How do you people know so much about coding?

[ngvepforever2]

Originally posted by: IAteYourMother

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?

I wish! , nope. Actually I a lot of schools are taking a hint from MIT and doing it too (I go to George Mason University).

 

[TecHNooB]

Originally posted by: Alphathree33
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.

Haha, I like that last bit. Good information in this post.

 

[importdistributors]

Originally posted by: spidey07

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?

Information decision science, basically programing with a concentration in business (databases)

Yeah i know should be simple enough

 

[badkarma1399]

If you really want to get a good grasp on programming, you just have to do it. Start big side project, a game, something you'd find useful, or get involved in something open-source. The best way your gonna learn isn't just from solving text book problems, but seeing how they arise, why they're there, and exploring ways on your own to weed them out. The number of languages a person knows really has little to do with whether they're a good programmer. The faces change, but its the concepts that stay pretty much the same.

 

[DarkThinker]

I didn't get a head start, but I picked up my coding skills before most other students in the CSE program because I had projects of my own that I wanted to do and involved a lot of programming (mainly Unix Shell Scripts, C++). The key is in extracurricular activities

 

[importdistributors]

Originally posted by: Alphathree33
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.

Ha

 

[clamum]

I started in high school, around age 14 maybe. Just by tinkering and trial and error.

 

[imported_LoKe]

I must have been late to the party. All these guys starting in their early teens. I didn't start leaning until I was about 16. I started with HTML, so that hardly counts, but introduced myself to PHP at 17 or so. That's a whole 3 years of programming for me.

 

[Injury]

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.

Yup. Most people will not learn to code unless they have some medium to apply that knowledge in problem-solving scenerios... which is why books suck and are really only a reference tool, not quite a learning tool.

Experience builds on experience with coding.

 

[yllus]

In terms of developer "skills", I've found that it's much less about textbooks and formal educations than it is about getting out there and taking on various projects. Learning new things has to me always been about necessity, even if the projects are volunteer work/just for fun.

Don't worry yourself about languages. Always start by concentrating on the business/product idea and the idea alone. Sick and tired of having to archive and reload your e-mail manually? Hmm, maybe you should write a mailbox import program. All things like OS platforms and programming languages are then derived from a best fit for the idea. Okay, it's a server-ish sort of application so let's start it on Linux and use Perl or Python.

Most of us are specialists, and in beginning with a core idea like the above, you slowly get to know everything there is about the topic and branch out from there. I'm a POP3/IMAP4 protocol guru because of work I've done in the area. It comes naturally.

 

[Jschmuck2]

Wait a minute - programming camp - age 11 - coding?!?!

This forums is full of NERDS!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

 

[TecHNooB]

I have to ask, what's the fundamental difference between CmpE and CS?

 

[LongCoolMother]

Originally posted by: TecHNooB
I have to ask, what's the fundamental difference between CmpE and CS?

sometimes the difference is not that much. sometimes they can be as different as physics and electrical engineering. or economics and business. it depends on the institution. I'll let someone else explain the details, since my school only has CS and EECS. no CSE.

 

[Saint Nick]

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

oops, not trying to diss pascal! sorry! it was a really fun language. we used to make all these stupid, ridiculous programs that would "overclock" your pc and the tell you that it got too hot and blew up. and other annoying DOS programs.

it was definately fun, very easy to understand

 

[Saint Nick]

Originally posted by: TecHNooB
I have to ask, what's the fundamental difference between CmpE and CS?

Computer engineering is the brainchild of computer science and electronics engineering. Take aspects from both majors and cram it into one and you have computer engineering. Essentially, create circuits and write programs to control those circuits.

 

[Evadman]

My heathkit says I have known about computers, hardware and software, for way too long.

 

[sdifox]

I was coding when I was in grade 6, on the First Apple ][ (clone) in my city. It really depends on how interested you were in coding.

 

[jjones]

I started learning html at 38 back in 1998. The only coding i know is the easy stuff for web dev like php, sql, html and css, a little javascript. I just picked up a book and started working on my first web site and went from there, learning from books and manuals and checking out other peoples code as my projects became more advanced.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Jschmuck2
Wait a minute - programming camp - age 11 - coding?!?!

