How do you people know so much about coding?

importdistributors

Senior member
Sep 14, 2004
294
0
0
I am a senior in IDS at the University of Illinois. There are a few students in some of my classes that just know programing before we learn anything in class. Im sure a lot of people on ATOT know a sh*t load of programming and various languages that is why I am asking, How did you guys learn to program so well? And dont tell me it's from school, because a have a 3.8 G.P.A and and got A's in Java, VB, etc. but I still dont feel like I know sh*t about programming anything. Any advice to learn more? I want to get ready for all the interviews because a high G.P.A doesnt mean anything if you cant program when it comes to the interview process.
 

spidey07

No Lifer
Aug 4, 2000
65,469
5
76
? I was programming at age 11. Lots of people learn before they even get to highschool.

If you want to learn you have to do it by doing. So get to it.
 

importdistributors

Senior member
Sep 14, 2004
294
0
0
Wow 11, not bad, did you have anybody older or more experienced to push you in the right direction or help you when you needed it? that seems to be a big deal with some people.
 

Canai

Diamond Member
Oct 4, 2006
8,016
1
0
I went to Camp CAEN when I was in high school. That and a BASIC class taught me the logical structures needed, so now everything is kind of review.

Which sucks. I failed my CompSci class last semester because I never did any of the homework or went to class. Averaging over 100% on ALL the exams (including the final) didn't matter. Nope. Fuck the US educational system.
 

Saint Nick

Lifer
Jan 21, 2005
17,722
6
81
i started coding in quick basic back in... 1992 or so when i was six. then i moved on to mIRC scripting (not really coding but it helped me understand some logical issues). then i went on to using PASCAL in high school (lol) and finally C++ in college.
 

importdistributors

Senior member
Sep 14, 2004
294
0
0
What do you guys think about for dummies books? I tried java for dummies, it helped a little, but I have to say I scored well on the final exam by talking to a friend for 1 hr about java. I learned more in that hour than the whole semester in class and the time out of class reading books.
 

Canai

Diamond Member
Oct 4, 2006
8,016
1
0
I could never really learn coding from books. It was always more of a troubleshooting / online jdoc lookup thing for me.
 

redgtxdi

Diamond Member
Jun 23, 2004
5,464
8
81
Originally posted by: importdistributors
What do you guys think about for dummies books? I tried java for dummies, it helped a little, but I have to say I scored well on the final exam by talking to a friend for 1 hr about java. I learned more in that hour than the whole semester in class and the time out of class reading books.

That's just about how life works in general!! :laugh:
 

ngvepforever2

Golden Member
Oct 19, 2003
1,269
0
0
Well, I learned VBasic when I was very young (around 12 I think), then I kept going at it. Along the way, I learned Assembly,C,C++ and Java (in college). I use Java at work so I had to learn many different things about the language that you don't get to learn in a java class in collegel. Once I took AI and Compiler Design in college I started learning new and more powerful languages. The past few years I have been learning functional languages for fun. CLISP, Python, Ruby, Haskell, Ocaml and Erlang. I am decent at CLISP, Ruby and Python now, but Haskell, Ocaml and Erlang can be challenging to learn. In order to really be good though, you need to practice what you have learned in college. Get an internship, work on an open source project, try out for the google summer of coding,etc. There are a million of things you can do.

Although GPA is important, I consider that the difficulty of your classes is more important if you really want to learn. AI kicked my ass, but I learned a lot. You can also be a computer science major, and, hopefully, your department would make you take those hard (and important) classes as a requirement for graduation.

Edit: Also, you need to love coding to be good at it - that means, spending 12 hours straight coding for a project, or 10 hours debugging Assembly code(like they used to do it back in the old days.
 

importdistributors

Senior member
Sep 14, 2004
294
0
0
Originally posted by: redgtxdi
Originally posted by: importdistributors
What do you guys think about for dummies books? I tried java for dummies, it helped a little, but I have to say I scored well on the final exam by talking to a friend for 1 hr about java. I learned more in that hour than the whole semester in class and the time out of class reading books.

