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Are you interested in becoming a Java programming expert? Look no further! In this article, we will explore why ACTE Institute is the best online training institute for mastering the Java programming language. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced developer, ACTE Institute offers a comprehensive course that will help you enhance your Java skills and propel your career to new heights.

Why Choose ACTE Institute?

Expert Instructors

ACTE Institute boasts a team of highly skilled and experienced instructors who are passionate about teaching Java programming. They possess a deep understanding of the language and stay updated with the latest advancements in the industry.

Our instructors provide personalized attention to each student, ensuring a conducive learning environment where doubts are addressed, and concepts are clarified.

Comprehensive Course Curriculum

The Java programming course offered by ACTE Institute covers all essential topics, making it suitable for both beginners and those with prior programming experience.

From understanding the basics of Java to advanced concepts like multithreading, exception handling, and Java databases, our course equips you with the knowledge to tackle any Java project with confidence.

Hands-on Learning

This Institute believes in the power of practical learning. Our course emphasizes hands-on coding exercises, real-world examples, and projects that allow you to apply your newly acquired knowledge.

By engaging in practical exercises, you develop a strong foundation in Java programming and gain valuable experience that is essential for success in the industry.

Flexible Learning Options

Everyone has various timetables and learning preferences, and we are aware of this. That's why ACTE Institute offers flexible learning options for its Java programming course.

You can choose between in-person classroom training or convenient online classes, ensuring that you can learn at your own pace and from the comfort of your own home.

Industry-Relevant Projects and Assignments

At the Institute, we believe that practical application is key to mastering any programming language. That's why our course includes industry-relevant projects and assignments.

By working on real-world projects, you gain hands-on experience and develop the problem-solving skills necessary to excel in Java programming.

Placement Assistance

Institute goes beyond just providing excellent training. We also offer placement assistance to our students, helping them kick-start their careers in Java programming.

Our dedicated placement cell connects students with top companies and assists in resume building, interview preparation, and job placement.

To start a career in the web development field, you need to choose either front-end web development or back-end web development and if you want to be a full-stack developer you can choose both. Here we will discuss both paths. First, we will talk about what things you should learn and use to go on either path.

Here are some core technologies and tools you need to learn for both frontend and backend roadmap tasks.

Git -

One of the most popular version control systems. It's not possible to live without Git anymore. Git is a software for tracking changes in any set of files, usually used for coordinating work among programmers. It’s goals include speed, data integrity and non-linear workflows.

SSH -

SSH stands for Secure Shell. It is a Cryptographic Network Protocol for operating network services securely over an unsecured network. Typically applications include Remote Command Line, Login and Remote Command Execution. Every network service can be secured with SSH.

It is a popular networking concept every web developer should know.

HTTP/HTTPS -

HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol and HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure is an Extension of Hypertext Transfer Protocol. It is widely used over the Internet. For Secure Communication over a computer network, HTTPS is a good way to communicate. HTTP Protocol is the Backbone of the web, and to be a Web Developer you should have good knowledge of both HTTP and HTTPS.

Linux Command - Basic Terminal Uses -

Linux command is the utility of the Linux Operating System. All basic and advanced tasks can be done by executing commands. The commands are executed on the Linux Terminal. The terminal is a Command Line Interface. It is used to interact with the system, it is similar to Command Prompt in Windows.

Not just a Web Developer but for any Programmer, Command Line is a very important factor.

Data Structures & Algorithms -

A Data Structure is a named location which can be used to store and organize data. An Algorithm is a collection of steps which help you to solve a problem. Learning Data Structure and Algorithms allows us to write efficient and optimized computer programs

These are the building blocks for every program and better knowledge of data structure and algorithm. It is vital for your next job or doing well at your current job..

Character Encoding -

If you are creating global applications that show information in multiple languages, across the world then you should have a good knowledge of character encoding.

