<html><body><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000"><div><br></div><div><br></div><hr id="zwchr" data-marker="__DIVIDER__"><div data-marker="__HEADERS__"><blockquote style="border-left:2px solid #1010FF;margin-left:5px;padding-left:5px;color:#000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;"><b>From: </b>"Kenneth Fogel" <kfogel@dawsoncollege.qc.ca><br><b>To: </b>"amber-dev" <amber-dev@openjdk.org><br><b>Sent: </b>Sunday, January 19, 2025 6:55:34 PM<br><b>Subject: </b>Flogging a dead horse - reading a number<br></blockquote></div><div><style><!--
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Hi,</span></p></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>Hello,<br data-mce-bogus="1"></div><div><br data-mce-bogus="1"></div><blockquote style="border-left:2px solid #1010FF;margin-left:5px;padding-left:5px;color:#000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;"><div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">I have started a new course this past week, a first level Java course. Once we get past “Hello Moose” (in Canada we prefer this to Hello World) I present a simple program that calculates loan payments. Then I present
an interactive version where I am forced to write:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> var loan = Double.parseDouble(readln("Loan: "));</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> var interest = Double.parseDouble(readln("Interest: "));</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> var term = Double.parseDouble(readln("Term: "));</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Its all going well until I must describe what Double.parseDouble is.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">I do not need a read for each numeric type. A read for doubles is all I think is necessary and then I could write:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> var loan = (readNum("Loan: ")); // loan is a double</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">or if I need an integer:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> var numberOfCarrots = (int)readNum(“How many carrots do you need? “);
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Heck, if I were greedy, I’d ask that if you cast a readln this results in numeric input:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> var loan = (double) readln("Loan: ")); // Just like Python</span></p></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>Java is not a dynamically typed language, so no !<br data-mce-bogus="1"></div><div>That's said, you are free to provide a library for your students.<br data-mce-bogus="1"></div><div><br data-mce-bogus="1"></div><div>In my case, with my students, we first go from readln/println to IO.readln()/IO.println() and then we add Integer.parseInt() and Double.parseDouble(),<br data-mce-bogus="1"></div><div>so Double.parseDouble() is not alien at the time it is introduced.<br data-mce-bogus="1"></div><div><br data-mce-bogus="1"></div><blockquote style="border-left:2px solid #1010FF;margin-left:5px;padding-left:5px;color:#000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;"><div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">But I’m not that greedy, today.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Ken</span></p>
</div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>regards,<br data-mce-bogus="1"></div><div>Rémi<br data-mce-bogus="1"></div><div><br data-mce-bogus="1"></div></div></div></body></html>