That's just about how life works in general!! :laugh:

Thats pretty inefficient, but true!
 

TecHNooB

Diamond Member
Sep 10, 2005
7,460
1
76
I'm pushing my little brother to learn C. He's interested but needs the extra nudge. I just tell him that if he keeps up, he'll be able to write Tetris by the end of senior year of HS. Seems to keep him motivated
 
Jun 4, 2005
19,733
1
0
Programming can not be taught properly in an educational environment. It's not something you can drill into someone's head, but rather something that can be shaped and perfected there. Most if not all programmers didn't start out learning in the classroom, but rather in their own time by trial and error.
 

RESmonkey

Diamond Member
May 6, 2007
4,818
2
0
My AP CompScience class (java) sucks so much balls, it makes me hate programming. The only reason I program is for teh gamez.
 

spidey07

No Lifer
Aug 4, 2000
65,469
5
76
Originally posted by: importdistributors
Wow 11, not bad, did you have anybody older or more experienced to push you in the right direction or help you when you needed it? that seems to be a big deal with some people.

nope. Just a bored kid with a commodore 64.

But I would say the people the you run into that are REALLY good at it started in or before highschool. After some time your brain just understands how to think like that. There's nothing really difficult about coding.

I haven't coded anything since college way back when (15 years). But the concepts and way of thinking are still in my head.

What is an IDS major?
 

txrandom

Diamond Member
Aug 15, 2004
3,773
0
71
Originally posted by: Canai
I went to Camp CAEN when I was in high school. That and a BASIC class taught me the logical structures needed, so now everything is kind of review.

Which sucks. I failed my CompSci class last semester because I never did any of the homework or went to class. Averaging over 100% on ALL the exams (including the final) didn't matter. Nope. Fuck the US educational system.

Knowing how to do something doesn't make you exempt from homework.
 

Lithium381

Lifer
May 12, 2001
12,458
2
0
Originally posted by: jndietz
i started coding in quick basic back in... 1992 or so when i was six. then i moved on to mIRC scripting (not really coding but it helped me understand some logical issues). then i went on to using PASCAL in high school (lol) and finally C++ in college.

why do people cap on Pascal so much? i learned it and had a lot of fun with it, very good structure and such...mmmm
 

ngvepforever2

Golden Member
Oct 19, 2003
1,269
0
0
Originally posted by: Lithium381
Originally posted by: jndietz
i started coding in quick basic back in... 1992 or so when i was six. then i moved on to mIRC scripting (not really coding but it helped me understand some logical issues). then i went on to using PASCAL in high school (lol) and finally C++ in college.

why do people cap on Pascal so much? i learned it and had a lot of fun with it, very good structure and such...mmmm

I really don't know. It must be because it used to be taught as the first programming language to learn. Hell, in my school now they teach Python as the first programming language to learn (in a class required for CS majors that they need to take before their first conventional CS class- where you learn java, data structures and all the fun stuff- and python is used a lot nowadays for a lot of interesting stuff :laugh:

 
Nov 3, 2004
10,491
22
81
Originally posted by: ngvepforever2
Originally posted by: Lithium381
Originally posted by: jndietz
i started coding in quick basic back in... 1992 or so when i was six. then i moved on to mIRC scripting (not really coding but it helped me understand some logical issues). then i went on to using PASCAL in high school (lol) and finally C++ in college.

why do people cap on Pascal so much? i learned it and had a lot of fun with it, very good structure and such...mmmm

I really don't know. It must be because it used to be taught as the first programming language to learn. Hell, in my school now they teach Python as the first programming language to learn (in a class required for CS majors that they need to take before their first conventional CS class- where you learn java, data structures and all the fun stuff- and python is used a lot nowadays for a lot of interesting stuff :laugh:

do you go to MIT?
 

LongCoolMother

Diamond Member
Sep 4, 2001
5,675
0
0
Originally posted by: LoKe
Programming can not be taught properly in an educational environment. It's not something you can drill into someone's head, but rather something that can be shaped and perfected there. Most if not all programmers didn't start out learning in the classroom, but rather in their own time by trial and error.

