The Reunion of SMPN 245 Jakarta, Year 1994

The day was came, sunday, January 15 2012, the reunion of SMPN 245. That was date, we, students of that school made a reunion in APSG Restaurant, Situ Gintung, Ciputat, Tangerang Selatan.The restaurant is wide, green and has kids playground, a beautiful restaurant i think. It was an 18-year reunion after our graduation.

I came with my family, my wife and my 2 kids at about 11.30 AM. The place was still quiet, only some friends who also as the organizing committee members there.They came before me prepared the place. When i came, the place was ready but still some little preparation seem in some corner and i as a member of the organizing committee too help the rest of preparation. While, My kids and my wife played in kids playground eagerly. Then, one by one, the friends came in the place, alone or accompanied by his/her own spouse and children. We meet with our old friends eagerly. Some of us had not meet each other for some years, of course we were very pleased and surprise. We still knew our friends because our long memory is still good :).

At about 13.00, we had a lunch together, the food was delicious and at about 13.30, the teachers and school staffs came in the place, Masya Allah .... the teachers who had taught us 18 years ago came in and met with us again. The situation was cheerful, fun and impressive. Many teachers did not recognize us, it was reasonable, because it was a long time ago , 18 years ago had not a short time and so many from us had changed physically and face. Oops, there was one teacher still knew me ... ow how happy i am :).

We were gathered and listened a speech from the chairman of the organizing committee, Wirda Kamalia, a speech from teachers, represented by Ibu Ida Dravida (She taught us PMP) and a testimony delivered by Irma. After that, the teachers and school staffs and some of our friends were having lunch accompanied with some songs, sang by professional singer and our friends. We sang and danced together but i just only watched it.

Then,the door prize was started ... mention some lucky numbers and my number, 4 was out as one of the Door Prize winner.

After the Door prize was ended, we took some pictures together and after that, the program was ended. One by one the participants went home. The organizing committee including me went home later cleaning the place but some friends were still talked to each other in different place in a small group.

That is my notes about the reunion of SMPN 245 Jakarta. Remembering from planning, discussing, organizing and running the reunion, it was a sweet and impressive program.

Thank you friends ....

Java Programming in my perspective as a PHP programmer

I am a fulltime freelance web developer using PHP and i also teach a computer programming but not using PHP, it's using Java. Yes, i teach Java Programming. First, i feel not so like teaching Java, because i don't know Java well. Yes, i am a novice in Java but my department chief still trust me to deliver it, although she knew that. So i receive that task . I am learning Java by reading, practicing and teaching in the same time.

My impression about Java so far is, Java is a very good programming language and rather difficult to learn especially for those who new in OOP concept. Here, I try to compare those 2 languages, Java and PHP.

1. Java is very "Computer Science". We will learn so many computer science terms, more than PHP.

For example :

If we want make a pop menu in GUI, we must know JOptionPane class and its methods and parameter. Comparing with PHP, it just know only "alert" syntax and moreover it's not in PHP, it's in JavaScript. PHP itself can't make a pop up menu . Luckily, PHP can work together with javascript which make pop up menu and JavaScript itself has Framework which able to create various pop up menu.

Pop Menu in Java GUI

2. Java is Object Oriented Programming, no procedural , while PHP is still use procedural besides support OOP too.

Everything is OOP in Java. We have to master OOP Concept. We have to understand what class is, what object is, what inheritance is, etc. There is no Procedural programming anymore, like PHP still can use procedural.

3. Java is very wide in utilization and type. PHP is not so wide.

I just learn and teach Java Standard Edition, while there are Java Enterprise Edition (J2EE) and Java for Mobile (J2ME) too. Other, there is JSP. Don't forget Blackberry and Android using Java as their programming language. Java serves from Enterprise to mobile. We can make interactive games, database, science, geograhical application, etc using Java. Java for all.

PHP is good for enterprise and very strong in web development but it's utilize is not so strong for mobile device and can't use in making Interactive games.

4. So many syntax in Java . PHP has less.
It's so hard use so many syntax in Java, but luckily we are helped by IDE. There are some great IDE for Java. 2 of them and very well known are Eclipse and Netbeans. By using them, we are helped in highlighting, auto-completion, helper window,auto correction for some cases,etc.
I use Netbeans for PHP too. Netbeans is an open source great IDE for C/C++, PHP and Java.

I just mention 4 comparisons between Java and PHP. It doesn't mean that PHP is lower quality than Java particularly in web development. PHP is very good in web application development, even application for enterprise, you won't regret using PHP for web development, but of course you have to also use JavaScript, Html, CSS and Image processing to work with PHP. But for mobile, use Java.

I still choose PHP with other supporting scripts and tools as my main programming language not Java for today, because i am more familiar with PHP and have some experiences and portfolio in PHP application, but i am still eager to keep learn Java.