Thread: something cool i can do with java?

Okay i've learnt the basics but all the programs ive seen or written handle averaging numbers and displaying simple messages. How do i learn to write programs that influence the files on my PC. like a simple program that can password protect files from unwanted access.

programs that influence the files on my PC

Not many things that you can do to files from a java program: move, rename, delete, rewrite contents
Password protecting sounds like an OS thing which would require native code that could be call from java via JNI

For files, I'd recommend reading up on basin IO operations first (Lesson: Basic I/O (The Java™ Tutorials > Essential Classes)). If you are looking to 'password protect' files, you could write a program which encrypts a file, and only decrypts upon the correct password. Although I haven't used them myself I believe java has encryption tools to aid you along. If you wish to do it yourself a simply type of encryption could be to swap the bits of each byte in the file...makes for good practice to learn bit-wise operations.

you could code an ai for broodwar using bwapi & the java proxy

About a year ago I programmed a card game my friends and I made that we called Poker War. It mixes the two games to make something that isnt that bad. I decided to program it after I got annoyed shuffling the deck...

The AI I made for the game is very basic, but still kicks the crap out of most my friends.

I word of advice that I learned while programming the game. Separate the Computer Player AI from the Host AI. At first I had them together because I figured, why not. Then I realized the Computer had a tendency to cheat. Once I separated the two, the cheating stopped. I can't really explain why it cheated, but it did...

Also, I can create a zip or something of my card class and the jpg images if you need them. I spent alot of time creating the 110 or so images I needed and I'd be happy to pass along the work. Especially if someone thinks they can make it better and give me their improved stuff.

Originally Posted by helloworld922

AI theory is a very advance topic, and I would strongly recommend against getting yourself into something this complex at such an early stage.

If you want something "cool" while still maintaining some simplicity, program a simple game, maybe a card game like black jack, or if you're feeling ambitious, tetris (this is actually what gamedev.net recommends as a "beginner game", but they also assume you have adequate programming knowledge in the language you are using).

for beginners, doing a 4pool would be fine