I agree. At my school, and I think at most major institutions, computer science != computer programming. The school doesn't even offer any taught programming courses. All programming courses are "Self-paced" 1-unit classes here!

I remember my professor said once something along the lines of "We are in a computer science course, not a Java trivia course." LOL
 

TallBill

Lifer
Apr 29, 2001
46,044
62
91
Uh, I started messing around with languages on my own as a kid. I've taken a big break though, and not sure if I want to get back into it or not. I'll definitely be able to push my children in that direction if they show interest.
 

Alphathree33

Platinum Member
Dec 1, 2000
2,419
0
0
If you're going around talking about learning this language and that language, you clearly have no fundamental gasp of computer science.

"Talking to someone for an hour about Java" does not make you a programmer, much less a computer scientist.

Most people get their START playing with various languages, from basic scripting, to stuff that runs on a VM like Java and C#, to full-blown C-style languages, and eventually to assembly and low-level stuff.

Going through that process will make you an accomplished beginner.

Now that you know some languages, it's time to learn the fundementals -- mathematics, software design models, compilers, operating systems, and ideally a good hardware background as well. You can't very well be a programmer if you have no idea what each line of code really does at the hardware level.

And after all that, if you want to be employable, then you need experience designing real applications -- things that need to work 99.9% of the time, interface with other systems, deal with users who do crazy things, and so on and so forth.

So, how confident do you feel having "talked about Java for an hour"?

It's a long process. Get a CS degree. Do some internships to get experience.

EDIT: Oh, and after all that, you'll hate coding and become a Product Manager like me.
 
sale-70-410-exam    | Exam-200-125-pdf    | we-sale-70-410-exam    | hot-sale-70-410-exam    | Latest-exam-700-603-Dumps    | Dumps-98-363-exams-date    | Certs-200-125-date    | Dumps-300-075-exams-date    | hot-sale-book-C8010-726-book    | Hot-Sale-200-310-Exam    | Exam-Description-200-310-dumps?    | hot-sale-book-200-125-book    | Latest-Updated-300-209-Exam    | Dumps-210-260-exams-date    | Download-200-125-Exam-PDF    | Exam-Description-300-101-dumps    | Certs-300-101-date    | Hot-Sale-300-075-Exam    | Latest-exam-200-125-Dumps    | Exam-Description-200-125-dumps    | Latest-Updated-300-075-Exam    | hot-sale-book-210-260-book    | Dumps-200-901-exams-date    | Certs-200-901-date    | Latest-exam-1Z0-062-Dumps    | Hot-Sale-1Z0-062-Exam    | Certs-CSSLP-date    | 100%-Pass-70-383-Exams    | Latest-JN0-360-real-exam-questions    | 100%-Pass-4A0-100-Real-Exam-Questions    | Dumps-300-135-exams-date    | Passed-200-105-Tech-Exams    | Latest-Updated-200-310-Exam    | Download-300-070-Exam-PDF    | Hot-Sale-JN0-360-Exam    | 100%-Pass-JN0-360-Exams    | 100%-Pass-JN0-360-Real-Exam-Questions    | Dumps-JN0-360-exams-date    | Exam-Description-1Z0-876-dumps    | Latest-exam-1Z0-876-Dumps    | Dumps-HPE0-Y53-exams-date    | 2017-Latest-HPE0-Y53-Exam    | 100%-Pass-HPE0-Y53-Real-Exam-Questions    | Pass-4A0-100-Exam    | Latest-4A0-100-Questions    | Dumps-98-365-exams-date    | 2017-Latest-98-365-Exam    | 100%-Pass-VCS-254-Exams    | 2017-Latest-VCS-273-Exam    | Dumps-200-355-exams-date    | 2017-Latest-300-320-Exam    | Pass-300-101-Exam    | 100%-Pass-300-115-Exams    |
http://www.portvapes.co.uk/    | http://www.portvapes.co.uk/    |