Character Encoding is used in Computing, Data Storage and Data Transmission to represent a collection of characters by some kind of encoding system. This technique assigns a number to each character for digital representation.

Github -

There is no doubt that every developer or programmer uses Github and Git for getting code information and give some mock tests to check the performance in coding.

Both Git and Github are the standard terms in code repositories.

Github is a provider of internet hosting for software development and version control using Git. It offers the Distributed Version Control and Source Code management functionality.

Now we will discuss both the roadmaps, step by step.

Frontend Developer Roadmap -

If you want to become a Frontend Developer then you should have knowledge in some coding technologies.

In the starting phase, you should have knowledge about some basics of HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

In HTML you should know about the basics of html, semantic html, basic seo and accessibility.

In CSS you should know about the basics of css, making layout, media queries and also CSS3. You should know roots, positioning, display, box model, css grid and flex box.

In JavaScript, you should have a knowledge about syntax and basic constructs, learn dom manipulation, learn fetch api, ajax, ecmascript 6 and modular javascript.

Then you need to start learning about Package Managers, in this you can learn npm and yarn. npm is the latest technology, but still behind yarn in some features. You can select one of them.

Then you have to learn about CSS Preprocessors, which should be SASS and PostCSS.

You can learn about CSS Frameworks, in this you should know about Bootstrap 4.

You can start learning about CSS Architecture, with modern frontend frameworks, there is more push towards CSS in JS methodologies.

Now you can build tools, Task Runners, Module Bundlers, Linters and Formatters. In task runners, you can use npm scripts. In module bundlers, you can use webpack and rollers.

After completing all these steps you need to choose a Framework, it should be Reactjs, Angular and Vue.js. Then use CSS in JS and then test your apps.

Web Development Basics -

It's pretty apparent that if you want to become a web developer, then you should know the basics of the internet, web applications, protocols like http. In general you have knowledge about web development.

HTML and CSS -

HTML and CSS are the backbones of any website, html provides the structure and css provides the style and helps them to look better. If you want to become a serious frontend developer then you must master these two.

JavaScript -

Just like the four pillars of object oriented programming, encapsulation, abstraction, polymorphism and inheritance. Web Development has three pillars, which are HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

HTML and CSS provide structure and style but Javascript makes them alive by adding Interactiveness.

TypeScript -

Just like in programming, we should know about C and C++, the same as TypeScript, which is considered as JavaScript++.

TypeScript is also a programming language developed by Microsoft and also maintained by Microsoft. It is a superset of JavaScript. It is designed for the development of large applications.

Angular -

Angular is a web application framework. It is a typescript based free and open source framework. It is developed by the Angular Team of Google. Angular is an enhanced form of AngularJS, it is completely rewrite.

In the starting phase you should have knowledge about HTML, CSS and JavaScript. But these days, most of them work on Angular, Vue.js, Reactjs and Typescript.

They provide short and simple code which consumes low storage.

Reactjs -

Like Angular, Reactjs is also a very popular library to develop web applications. Reactjs is developed and maintained by Facebook Team. Most people work on reactjs instead of php and other programming languages.

Reactjs is an enhanced form of PHP and we can also include HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Backend Web Developer Roadmap -

To become a backend web developer, you need to know about some languages.

So the first step is to pick a language.

It should be Functional Language and Scripting Language.

In functional language you need to learn about Java and .Net and in Scripting language you need to learn about Python, Ruby, PHP, Node.js and Typescript.

After learning all these languages, you need to start doing practice, as a beginner you need to do the practice.

Implement those commands you have learned. Learn about the Package manager and start implementing this. Learn about Testing and Bug Fixing.

Start knowing about Relational Database and Framework. You can learn MongoDB Database, it is enough to know about databases and uses of databases. Then start gaining knowledge of Web Server like Apache.

Node.js -

Same as reactjs, node.js is mostly used by maximum web developers. Like reactjs, node.js allows you to make complete web applications using a single language which is Node.js.

