feature above, during a demo of changing colors with CSS, I was able to do it on the fly and it really impressed the others.

There are many features of IntelliJ IDEA that I will probably come across when we go deeper into the Java class. The adventure has just started.