Computer Science majors....don't program for fun?

[nickbits]

I didn't mean that you have to program for fun everyday for another x amount of hours. All I know is of all of the people I've worked with, the ones that only "programmed for work/school" were not that good. I've yet to find an exception. Anyone who was on the same level as me programmed in their off time at least some of the time. I believe those people lack passion and are only doing it for a paycheck.

 

[YoungGun21]

Wow, a lot of different opinions in this thread on this subject.

OP, when I went to college majoring in CS, none of the CS related courses taught programming. All of them ASSUMED you knew how already and simply gave you the tasks, assignments and projects and let you choose the most appropriate environment.

So, I have no clue what you saw, that is bizzare to me.

This is not the case.

 

[hans007]

eh i dont know bout that. i personally don't want to be working with someone who knows nothing other than coding. i enjoy shooting the shit with people at my job and talking about things outside of programming, which is what we all do all day at work.

in 7.5 years in the industry, i've never worked with anyone (to my knowledge) that codes on a regular basis as a hobby.

I've been working about 9 years now. Most people don't code for fun. A lot arent even all that into tech. Its strange to me as I always have been but they are still useful since they value keeping their employment . In the end you still need grunts anyway at a lot of things


That said I suppose I feel blessed to be a guy that enjoys my job and could code for fun and screw around with technology at home. Now I can't say I code for fun all the time but ice done a few random projects , learned random languages on my own. And I suppose have been since I was about 10. Programming is pretty taxing so I don't think its something you do all the time either way. Plus I suppose when I've been bored of say not learning anything new at work, as of late I have been able to just get a new job and go somewhere to play with something new

 

[janas19]

I don't go to school for CS but I do enjoy coding. I think the enjoyment aspect comes from enjoying using a computer, and being able to control it, and seeing an immediate, tangible result from something YOU do.

For example, a simple batch file is great. This is probably wrong (off the top of my head here) but it was like:

echo.
start mspaint

echo.
start wordpad

pause
end

I forget the first part, but it was just so cool and fun to see that you can customize what the computer does.

Anyways that's just my take on the subject. Maybe if more programmers started with simple and enjoyable things, they would have a better foundation to build off of.

 

[Dravic]

I code much less for work now then I used to, but even then my "fun" coding was completely different. At home I pick languages and projects that seem fun, and they often don't make it past the exploratory/beta phase.

CS101 and CS102 were the herd thinners when I was in school.

Not making it in those core classes? Then maybe a comp sci degree just wasn't for them. Not that uncommon. I've seen people move from CS to MIS degrees and do well. Heavier math, logic and coding of a CS degree may just not be for them.

 

[DT4K]

I didn't mean that you have to program for fun everyday for another x amount of hours. All I know is of all of the people I've worked with, the ones that only "programmed for work/school" were not that good. I've yet to find an exception. Anyone who was on the same level as me programmed in their off time at least some of the time. I believe those people lack passion and are only doing it for a paycheck.

There are a lot of things that I really enjoy. None I can think of that I want to do more than 9 hours a day.
The fact that I don't "program for fun" doesn't mean I don't have a passion for it or that I'm not good at it. It just means that there is more to my life than programming.

When I went to school to get my CS degree, I already had another BS degree. What that meant is that I only had to take CS classes and not any general ed requirements. So I spent 2 years taking 3 or 4 CS classes every term. I didn't "program for fun" then because the amount of programming I got to do for school was more than enough.

 

[irishScott]

I'm Computer Engineering and I sure as shit don't program for fun. Programming anything beyond basics takes a huge amount of time, most of it spent in a state of high frustration figuring out why my fucking code isn't working, followed by one of the best feelings of relief known to man when it finally works.

Programming is a tool, a highly useful tool. If I have a project with a "fun" objective (ie: programming a robot) then yes it can be fun. But programming for its own sake? Lol. You must be one of those weird kids who does meaningless integrals and derivatives in his spare time.

 

[nickbits]

I'm Computer Engineering and I sure as shit don't program for fun. Programming anything beyond basics takes a huge amount of time, most of it spent in a state of high frustration figuring out why my fucking code isn't working, followed by one of the best feelings of relief known to man when it finally works.

Programming is a tool, a highly useful tool. If I have a project with a "fun" objective (ie: programming a robot) then yes it can be fun. But programming for its own sake? Lol. You must be one of those weird kids who does meaningless integrals and derivatives in his spare time.

I think you just proved my point...

 

[DT4K]

I'm Computer Engineering and I sure as shit don't program for fun. Programming anything beyond basics takes a huge amount of time, most of it spent in a state of high frustration figuring out why my fucking code isn't working, followed by one of the best feelings of relief known to man when it finally works.