Java -

Mostly in the starting phase, people start learning about java. And almost all made their first application using java. Java is a very old language but its popularity is not gone till now like C. Java provides 99% features of object-oriented programming.

Python -

1. Introduction to Computer Science (CS50x) - Harvard University

This is CS50x, Harvard University's introduction to the intellectual enterprises of computer science and the art of programming for majors and non-majors alike, with or without prior programming experience. An entry-level course taught by David J. Malan, CS50x teaches students to think algorithmically and solve problems efficiently. Topics include abstraction, algorithms, data structures, encapsulation, resource management, security, software engineering, and web development. Languages include C, Python, SQL, and JavaScript, plus CSS and HTML. Problem sets inspired by real-world domains of biology, cryptography, finance, forensics, and gaming. The on-campus version of CS50x, CS50, is Harvard's most comprehensive course.

Students who earn a satisfactory score on nine problem sets (i.e., programming assignments) and a final project are eligible for a certificate. It is a self-paced course–you may take CS50x on your schedule.

‍2. Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python - MIT

This course is the first of a two-course sequence: Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python and Introduction to Computational Thinking and Data Science. Together, they are designed to help people with no prior exposure to computer science or programming learn to think computationally and write programs to tackle practical problems. Some of the people taking the two courses will use them as a stepping stone to more advanced computer science courses, but it will be their first and last computer science courses for many. This run features lecture videos, lecture exercises, and a problem set using Python 3.5. Even if you previously took the course with Python 2.7, you will easily transition to Python 3.5 in future courses or enroll now to refresh your learning.

3. HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for Web Developer

In this course, we will learn the essential tools that every web page coder needs to know. We will start from the ground up by learning how to implement modern web pages with HTML and CSS. We will then advance to learning how to code our pages such that their components rearrange and resize themselves automatically based on the size of the user's screen. You'll be able to code up a web page that will be just as useful on a mobile phone as on a desktop computer. No "pinch and zoom" required! Last but certainly not least, we will get a thorough introduction to the most ubiquitous, popular, and precise language of the web: JavaScript. Using JavaScript, you will build a fully functional web application that utilizes Ajax to expose server-side functionality and data to the end-user.

4. FrontEnd Masters - Four Semesters of Computer Science in 5 Hours

In this course, some big topics are discussed here in just five hours: Algorithms and Big O Analysis, Recursion, Sorting, Data Structures, AVL Trees, Binary Search Trees, Tree Traversals, and Path Finding. This is a paid course but worthy one.

5. Introduction to Computer Science using Java

This is a course in Java programming for beginners. It covers the fundamentals of programming, roughly the same material covered in a beginning programming course in a university or a high school AP Computer Science course.

Why Do Students Struggle with Python Programming Homework?

Why is Python programming so difficult? It’s considered one of the easiest programming languages to learn. However, it can quickly become complex when you need to include a lot of different functions or elements. It can be easy for a student become overwhelmed by a complex Python programming assignment. Unfortunately, your teachers, class books, and online resources may not provide enough instruction for you to find a solution. This is where we come in.

At https://www.allhomeworkassignments.com/programming-subjects/python-assignment-help.html, we don’t want you to get stressed about your Python homework. Our team of exceptional programmers can easily tackle the assignment for you while offering notes on how we completed the work. There are many areas of Python that can be challenging to beginners. While Python is often considered easy, it has many differences from other programming languages. If you’re already familiar with Java, JavaScript, PHP, you may have trouble learning the proper syntax and concepts used in Python. These challenges become even greater when you’re attempting to learn more than one language at the same time. Depending on your curriculum, you may need to sign up for multiple programming courses. When you attempt to learn more than one language at the same time, you may confuse rules and end up making more mistakes.

Time Management

Another issue is time. When you have a full course load, you may not have the time to practice your programming and complete all your assignments. You rarely have time to get anything done while you in class. If you’re in a class all day, the last thing you want to do when you get home is study.

