well i certainly didn't mean to do that, thought it was just an offhand comment
in Java, main method doesn't need return ("statement") and functions are called methods (whether they perform functions or procedures they're all methods defined within / attached to a class... it's a stupid technicality, again, i'm sorry was just a joke)
...didn't think saying something like this would cause such animosity or get me labeled as that type of person around here i'll try to be more sensitive sorry again

This post was edited by Ideophobe on Apr 2 2016 11:49am

Pretty sure my post described process flow pretty accurately given that is what he was asking. It is basically just increment an integer and following line numbers. Just because I used some fancy words doesn't mean it wasn't understandable.

Giving a video of both a return and break with a visual debugger where you can step through the code with arrows on the specific line that's going to be executed would yield the same result. I will do that next time and see if people get mad that I'm using another thing someone might not have learned to explain a concept.

o ya man you were spot on i'm not disagreeing with anything on any level except that stupid pedantic comment at the end there

i really don't wanna keep getting name called and stuff I just thought the original poster was seeking understanding of logic/syntax of the language and you read what is technically happening in the computer

I wrote him a stupid little program commented out with a bunch of stuff like the parts of a method signature, you wrote an accurate description of what happens at runtime... we just read different questions is all and i made a stupid insensitive joke out of your post that was obviously well thought out, detailed and accurate
if he was looking for my answer your's was way advanced, if he was looking for yours, then i'm an idiot, i guess i just figured that if he was looking for yours he probably wouldn't have come here asking, but i personally thought it was interesting

This post was edited by Ideophobe on Apr 2 2016 12:17pm

Look man. PH has a very small, but surprisingly vast ecosystem of developers from different backgrounds. There are like 4 old timers here that have been around for about a decade. We have known each other through highschool, college, internships, first jobs, all our hobby projects, etc. And through the years we have attempted to help anyone that comes here for legitimate help feel that they leave their thread with more than what they came for. Was Abduct's response more indepth than what the OP asked for? Yes. But was it completely over the OP's head that he couldn't learn something more about the subject than simply what a break/return was? Absolutely not. I feel the duck's response was a perfect example of an answer which gives a concise explanation of what a return/break was while also giving the OP a deeper look at the intricacies of how these two statements interact with an application.

When I was in university I had one professor that made sure to do something like this EVERY TIME a student asked a simple question. He would go off on random tangents about things that were seemingly unrelated. But his conversation was interesting, and kept everyone engaged. This professor was very influential in molding me to be the developer I am today. I tell this to every student that is struggling in the field: right now everything seems like black magic. But one day you will have a "click" moment. This moment where all of a sudden something clicks while you are working and you just "get it." This veil that seems to be shrouding this giant mystery of computing is lifted and you just seem to understand things at a deeper level. Every developer has one. And if you ask them about it they will be able to describe their first "click" moment to you with a sense of wonder and nostalgia. It is people that give insightful responses like my professor or the duck which encourage those "click" moments. Because one day they will look back and remember those conversations and they will piece together all this information to form something bigger.

You seem to be trying to make a name for yourself here. Think hard about what kind of name you want that to be. Because you aren't talking to idiots. You seem to think we are, because every time you respond you are trying to call out someone on how they are "wrong". It is annoying. It is especially annoying when you don't seem to understand the concepts you are trying to correct others on. You and I have bumped heads in past threads because I have called you out on a couple of things. I am going to do it once again, because I hope you will recognize how petty your comments are and perhaps tone it down and maybe make a difference here instead of just pissing off everyone you respond to.

You seem stuck on the fact that Abduct referred to a return in a void method. Void doesn't mean it doesn't return. It just means it doesn't return a value. All methods return. You can still have a return in a void method if you want to exit early. There is an implicit return statement in every void method. You don't have to add one, but it is injected into the byte code at the end of the method anyways. You seem to think the main method in Java doesn't need to return because it is void. It doesn't return a value (like in C/C++) but as I said it most certainly does return. You seem stuck on the idea that the concept of a Call Stack or a Program Counter requires an advanced understanding. You mentioned your third semester. This is unfortunate. In my university this was covered in the first or second semester of freshman year depending on the professor you had and how they taught the algorithms course. You most definitely learned about it by the second semester, but should have learned about it first semester. It is almost necessary to understand the call stack when learning about recursive methods. Teaching students how to trace a recursive method is done by demonstrating what this method does to the call stack upon each invocation. You seem stuck on the fact that Abduct used psuedocode that was not syntactically correct Java code. This would not be pseudocode then. As, by definition, psuedocode is not real code.

You said this earlier:


You seem confused as to what a compiler is. A compiler is a program which takes code written in one language and converts it to another language. The Java compiler takes java source code and converts it to byte code. The JVM is what takes that bytecode and interprets it into native machine code which can then be used to execute instructions on the machine (thus interacting with the hardware). This is not the compiler's job. This is one of those instances where you seem to reach well past your knowledgeable area and start spouting stuff that "sounds correct" to the uninformed, but sticks out like a sore thumb to those that are in the know.

You are welcome to stay here, help where you can, and learn some cool shit. But if you keep this attitude up, you aren't going to make many friends. You seem to be more focused on proving you are smarter than everyone else. And based on everything you have posted until now: you aren't.

Been a while since I've seen minkipoo not post troll code consisting of abstracted classes.

Was refreshing to read.



It's fine. This is a collaborative forum where all posted answers are considered correct (as long as they are not blatently wrong of course). It's when someone goes out of their way to complain about another's answer is what people dislike.

Think of this like stack overflow except you can carry on conversations about the answer. You don't see people on SO telling people that their answer was to complex, but rather help expand apon it if something was not clear or inconsistent.

This post was edited by AbDuCt on Apr 2 2016 02:29pm

interesting vocabulary

procedure is a subroutine that is executed purely for its side effects (like printing something to the screen) and returns no values.
function is a subroutine that always returns some value given the inputs and has no side effects.
A method is a procedure or function that is associated with a class or object.

in java all procedures and functions are associated with classes and objects. unlike in c/c++ where they can be declared independent, they're all methods separted into void(procedure) methods and returning (function) methods


e. and ya i had a professor like that for java 2 he was the favourite of the half the class that didnt drop at midterm. i was kinda sad to see all those people go

This post was edited by Ideophobe on Apr 2 2016 10:18pm

What's your point?

that was all i ever meant to say i had no disagreement with anything else

Yes but that on its own is meaningless. Why would you want to say that? Are you just interested in giving vocabulary lessons? Or is there some reason you felt the distinction needed to be made between procedures, functions, and methods?

i'm posting the definition now because you guys seem to think that me making the distinction is a reference to my inability to understand how the language works but i only ever posted that first comment that set you guys off to try and show some empathy toward the original poster who posted 2 weeks ago that he wants to start learning about programming and java will be his first language