Trying to be clever

Since I have struggling so much with the Java 8 OCA I have trying to think laterally, how can I make myself a little brighter and improve my concentration. A lot of places list the usual get enough sleep, eat well etc, which is hard so I bought a guitar. Awaiting the cable to drive signal to the PC where I can learn to play through a game called Rocksmith. I've been impressed by the 60 day videos of gamers going from not picked up a guitar to knocking out paint it black at near perfect. The other site I have found useful is justinGuitar.

The other things I am trying in my time off are pomodoro, I did not give the method a chance however with more time available I am willing to try it out for learning Java to take the OCA exam. The fitness thing is a tough one, fitbit has now been repaired and on route so at least I can get tracking my activity again.

Brushing up a Java a highly rated book was Exercises for programmers by Brian Hogan, it is similar to the daily programmer challenges with more of emphasis on learning, here is a task go make something, which is what I like. 

For Java learning I need something a little more in depth for what is used in industry, JPassion looks good for learnng as well as the London Java user group that is available remotely called JUG.

Bored and tic tac toe

Trying out of the work interview questions and knocked a simple text input tic tac toe game in 30 minutes ish. No problem I thought a simple front end and good to go, this took me a while but I finished, working on something for 10 minutes and getting distracted is not worth it.

package com.company;

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;

public class TicTacToe {

    JButton[][] gameButtons;
    private char gameChar = 'X';
    private enum gameStatus {IN_PROGRESS, WON, DRAW}
    GameButton button = new GameButton();

    public TicTacToe() {
        //setup buttons
        gameButtons = new JButton[3][3];

        for (JButton[] row : gameButtons) {
            for (int i = 0; i < row.length; i++) {
                row[i] = new JButton();
            }
        }
    }

    public void startGame() {
        loadFrontEnd();
    }

    private void loadFrontEnd() {
        JFrame jframe = new JFrame("Tic Tac Toe");
        JPanel outer = new JPanel();
        outer.setLayout(new GridLayout(3, 3, 10, 10));

        for (JButton[] row : gameButtons) {
            for (JButton aButton : row) {
                aButton.addActionListener(button);
                outer.add(aButton);
            }
        }
        outer.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(300, 300));

        jframe.add(outer);
        jframe.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        jframe.pack();
        jframe.setVisible(true);
    }

    public char getAndFlipGameChar() {
        gameChar = gameChar == 'X' ? 'O' : 'X';
        return gameChar;
    }

    public gameStatus getGameStatus() {
        //check horizontal
        for (JButton[] row : gameButtons) {
            if (row[0].getText() != "") {
                if ((row[0].getText().equals(row[1].getText())) && row[0].getText().equals(row[2].getText()))
                    return gameStatus.WON;
            }
        }

        //check vertical
        for (int i = 0; i < gameButtons.length; i++) {
            if (gameButtons[0][i].getText() != ""
                    &&(gameButtons[0][i].getText().equals(gameButtons[1][i].getText()))
                    && (gameButtons[2][i].getText().equals(gameButtons[0][i].getText())))
                return gameStatus.WON;
        }

        //check diagonal
        if ( gameButtons[0][0].getText() != ""
                && (gameButtons[0][0].getText().equals(gameButtons[1][1].getText()))
                && (gameButtons[0][0].getText().equals(gameButtons[2][2].getText())))
            return gameStatus.WON;

        if ( gameButtons[2][0].getText() != ""
                && (gameButtons[0][2].getText().equals(gameButtons[1][1].getText()))
                && (gameButtons[0][2].getText().equals(gameButtons[2][0].getText())))
            return gameStatus.WON;
        //check no empties
        ArrayList<JButton> buttonList = new ArrayList<>(9);
        for (JButton[] row : gameButtons) {
            Collections.addAll(buttonList, row);
        }
        buttonList.removeIf( a -> a.getText() != "");

        if (!buttonList.isEmpty())
            return gameStatus.IN_PROGRESS;
        else
            return gameStatus.DRAW;
    }

    private void resetGame() {
        for (JButton[] row : gameButtons) {
            for (JButton aButton : row) {
                aButton.setText("");
            }
        }
    }

    class GameButton implements ActionListener {
        public void actionPerformed (ActionEvent e) {
            JButton theButtonPressed = (JButton) e.getSource();
            // if button not used write text to it
            if (theButtonPressed.getText().equals("") && getGameStatus() == gameStatus.IN_PROGRESS ) {
                theButtonPressed.setText( Character.toString(getAndFlipGameChar()));
            }

            gameStatus currentStatus = getGameStatus();
            if (currentStatus != gameStatus.IN_PROGRESS) {
                String conclusionMessage = currentStatus == gameStatus.WON ? gameChar + " won the game!" : "DRAW!!!";
                JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(new JFrame(), conclusionMessage);
                resetGame();
            }
        }
    }
}