While those issues can all make it difficult to complete your Python homework, there is another problem that we all face — frustration. There are times when you’re sure that your coding does not include any mistakes, and you continue to get errors.

You may review your work endlessly without finding a solution, which can be extremely frustrating. Luckily, there is help for all these situations. If you’re struggling to complete your homework, don’t let any more time slip by.

Over the past 4 weeks, I have been working through an online computer science course (CS50) and this review. CS50 is taught by David Malan and is offered at Harvard (and Yale). At Harvard, CS50 is the most popular course. The version I took (CS50x) is non-credit bearing and is available for free on edX. (There is also an opportunity to pay $90 for a verified certificate that I opted out of.) Upon completion, students are provided with a basic certificate of completion. 

CS50 does not assume any prior computer science or programming experience. In fact, two-thirds of Harvard’s CS50 students had never written a line of code in their lives prior to CS50. Given my prior experience with programming, it may seem a bit silly to take an introductory CS course. However, I wanted to learn C, review Python, and generally get back into programming. Furthermore, Harvard recommends that students such as myself who have already taken AP CS A take CS50 as well. In terms of my specific background in computer science, in high school, I took three computer science courses. In 9th grade, I learned Python in a semester-long introductory course. In 10th grade, I learned Java in AP Computer Science A. In 12th grade, I took a website development course at my local university. In that course, I learned HTML, CSS, and PHP. Lastly, last fall I took CSC 102/103 at Smith where I learned the basics of how the internet and computers work. This preparation was adequate for me to pass a placement test to test out of Smith’s CSC 111. You can read about that process here. 

The material is presented via two-hour lectures recorded in the fall semester at Harvard. It is worth pointing out that Harvard students who take the course in the spring, have a scheduling conflict, or are just lazy watch the video lectures as well. There are also supplementary videos called shorts that are created by a teaching fellow. Each week, there is a programming problem set. At the end of the course, there is also a final project. The actual version that is taken by Harvard students also includes a quiz and a test.

Week 0: Scratch

This first lecture is only an hour rather than the normal two. Given my prior experience, the first half of the lecture was just review. During the second half, I learned the basics of Scratch. Scratch is a graphical language developed by MIT. Scratch is great for kids and other beginners because you don’t write code, rather you drag and drop code blocks. The task was to create a basic game, story, or animation using Scratch. I had a lot of fun playing with Scratch and as a result, spent 7 hours on my project. 

Weeks 1-5: C

C is an interesting “first” programming language to learn. The are other easier and more relevant languages such as Python (which Smith’s introductory course uses). As a low-level programming language, learning C helps one better understand how a computer works. David’s justification for teaching C can be found here. There is also a CS50 podcast episode about this decision. (You can check out all of the episodes here. I found the podcast to be quite interesting. Some episodes focus on philosophies behind the course and others talk about tech in the news.) 

After Scratch, assignments are coded in the CS50 IDE. CS50 has some software tools like help50 that were built to help students find errors. For the first few weeks, we used features from the CS50 library. For instance, C doesn’t by default have a string data type. While there was a definite learning curve in learning C, it wasn’t really until week 4 that the PSETS actually got hard. Week 4 was challenging because pointers were introduced and the “training wheels” were removed. Example problems included creating programs to determine the grade level of submitted text, apply photo filters, and do spell checking. 

Week 6 Python

I already had a familiarity with Python. That said, I actually did learn some new things. For instance, I learned that Python supports format strings. Though I knew Python was simpler, I was still wowed by the transition from C. I, like others, had spent hours creating the spell checker in C. Then during class, in just a few minutes David wrote an equivalent program in Python. In general week 6 was a review of the past few weeks of example problems but in Python. It was definitely rapid-fire, so I was glad to have my prior experience.

