How Extensive Is Your Programming?

[crocski]

As the title implies. How extensive are your programming skills?

 

 

Talk about

-How it start for you, where do you learn?

-What level would you claim you're at? [beginner, Depth Understanding, Complete Understanding]

-Languages you are familiar with.

- The kind of programs you are able to create on your own. "hello world"?

- what have you created so from?

 

 

I'll go first, My interest in programming came from basic website language. At 13 I was making websites from mobile use only and the whole idea of programming a software just felt like the right thing.

I started watching tutorial on programming languages. I mainly focused on of C++ because it looked cool (all of which I dont remember now). Thats because I didn't know what its purpose was.

 

Im still at the beginner level, im currently doing C in school. And Im starting to feel that motivation I once had to program. I haven't created anything other than basic homework and couple programs I knock together for fun, just to see what it would do. 

 

What about you? 

 

In this post Im really looking for guidance, anyone who is willing to help me. Im a fast learner and school is coming to an end after exams in June, I'll be done. 

 

Happy coding.

[P1X3]

For me it all started when I was around 13-14 years old. Slightly after GTA San Andreas was released I learned about SA:MP which I started playing. It was fun until I wanted to make my own game mode because not many were available at that time. I started modifying existing SA;MP mods. Later when I moved to USA I still played SA;MP buy I had a clan and was in charge of keeping a website and forums. At first I used Ucoz.com and later switched to one of many cms + forum. After a while I got interested in web programming and started lurking around on how to make private servers. My first private server was for game Perfect World which was called "Black Rose" (I think) for some reason. Later on I moved to some minor game servers until I found Luna Online. Had a private server runing for around a year and was devastated with all the bugs which I couldn't fix because I was c/c++ noob. So I started reading on C# and java, and sticked with C# until I started working with delivery company. I made a neat tool that would allow me to import bunch of addresses into the program, find optimal route, and show it on map using map point object model. Later on I added some features to automate few things that had to be done manually otherwise. I was able to cut my daily work time from 6-7 hours to 4-5. Also somewhere between me dumping luna online and starting work I decided that I want to be a software developer/programmer. Recently dumped worked and started college.

 

Web programming and C# knowledged helped me a lot. I was able to skip 3 intro courses and previous and current courses are piece of cake for me.

 

As of now I can say that I can familiarize myself with any non-low-level programming language without a struggle. If there is something that I don't know then good old uncle google can help.

Also at this point I am familiar with most of things and missing practice/experience or real world application.

 

I still prefer C# over c++ because of garbage collection and amount of functions it comes with which I otherwise would have to write myself in c++ or find a library. However I like how in c++ I have control over everything.

Web programming is kinda last on the list for me. There are much more talented web designers/programmers, so I will leave web work to them.

 

I don't think there are levels in programming (beginer, advanced, etc), but instead it's more about how much you know and how much you are willing to research and/or learn. Also experience.

 

If any of you are interested in programming and aren't having much fun with tutorials then consider taking college courses. However, make sure you research on what professor you pick.

 

Here is question. Explain why you have to return ostream from a method that is overloading << operator. My current profesor was struggling to explain this nor he could provide a real world analogy.

[nlhans]

I started out at around 11-12 years old (wow over 10 years ago ! :o ) in HTML, PHP, then some JavaScript and such to build web sites and web applications.

However, during secondary school I started to get more into Python, C# and such instead of web languages. I ditched the web development and moved to PC applications.

 

When I had to decide on my university course I choose Electrical Engineering. Although you get a lot of electronics (stuff like power supply design, signal amplifiers and maths/theory) there was also a course Embedded Systems (though; some colleges offer dedicated programs for this). Embedded Systems are (often) system-on-chip designs that control low-speed low-level electronics. You basically find these systems everywhere. In your car, coffee machine and other industrial/consumer gear. 

It's all very bare-metal though and programming close to hardware. There is no OS,. CPU speeds often <100MHz (most popular chips are still <40MHz though). Very small amounts of memory: for example a 16MHz, 8-bit processor with 32kB of FLASH and just 2kB of RAM.

These devices are most often programmed in C (sometimes C++) or even local Assembler where performance matters. I find them very interesting what you can do with them and it's definitely a challenge. It's very different from PC programming. 

 

 I also do some PC apps for hobby. I always choose C# because it's very easy to get something running fast on Windows. I haven't taken any courses in this, but with some time investment I am able to create some pretty complex programs. Saying what 'level' I would be on is impossible. I can say I would be very bad in 3D graphics but I think I am pretty proficient in control theory/programs, reverse engineering stuff and API implementations. It depends on what I've done in the past. However, figuring new stuff out is always fun.

[RobL]

Hey all!! Programming for me became an intrest when I was in grade 7(so like 12??) I started wanting to know how websites were made so I googled it. Then I thought "this doesnt look too hard" so I strated making simple HTML web sites for my self(nvr hosted because no money but still thought it was cool). I did this for a few years but got bored after a while.

 

Then in grade 9 of high school I took an 'Intregrated Tech' class which was basically wood working but we had 2 weeks of learning web site design. This was the first time I saw that, apperently, what I was doing in grade 7 wasnt so easy for everyone else.

 

After that I still didnt really want to do and web dev (got bored of it) and so i didnt really program for two years until i heard about a programming class my school offered. This was the first time I was ever exposed to real programming, in grade 11 using the language visual basics. In this class and in my first 6 months of programming I learned enough to make a basic Mega Man game and I then took the grade 12 course (final project: pretty lame rpg) and in grade 13 I took it again (final project: mine sweeper). After this I went of to University for a software engineering major!!

