Modis - "Talk to a Coding Professional" - Three Live Chats!

[Gary Da Cat]

If I am just starting to learn coding what language would you recommend and what kind of programs would you recommend for me to try and code.

[tobben]

If I am just starting to learn coding what kind of program should I coding at first?

do you mean what language to start out with or what support tools to use for the programming? like notepad++ for example.

 

Or literally what program to try and write first? that might be a good question actually, if they could give some examples for some good projects/challenges to tackle first, when you have the basic knowledge down.

[Gary Da Cat]

do you mean what language to start out with or what support tools to use for the programming? like notepad++ for example.

or literally what program to try and write first?

 

that might be a good question actually, if they could give some examples for some good projects/challenges to tackle first, when you have the basic knowledge down.

Well actually when I first wrote the question I just meant what kind of program but now I see it could be a good question either way, Thanks! ill edit it and add it in.

[smjpl]

1.)   What do companies look for from graduates starting out?

 

  Examples:

• Wide knowledge of many languages or more specific knowledge of one language?
• What coding practices (design patterns etc.)?
• Knowledge of multithreading (designing/structuring algorithms, implementation tools, cache limitations etc.)?
• Knowledge of how software interacts with hardware (caches etc.)?
• Knowledge of algorithms and data structures?

2.)   How much training should graduates expect from software companies?

 

3.)   How much progression up the ladder should a coder expect in most software development companies? Or is it once a coder, always a coder?

 

I studied mechanical engineering as my primary degree, worked for a year and now I have gone back to do a conversion masters in "Applied Computing". This is a 15 month course (2 semesters and then thesis) so you can imagine the coding time is limited. Total coding lessons involved one semester learning Java (from the very basics), one semester leaning "Algorithms and Data Structures" though Java but we did very little coding in it, and finally we did image and video processing using Matlab. All in all we did very little coding. What interested me a lot was the software development process (gathering requirements, software dev methodologies, measuring productivity and project/people management). As someone who is probably not going to be the best coder in the world (started too late), how should I approach applying for software jobs? Right now I am looking at coding jobs (only thing available right now) with the aim of progressing into a more project development/management role but I am worried I will get stuck in a coding role (relates to question 3). Any advice?

[Code Erebus]

Would taking free online courses/tutorials (Codecademy, Coursera, etc.) be sufficient enough to get a job; without a B.S. in Comp Sci?

No, codecademy doesnt teach you enough of a language to get you a job. You need to practice read books on that language and make things in that programming language if you want to even be looked at without a B.S. They get you started and you need to finish the job.

 

I am definitly going to tune into this as I am trying to become a programmer

[BlackStar]

Linus can you ask him about the Raspberry Pi? A place to start to code?

[4ndrew]

Sounds interesting!

[witting]

What do you think is a good age to start coding?

[KnowNothingMan]

Thanks for the info and look forward to the next stream

[kyrunn]

Sounds very interesting, too bad I won't be able to watch the last two livestreams
 

[SuperJeRoT]

I'm gonna start learning java soon in college and other programing languages so some new books would be awesome

[nvbevers]

Too bad I live in Belgium, these livestreams are always at night. I'll watch the archives though. I'm getting the hang of Java and I'm looking for a second language to learn now.

[tobben]

if you could rephrase the question you had about what to do with the newly acquired knowledge to something like this: is there a specific project/program you would recommend to tackle to someone in the early stages of learning, or someone who has the basics down. The goal being specifically to learn more, it doesn't have to be something that hasn't been done before.

 

might depend on the language, python specifically if that helps.

[Forc3ofWill]

Well let's try something interesting. You're stranded on a desert island and you have to make some money (let's say 10k $) to get off the island. You have access to:

 

1. Midrange desktop PC. 

2. High speed internet, free software/development environment's that you can find on the web.

3. Your fingers and coding knowledge + free learning materials avialible on the web (youtube, stackoverflow etc.) in case you need to get some new skills/solve problems (stackoverflow etc.)

 

You can't:

1. Use any money.

2. Colaborate with anyone.

3. Get a freelance job (or any job for that matter, you have to develop and publish something).

 

Oh and also you have a time limit of one year.

 

How would you go about this? Is it even possible? Is there more than one way of doing that? I'm really curious about your answer. 

[Tongs]

Books for Ducky!

[Kiwi00000]

ooohhhhh some nice books there.

[jindego]

Enjoying these videos so far hope the final one will be just as good

[Leviathan_rs]

Very nice initiative!
If it's possible, you guys should do streams like that more often, maybe with IC develpment professionals or computer engineers too.

[Sharif]

Weee will watch this as well 

[Amit Moryossef]

Awsome

[Gambit61]

Thanks! I've been trying to pick up programming.

[Drastic]

Books!! code!! giveaway!!! 

 nice for me

[velizarw]

this is quite a nice idea, look on the software side of things! good job there!

[bookedirl]

I'm in

[KuroTsubasa]

Managed to catch most of part 3.