The first part of the PSET was redoing previous problems but in Python. This was actually a bit harder than I was anticipating. Lastly, there was a DNA analysis problem. Getting the program to mostly work was not too bad, but then I had a weird bug. I posted a question to the Discord and got a fairly quick response. That response allowed me to figure out which tests my code was failing and ultimately debug the program on my own. While my solution was far from elegant, it was eventually able to pass all of the tests!

Week 7 SQL

I was initially excited to learn SQL because it would be totally new information and was related to data science. However, compared to the other lectures this one was less engaging. There was little student involvement beyond the students submitting their favorite TV shows to a Google form at the beginning. We were basically just exploring the IMDB database via SQL queries. Though a somewhat practical application, I don’t really care about movies or TV shows. While the lecture was less engaging, I definitely had fun with the PSET. The first half of the PSET was lots of little problems (single SQL queries instead of a giant problem). The second half was creating a program that imported student data into a database and then created class rosters.

Week 8: Information

Like week 0, the lecture this week was about an hour (rather than the usual two). Furthermore, it was parents weekend so there were family members in the audience and as volunteers on stage. The first part of the lecture was just sort of a review of how far everyone had come. This was an amusing lecture but didn’t have much in the way of new concepts. The big take away of the lecture was the importance of using complex and varied passwords. This week was also different in that there was no PSET.

Track: Web

After the main part of the course, there was an opportunity to choose a track to follow (android, ios, games, or web). I initially intended on doing the Android app development track. However, upon watching the first two hours of videos I found the explanations to be hard to follow partially because it was so boring. Furthermore, I personally have an android and an IOS device, so having an android app would have limited utility. Therefore, later this summer I am hoping to learn Flutter and build an app. We will see how that goes! 

Upon switching to the web track, I was immediately more engaged. It is worth noting that the tracks aren’t taught by David, they are instead taught via video by teaching fellows. (Even the Harvard students have to watch videos and don’t have a live option for the tracks.) This is the first year of having multiple tracks (previously everyone did the web track). It turns out 87% of Harvard students did the web track given when given other options. (I learned this from another podcast episode.) 

The web track started off with an introduction to HTTP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This was followed up with learning Flask (a web framework written in Python) and learning more about databases. For part of the PSET, we had to build a web app for stock trading. While you can’t actually use mine, here is the official version of Finance.

Final Project: 

I decided to build a web application for task management. In the web track, we learned how to make a very simple task application where you could just add list items. For the final project, we had to create a two-minute video. Here is mine. If you want to check out projects from the CS50 fair, click here.

Favorite Aspects of Course:

David is a great lecturer! Even in video form, most lectures are very engaging and informative. Speaking of video, the video quality is very high. The camera pans accordingly so that we can clearly see the code. Also, even though I took my own notes I found the course notes to be helpful. 

The homework set problems were a lot of fun and a great challenge. The option of “less comfortable” and “more comfortable” problems was nice. At least for early assignments, feedback on correctness is very quick. For later assignments, it is more of a did you submit the assignment or not.

I also loved the freedom of the final project. I also just had a fun time turning my ideas into a functional tool. Lastly, the loose Harry Potter theme was amusing.

Least Favorite Aspects of the Course: 

While David is an engaging professor, the length of the lectures is a bit long. Also, while we can clearly hear David we can’t hear student’s questions and comments. This is probably just because of my prior experience, but I found the shorts (supplementary videos) to be quite boring. I watched them all, but sort of passively. 

While code is auto-graded for correctness and style there are no “answer keys”. This would help ensure that all concepts were fully understood. Sure learning from doing is essential, but I believe in the power of reviewing. Relating this to Smith, in our engineering classes (and some others like PHY 118) we work our own solutions and then get solution sets to review for full understanding. We are then required to resubmit our homework with corrections. Back to CS50, while we are told to be efficient we aren’t provided with really efficient solutions to learn from. I get that they don’t want answers floating around the internet, but it would be a useful learning tool.