This forums is full of NERDS!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Well if you want to get technical my middle school sent me all over the country to compete in computing competitions. That was early 80s.

geez, I was a dork then.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

I'm taking Computer Science this year at my school. We're learning Java and it's interesting, but I sort of understand how things are scripted online now. And I really appreciate the work that goes into games - it's amazing.

 

[Alistar7]

Originally posted by: altonb1
10 Print I am not addicted to ATOT
20 goto 10

Lol, flashback to 1983 working on Macs in juinor high....

 

[BrownTown]

This thread kind of silly, you certainly don't need to be coding from middle school to be good, its perfectly fine to never code anything before college and go and learn all you need to know in college. The computer science degree at my university doesn't assume you know anything about coding or how a computer works other than the basics everyone knows, if you have a 3.8GPA from any sort of respectable school than you should know a good amount. Perhaps its just that you haven't realized how much it is you really know?

EDIT: also like to add that alot of kids who learn programming on their own don't *really* know that much, sure they might know all the syntax and be able to program decent things, but until you take data structures and algorithms you can't make a GOOD program. The efficient types of algorithms and data structures are not something a high school kid will just think up on their own. Also, most high school kids who *know* alot about computers don't really know cr@p. I know when I was in high school everyone was like "oh you are so great with computers" and crap like that, but its totally different to be good with computers and to understand the way a processor actually works. I took 5 computer science classes in high school and still If you asked me how computers work I would say "magic", until you understand digital logic and transistors and such you don't really understand computers. Its one thing to type C code , but if you don't know what the compiler does with the code, or what the CPU does with the code you have only unraveled one layer of the onion, not the whole thing.

 

[importdistributors]

Originally posted by: BrownTown
This thread kind of silly, you certainly don't need to be coding from middle school to be good, its perfectly fine to never code anything before college and go and learn all you need to know in college. The computer science degree at my university doesn't assume you know anything about coding or how a computer works other than the basics everyone knows, if you have a 3.8GPA from any sort of respectable school than you should know a good amount. Perhaps its just that you haven't realized how much it is you really know?

You might be right, maybe I dont give myself enough credit because I am used to being at the top of my class in high school, and now there are just so many better than me. I have picked up books and wasted much time re-reading what I already know.

 

[IronWing]

Computer games didn't use to be so good and there was no internet so we had time to learn to program.

The first time I ever sat at a computer I learned to program. It was an Apple II in the HS comp lab. I didn't even own a disk on which to save my program. I was watching one of the other kids program some graphics thing in BASIC. I asked how he did it and he gave a printout of one of his scripts. I looked it over and started typing. Seems kind of weird now but that was how it was. Then my parents bought a Kaypro which came with mbasic and the manual. I was in heaven. The manual had all the commands listed.

Then I went to college and didn't do much more programming until grad school where I picked up Fortran and LabView. With Fortran, I had a class but LabView I learned by reading the manuals (all seven of them) and looking at examples. It was interesting bouncing back and forth between Fortran and LabView with one being command driven and the other extremely object oriented. I picked up perl a couple of years ago because I wanted something to build dynamic webpages. For perl, I read a book, did the exercises, and looked at other people's code. Now I'm teaching myself perl TK for non-web projects.

I tried teaching myself C++ while I was in grad school but I was totally mystified. I haven't had a need for it since so I haven't felt inclined to give it another shot. I suspect that having learned some object oriented perl that C++ might make more sense to me.

 

[IronWing]

Originally posted by: BrownTown

EDIT: also like to add that alot of kids who learn programming on their own don't *really* know that much, sure they might know all the syntax and be able to program decent things, but until you take data structures and algorithms you can't make a GOOD program. The efficient types of algorithms and data structures are not something a high school kid will just think up on their own.

This is true. My programs have never been particularly efficient because they've never had to be. Working on open source projects I learned to write much cleaner code as others needed to be able to understand and modify it. Other folks were very helpful in pointing out when I wrote extremely inefficient code so I learned to avoid some pitfalls ("You do realize your write loop is opening/closing two hundred files two hundred times, don't you?). On that note I would encourage anyone learning to program to work on a collaborative coding project. You can learn a great deal really fast.