Programming is a tool, a highly useful tool. If I have a project with a "fun" objective (ie: programming a robot) then yes it can be fun. But programming for its own sake? Lol. You must be one of those weird kids who does meaningless integrals and derivatives in his spare time.

The OP was asking about CS, not CE. Huge difference.
Although it does seem odd to me that a CE major would seem to hate programming.

 

[irishScott]

The OP was asking about CS, not CE. Huge difference.
Although it does seem odd to me that a CE major would seem to hate programming.

I don't hate it, but it's a means to an end for me. If I'm contributing to an OSS project or programming a robot or whatever, then programming is fun. But I'm not going to go out and learn, say, Haskell just for the shit of it.

 

[irishScott]

I think you just proved my point...

So thanks to your off-hours programming you can write thousands of lines of code and have them flawless out of the gate? Lol. That's what I consider a "project".

And no I don't prove your point. The work I turn out is exemplary, but it takes a lot of effort and frustration to get it to that point. I've gotten very good at looking up references.

Now granted you'll probably end up being a better programmer than me (if you aren't already) because that's where you prioritize your spare time. My spare time is taken up with work, shooting, piano, singing, girlfriend, friends, training for the tough mudder, and whatever else I can squeeze in. All a matter of priorities.

 

[cKGunslinger]

My college had a 90% drop-out (switch-major) rate between CS101 and graduation.

 

[Markbnj]

Programming is a tool, a highly useful tool. If I have a project with a "fun" objective (ie: programming a robot) then yes it can be fun. But programming for its own sake? Lol. You must be one of those weird kids who does meaningless integrals and derivatives in his spare time.

I always have a fun project in mind when I write code. My first fun project was to print "Hello World" on the screen of my Tandy.

 

[dealmaster00]

i don't code in my spare time...i do that 8 hours a day at work.

 

[irishScott]

I always have a fun project in mind when I write code. My first fun project was to print "Hello World" on the screen of my Tandy.

Well if you consider that "fun" then more power to you. For my part I considered "Hello world" mildly interesting only because it taught me the basics of printing to the console, which is useful for other things down the line.

 

[KIAman]

i don't code in my spare time...i do that 8 hours a day at work.

Only 8 hours a day? Get me a job where you work, asap!

 

[Markbnj]

Well if you consider that "fun" then more power to you. For my part I considered "Hello world" mildly interesting only because it taught me the basics of printing to the console, which is useful for other things down the line.

It was fun when I did it for the first time in 1976. That was actually a few years before the Tandy, and "Hello World" printed out on a teletype. It was pretty neat to run the program and have the teletype leap into action, especially for a 16 year-old. It was even fun when I did it on the Tandy six years later. If you assembled a group of my contemporaries I imagine all or most of them would tell you they also found it fun. That was the only reason to get into programming at the time, as there weren't that many ways to make money at it.

Reading your posts I think you program when you have to, because you have to, and that's fine. There a lot of people like that in what is now a very mature industry. But there are still a lot of us out there who regard programming the way a potter regards making pottery.

 

[irishScott]

It was fun when I did it for the first time in 1976. That was actually a few years before the Tandy, and "Hello World" printed out on a teletype. It was pretty neat to run the program and have the teletype leap into action, especially for a 16 year-old. It was even fun when I did it on the Tandy six years later. If you assembled a group of my contemporaries I imagine all or most of them would tell you they also found it fun. That was the only reason to get into programming at the time, as there weren't that many ways to make money at it.

Reading your posts I think you program when you have to, because you have to, and that's fine. There a lot of people like that in what is now a very mature industry. But there are still a lot of us out there who regard programming the way a potter regards making pottery.

I wouldn't put it quite like that. I'd say programming, and anything academic for that matter, is only as interesting to me as what it can concretely do. It's part of what led me to engineering. Theory is great, but what can it do? That's essentially why I can say the one form of programming I truly enjoy is embedded programming, even down to assembly, as close to the hardware as I can get; because I get a direct, concrete reaction out of said hardware. Also sometimes a greater challenge due to limited resources.

Similarly I hate dry math, I hated calculus classes for the most part. But give a legit purpose to the math, and I'll spend hours at my desk gleefully crunching numbers.

And people who view programming as art are fine, hell we need people like that to advance computers in general. What rubbed me wrong in the OP was a little condescension I picked up.

 

[JamesV]

I started out going for a degree in client/server programming, and the first years worth of classes were stupidly easy; classes I could have aced finals on the first day of class. Literally a solid month of basic variables (int, char, etc) training...

But, there were alot of people actually going for computer related degrees who couldn't type, had no idea what command line is, and had never even done a simple Basic program.

I guess I was lucky. My great aunt was a teacher, and she had me at a community college taking Saturday programming classes when I was in the sixth grade (I had a TRS-80 Color Computer 2 at home, and spent alot of time programming, so the college class wasn't exactly challenging).