Java topic for presentation

You could do one on JDBC

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/jdbc/basics/index.html

you can do it on java beans and how to represent records in database as java objects

present oops concepts

data hiding and encapsulation

inheritannce

polymorphism

These are good topics but are on material covered in the course.  I wasn't clear enough when I described the topic.  The subject needs to be in the area of background type stuff rather than mainstream instructional.  History or controversy would be good.  Why more than what or how.  Like, The instructor said that (in his experience) people with traditional relational database programming backgrounds had the most difficult time transitioning to Java - Is there a reason for this.  Or, what are the most serious deficiencies in Java.  Thanks,

>>The instructor said that (in his experience) people with traditional relational database programming backgrounds had the most difficult time transitioning to Java

That sounds odd ;-) Are you sure he doesn't mean people with backgrounds in procedural programming?

Yes, part of his point was that pure procedural programming is getting pretty rare so the transition from it (pop) to oop is sort of a known problem.  The relational thing is more under the surface.  I must admit that in my own case, so far, i'm having more trouble with the procedural stuff.  Like, the overhead of setting and getting.  I still can't see a sufficient benefit.  I have finally learned why I don't.  I'm usually the only programmer working on a project.  I write generic code that is very reusable and I've been doing it long enough to have a large library.  Of course, we don't get into data management until the next course.  I'm doing this to be able to write a web based inventory management application for a non-profit organization that modifys comfortable, non-hospital clothing for hospitalized soldiers to wear.  Should I have gone the .Net route?  I'm moderately proficient in 6.0.  Java just sounded kind of interesting.  I have enough C to keep from being totally confused.  Thanks,

What about something in the realm of competition? Something like JSP vs ASP (or JSF vs ASPX)?

Ok, that really sounds like something.  I'm assuming that JSP is Java Server Page.  I'm not really up on Active Server Pages so it will be a double learning experience.
At the very least you've got split points.

Why not use your VB and database experience and present the pros and cons of that technology vs java?

One particular thing that could interest you is that you say you have a large library of code.  Well, for Java developers the libraries of useful code/utilities are already there.  There's a wealth of open source stuff to choose from varying from small date or logging utilities to large enterprise development infrastructures.

Starting point for those are apache and source forge.

Andrew

>> The subject needs to be in the area of background type stuff rather than mainstream instructional.

If you wanted to do a more historical presentation you could do something on the quarrel between Sun and Microsoft over the J++ product Microsoft produced, resulting in Sun executing litigation against them for basically ripping them off. It will be well documented over the internet, a place to start might be;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J_plus_plus

Hope this is suitable.

Suitable and interesting.  Split points.

>>i'm having more trouble with the procedural stuff.  Like, the overhead of setting and getting.

Actually that's OO as opposed to procedural.

Benefits:

http://www.devdaily.com/java/java_oo/node5.shtml

A dissenting voice:

http://www.devx.com/DevX/Article/26776/0/page/1

I should have said that I was having trouble getting over procedural biases and embracing OO stuff like setting and getting and the resulting overhead.  I really appreciate the dissenting voice.  Would you know of a middle of the road position?  The issue seems to be very blue and red.  Purple would be good for a presentation.  Thanks,

Good point.