Final Verdict:

I’m at the end of my first year of university in the bachelor of computing science, so here are a few of my tips for 1st year computing science majors (or people who are wanting to learn programming even), some I would like to have heard before starting university.  1 | No, you don’t need to have any knowledge about programming before your classes. I always thought you needed to have at least completed a beginner’s course in codecademy to understand my first year classes, but that’s complete utter bullshit. Sure, it’d probably help to have some prior experience with programming (in any language really, just to get your feet wet), but you’re going to university for the sole purpose of learning. So don’t worry about being behind before you even started, but if you have time, it won’t hurt to learn a little bit.

2 | Theory is important. I really don’t know if this is a common thought that some programmers have, but I’ve had a few classmates disagree with me when I say that reading the textbooks and understanding the concepts is really important. They argue that they can learn better by trial and error, experimenting. And yes, that is also something you should do, try to figure things out yourself, but learning the concepts will save you a lot of time and headache.

3 | There is no shame in looking up a few lines of code online, but make sure you understand it. Before I say anything, I want to make clear that what I am talking about is not plagiarizing someone else’s work, even if it is publicly displayed on the internet: it’s unethical and defeats the purpose of learning. What I mean is, yes, we all look up at StackOverflow a function that fits what we’re trying to do, I used to do that with for-loops when I first learned them, but always read through those lines of code and try to understand what is going on, how does it do the thing it does y’know?

4 | Practice, practice, practice. Like any other skill, the only way to properly learn and become really good at coding is by… coding. So besides your assignments at university, seek out for other exercises or challenges online and try them out. Or you can even come up with something yourself! Write literally anything that comes on your mind, which will become easier to think about every time you learn something new in class.

5 | Don’t let others intimidate you. This was probably my biggest problem in the first few weeks of uni: almost all of my classmates already had quite an extensive knowledge of programming. That is not uncommon, as a lot of people decide to go into CS after trying out a bit of programming in their teen years. But that does not mean they’re better than you or that you will never get as good as them. It all depends on you and the effort you will put into programming.

6 | Go to the labs!!!!!!! I swear, if you have labs and don’t go to them, you’re basically boycotting yourself. Professors help so much during the labs, even if they’re not helping you specifically. Even if the lab is not for an assignment in particular, you can always bring your own personal little projects or even ask that one thing you’re not 100% sure you got that takes like a minute to answer.

I think RTFM has its place. I know I’m not in the minority with this view, but it’s not exactly polite to talk about it. We have all started out on the other side of RTFM at some point, clueless and helpless, not knowing where to begin.

To be quite honest, I wasn’t told to RTFM that much, because I learned to program from books when I was 12, and I wished I could ask somebody for guidance. My father still knew BASIC from the late 70s and early 80s, and my teachers knew enough PASCAL to pass their own exams and then teach children how to use Microsoft Excel. There was nobody to turn to.

When I started learning Java from a book, I was very confused, and I learned many bad habits, idiosyncrasies of the book’s author that I stuck with because I didn’t understand what they meant. Then I bought a bigger, heavier book about Java, and I slowly learned to program. I learned programming in general and Java in particular at the same time. One textbook explained what classes in Java do, but not why you would use them, and the other textbook vacillated between treating OOP as a scary newfangled concept nobody understands but everybody has to use because of Java, and something you have to be familiar with already because the book assumed you already knew C, C++, BASIC and smalltalk.

I read the manual and I didn’t understand. What finally got me to understand OOP was ironically learning and reading code in Python. Unlike in Java and smalltalk, OOP in Python is optional. Although everything in Python is an object, the common Pythonic programming style is procedural, with OOP constructs used sparingly when they make sense. This finally let me understand what OOP is good for. No amount of contrived examples like “class PickUpTruck extends Car { ... }“ helped me understand OOP in Java.

The same thing can happen with classes, module systems, macros, build systems, version control systems, bug trackers, databases, and visual modelling languages like UML and FMC. They are all paradigms or technologies to manage complexity, and if I give a student a toy teaching example of a SQL database, multi-module program, or UML diagram, then the student will be confused rather than enlightened. If the complexity is missing from the example, then the benefit of using complexity-mitigating technology is not obvious.

