Advice requested: Laptop for Java Development ... R4000 vs. Z71V - Page 2

First I'm gonna talk about the OP's question:

Sounds like you mostly need CPU power instead of low temperature heat and long battery life. The AMD64's are very good at least for compiling speed. For multimedia encoding the P4's are the top dogs. You'll obviously want at least a gig of RAM and a 7200 RPM HDD. If you want a mobile CPU you might consider either the p-m or the turion. If I could have waited long enough for one with the right specs to come out, I'd have picked a Turion powered CPU. I'd like the power of the CPU, low energy consumption and the future proofing of the 64 bit architecture.

Now as to C++:

I have taught both C++ and Java at high school - basically the same thing folks would get in first year CompSci introductory programming course. While I really like the Thinking in C++ book, I would consider using it as a second book after something like Teach Yourself ANSI C++ in 21 days. The latter book is a bit simpler for the beginner and doesn't assume as much knowledge of C. I use the Thinking in C++ and the Java book as they are very well written (not perfect, but good), but I also fill in a lot and explain a lot that might be hard to get by just reading the book. The Deitel&Deitel books are also very good (I concur about the wordiness, however, they also have a lot of excellent content).

As to IDE vs. CLI I'm ambivalent. I generally teach CLI tools, however, I have no problem with a good IDE (and MS makes probably one of the best IDE's around). I would suggest at least starting with CLI tools. You can do this by either installing a fully blown Linux distribution, getting the free Borland compiler (if it's still available?) or getting Cygwin (a Linux that runs in Windows). If you go the linux route, make sure you find a good tutorial on the vi editor. It's very cool, but the way it works isn't immediately obvious to beginners.

I thing 1GB of RAM is insufficient for James; he states that the Java heap during the execution of his project is greater than 1GB; he's going to be doing some serious page file thrashing without additional memory. I would max it out a 2GB, but if the budget is tight 1.5GB would probably suffice.


The main reason I listed the Thinking in C++ book is because you can get a copy of it for free; plus I did not know if he had any structured programming experience. If he hasn't then picking up a basic crash course syntax book is a very good idea. Learn the basics of the syntax and branching, iteration, and recursion. Ignore the sections that talk about class construction and such. Learn the C subset of the C++ language first, then revisit the Thinking in C++ book.

If he had, then the Thinking in C++ book is ideal. It reads like a conversation between a structured programmer and an OO programmer, and doesn't just talk about how, it talks about WHY. "Why" is the single most important question to learn how to ask; if you don't know why you do something you don't understand it. It's as plain as that.

Here's how I learned C++: After spending a summer learning Pascal, and my first fall semester in college in assembly language and data structure courses, my University offered a 3 week winter course in Object Oriented Design. I talked the professor into letting me take the course (I hadn't taken the prerequisite course in file-based data structures yet) and spent the time between my last fall final and the start of the course learning C.

My issue with the Deitel books is that their verobsity, in my opinion, actually distracts from the principle of the topic. Too many students that I TA'ed spent too much type parsing the words and far too little time trying to grok their content. Perhaps they have improved since I read my last one (around 7 years ago).

sager 4791 has a 3.2 ghz p4, and the 4750 can be had with the 3400+ or the 3700. both are 17 inch screens. if you want something a little more portable, the 4381 is basically a 4791 with a 15 inch screen, P4 at 3.2 ghz.