Agent Monkeysee on 10/10/2006 at 00:20
VB is such a weird hodge-podge of things I've never really "got" it. I mean I can program in it but everything I do in VB feels like it should be done in another language. It doesn't have a cohesive "feel" to it.
Mingan on 10/10/2006 at 03:10
VB's best use is for hodge-podge throwaway progs. There's enough eww in it to steer as far away as you can from it.
duckman on 10/10/2006 at 07:17
Wow this thread is great! Just last week I decided I'm going to switch into computer sciences instead of my current BBA. I've been trying to figure out what I want to do with my life and honestly programing and computers seem to be the only answer. I'm in my 2nd year of college and my first year I wanted to go into architecture, but after taking courses in it I relized it wasn't for me, and so my first sem of my second year I took a business program, so last week, after studying for the previous 5 days, I wrote my accounting test worth 25% of my year mark and failed it miserably. I'm not interested in my business courses and everything just seems so pointless and annoying. While on my way home from dropping my accounting class and losing 600 dollars I had a revelation to go into computers. It just sounds like it makes sense since I've always been around computers, and I've always enjoyed making things on computers, for example when I was probably 10, I started meddling around with VB and I made several basic programs where you design your own car using graphics I made in paintshop. I continued to mess around and skipped a year in highschool in the only programing class we had where I aced it. I don't know why I haven't thought of doing something I enjoy as a career, but now I have to switch my 2nd semester courses around to computer related courses, which is going to be hard/impossible.
For you who are in, or have taken programming courses, what are they like? Is is a lot of memorization, or is it a lot of projects and hands-on type of stuff? And what types of courses should I be taking? Math sounds like it would be a requirement, but I've also heard that certain computer classes are equivilent to certain math classes. So if I were to take 5 courses all based around programming, what could I expect in content?
WingedKagouti on 10/10/2006 at 07:40
Quote Posted by duckman
For you who are in, or have taken programming courses, what are they like? Is is a lot of memorization, or is it a lot of projects and hands-on type of stuff?
That depends on what school you go to, what teacher you get and what class you're taking. You'll need to ask people going to the schools you're considering to find this out.
If possible, try to find a school that has both solo and teamwork projects as part of the courses. Teamwork skills are fairly valuable and understanding how you work solo can help you plan your projects better.
Navyhacker006 on 10/10/2006 at 12:18
Over here at UNT, the Computer Science tests are like this:
Quote Posted by My First Test
Please write a basic function that takes these arguments, and does this with them. x2
Define: term. x3
Examine this code, and answer the following questions about it. 1 code segment, 3 questions.
Write: a number of functions that we covered in class, and some hybrid versions in real code, but without any form of context.
By hand. x7
No-one in my class finished our first test in the time alotted. I get to find out tonight what the teacher's going to do about it. I'm pretty sure the test is departmental, but I'll ask.
dracflamloc on 10/10/2006 at 16:03
Quote Posted by RavynousHunter
why are you suggesting
Java as an intro to OO programming? i started OO programming with Visual Basic. If you want to learn OO, i say go VB, then move up to something like C#, then move to something more complex and powerful, ie: C/C++. of course, im not much of a Java man myself... :erg: If were ever to have a situation where Java would be the preferred language, id just use C#.
Sorry... but from experience working with business and server applications in all these languages, in most cases: VB < Java ~ C# < C/C++
suewan on 10/10/2006 at 16:11
The Sun site has some excellent tutorials available online and some are free! Personally, I use notepad++ and compile and run things from my command window but that's only because it is easier to pinpoint errors in notepad++ and in the command window. Oh, this is for java by the way.
I first learned to programme back in the '80s when it was BASIC and pascal. Then back in the '90's I learnt some VB, now it's java and I know some basic perl as well. Basically, if you want to do programming for fun, do something interesting. I made a lot of very simple games when I learnt VB. I still have them on floppy disc somewhere.
Mucca on 10/10/2006 at 18:09
Starting out, there's no need for an IDE, but by the same token there's no need to be a fucking masochist so dont settle with Notepad. SciTE is a good fit as an editor. It might also be interesting to start with Vim.
As for a language, Haskell. Starting with a functional language will take a lot of effort, but will make you a better programmer. If you start by learning C or some other imperative or oo language, you'll more than likely wind up being a hacker, endlessly chasing subtle bugs caused by your last bug fix.
Haskell will let you concentrate on designing algorithms to solve problems. (
http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Introduction#Quicksort_in_Haskell) Example
I wouldn't bother with Java or C#. They teach you nothing. Only learn them if your employer requires it, at which point it will be very easy to pick them up.
ZylonBane on 10/10/2006 at 19:41
I've said this many many times-- The best programming language for someone who's a complete newcomer to programming is an interactive interpreter. One where you can just sit down and type PRINT "HELLO WORLD!" and it does it, without having to link or compile or save a project or instantiate class libraries or any of that other modern crap. Save that stuff for later. The best feedback when learning is immediate feedback, and you just don't get that with compiled languages like you do with interpreted ones.
And Java can rot in hell.
Mucca on 10/10/2006 at 19:58
Quote Posted by ZylonBane
you just don't get that with compiled languages like you do with interpreted ones.
...er...Haskell, OCaml, many other functional languages. You get the best of both worlds - fast safe compiled programs, user-friendly interactive learning environment.