That even goes for comments! What good are comments in a textbook example, with explanatory text already left and right of the code listing?

If I had a teacher who could explain OOP to me, things would have been so much easier. Eventually, I managed to learn what I needed to learn. Some things are much, much harder to learn if you can’t ask a teacher multiple clarificatory question in quick succession. It would be even better if your teacher asked you a couple of questions to drill down on which part you didn’t understand.

Nowadays, I see many questions on Discord, IRC, and forums from people who are just starting out learning to program. It’s a vast difference between learning Unity3D when you are already a programmer who shipped software in C++ and wrote games in Java, and learning programming, C#, game design, level design, shaders, 3D modelling, and the Unity3D Engine in one go.

If somebody asks a confused question online, the first order of business is to establish whether they are an expert or a confused beginner. That can sound confusing and condescending, but I often fear if I give a straight answer to a confused question, I do more harm than good.

When somebody asks “How do I iterate over the pixels in a pygame surface?“, I can give the straight answer, or three advanced answers with different performance characteristics. You probably want to use numPy and cache the results during level loading. Maybe you can also use numPy if it’s only an occasional thing, and you can stomach the dozens of megabytes of native code dependencies. You probably want to use OpenGL with a GLSL fragment shader if you do the thing every frame. If perchance you want to do palette-swaps only, then you can use the pygame palette handing functions rather than iterating over pixels and doing a dict look-up each time. Iterating over all the pixels in a pygame surface is slow. You can probably get away with it on a 16x16 sprite, but not on a 1920x1080 screenshot.

That’s not even the worst of it! I see confused questions by people who think they found a bug in a library/framework/engine, but actually they just don’t understand their own code, or they don’t understand the programming language. I see confused questions by people who don’t know what problem they are actually encountering, who don’t know what to Google.

These people don’t need to be told to RTFM. Either they already read the manual, but they don’t understand it, or they don’t even know which manual, or what to look for. They can’t be told to RTFM, but they can’t be given straight answers either. The best thing you can do is to ask “You’re new to this, aren’t you?“ and point them to a more basic tutorial. Or, if your time is worthless, you can decide to tutor them one-on-one over the Internet.

All these problems can combine into the worst possible scenario: Somebody asks on StackOverflow/IRC/the mailing list/Slack/Discord, because their teacher is not available, or told them to learn to RTFM and figure it out independently. These people can be high school students too intimidated by their teachers to ask questions, university students who can’t be bothered to attend lectures or wait for office hours, or junior programmers who are trying to impress their boss.

Figuring things out is a useful skill to have, but it’s not something you should rely on in a high school class. If you’re a teacher, don’t punish students for asking questions! And don’t expect students to bother strangers on the Internet to do your job for you. The best thing you can do to get students to RTFM is to answer their questions when they get stuck, so they get a good idea of what to look for, which terms to search for, what to ask on IRC.

If you want to teach your pupils to RTFM, you should at least follow up with them and point them in the right direction in case they get stuck trying to look up the answer, or if they don’t understand the text in the manual. Of course you can assign reading, but for some reason, some of your pupils will take this to mean that you refuse to explain the topic, so the only recourse is to ask strangers online.

And then the student comes back next week and asks even more confused questions, now that the next assignment is due, impossible to complete without having understood last week’s topic.

Around a third of confused newbie questions I see are from students who would rather not ask their teachers, not even those who post whole homework assignments.

Some people want us to stop saying RTFM online, ever. They also want us to stop saying “You’re new to this, aren’t you?“ or “Please take a step back and think about what you are trying to accomplish with this“. They all are too condescending. I’m not just trying to shift the blame away from open source projects and programmer online communities. Confused online questions sometimes have offline causes. These causes cannot be hyperlinked, retroactively screenshotted, and posted to twitter.