 

In the summer between high school and Uni I taught my self C++ to a pretty good level and in Uni i learned C very indepth, also I learn PERL. I have just finished my first year of Uni and I still love programming, it is a great passion of mine and I am very glad I pursued it!! Using C I have made games such as tic-tac-toe, hang man, and a rouge like (using a graphical libray called ncurses). Although these do not seem as impresive as my earlier games C doesnt have all of the "helpful" things that VB had to make games (Making games in VB is essentially cheating lol it is not very hard). So ya thats my story :)

 

This summer I am working on my raspberry pi and using it to control hardware so far its very fun :) (doing it in C with the wiringPi library)

[MzCatieB]

im a game programmer.... i cant really do anything outside game based programming but im trying to get in to the software side of things now... im working on my own game engine and programming software

[vlad1500]

Started when i was around 7-8 yrs old using my Dad's new commodore 64 (haha was new back then) was using i think BASIC. Didn't really read any books about programming. Just learned by experimenting with existing codes. 

 

I guess you can consider me a beginner of sorts coz i am not finish learning new languages. Currently mastered basic, c, c++, c#, vb, .net, java, php.

 

When i was younger i used to make games a lot. Had aspirations to be a game developer. But when graduated college (com sci) being a game dev wasnt really practical. So i ended up being a web developer. 

 

Currently i do ecommerce sites, Android & iOS apps for a living.

[zahlio]

Started when i was like 7-8, found out i could calculate my math assignments in c++. 

 

My dad was smart enough to say to me it was the only way IN THE WORLD, to calculate math functions with variables (x,y etc)... I later understood it was a smart way to learn me the basics of code. 

 

As the years past by, i have developed numerous game engines. Also did alot of PHP, HTML and CSS to earn some fast cash. 

 

However what i love to code in is JAVA, C, C# and C++.

 

However the fundamentals of a software, like engines are where my power and interest lies. Love to be able to be the one who writes the first line of code of a program and be able to mold it after how designers want it to be.

 

I'm currently on my final year of high school, but have already contributed to some mayor programs: An example here is a company who produces pumps (both industrial water pumps and pumps you use in houses), i was lucky to contribute in creating one of their latest version of the piece of software that controls the pump.

 

Have had numerous of small jobs where i have contributed to anything from large scare enterprise solutions to small non-profit game engines.

 

Would say my skill level is higher then what you could expect from one who currently don't have an education in software engineering.

[vlad1500]

Started when i was like 7-8, found out i could calculate my math assignments in c++. 

 

My dad was smart enough to say to me it was the only way IN THE WORLD, to calculate math functions with variables (x,y etc)... I later understood it was a smart way to learn me the basics of code. 

 

As the years past by, i have developed numerous game engines. Also did alot of PHP, HTML and CSS to earn some fast cash. 

Wow. The only codes i made at that age was modify the game me and my brothers played to add password input so they can't play without me. 

[rufee]

The interest for programming in me sparked when i was about 12 i remember one day i wanted to install phpbb on my pc :) Ive been doing some game level design (or so you can call it at that time) so the natural step forward was programming. Though what really interested me was websites so i self taught myself php, mysql and kinda went from there doing simple tests and tinkerings.

I also know some c++, but thats about it. I would say my skills are beginner to moderate i say that because i know nothing about OOP (its just really complicated for me).

With php ive made a webgame or a clone of one i used to play a long time ago, a simple cms and other similar things.

 

I was looking into what was taking up space the other day:

[pzt]

Sheesh am I the only one who just started!?

It all started when a friend built a pc, and i was like damn this is awesome so i built one and wanted to know how everything worked, started programmin in college. OTW to a masters now!

[RobL]

Sheesh am I the only one who just started!?

It all started when a friend built a pc, and i was like damn this is awesome so i built one and wanted to know how everything worked, started programmin in college. OTW to a masters now!

sick what you specializing in for ur masters?!?!? also where u go to school?? (and how is 4 years "just starting" :P) also I am thinking of getting my masters but i just finished first year so i have a ways to go lol :))

[pzt]

well i just finished 3rd year w8ing to hear if i get accepted into masters program, pretty easy to.

And idk what i'll specialize in. Was interested in the Security aspect. But Just took a class in that and it was pretty tough, so maybe not?

idk w/e i do i'll be writing code somewhere :D

 

I go to Christopher Newport University its in Virginia (USA)

[MikeD]

I also only started programming in college. My motivations were... buttons! (When I was younger I was fascinated with automated gates and blinds, lights, switches, ...) And then I "met" a computer at my mothers lab where she was doing her PhD research. If I remember correctly it was something like a Macintosh II with a System 6 OS (I could be wrong, I was 7 at the time). Ever since then I always wanted to know how that worked on the inside.

 

Now I'm on my way to the second year of masters degree (majoring in Distributed Systems and minoring in Software Engineering), waiting to know what my thesis subject/project is going to be (I've applied to subjects related to Software Transactional Memory). In the past 4 years I've learned C, C++, Assembly, Scheme/Racket, Lisp, Java, Prolog, SQL, PHP, HTML and C# .NET (among others I can't remember right now). But more importantly I have learned many aspects of Computer Engineering not necessarily bound to a language and technologies provided by some of them: imperative, functional and object-oriented paradigms (the fundamentals behind each language), Software Architectures, OpenMP or MPI, UML, SysML or BPMN, many algorithms (sorting, search in graphs, trees, ...), Operating Systems, bytecode manipulation, meta-programming, among many others.

 

In every programming class at school we do group projects. I've done projects from a train game in Assembly (for a small pedagogic processor) to an app in Android, going through changing parts of an operating system kernel or making a compiler for a made up language (it was called At).

[James.]

How it start for you, where do you learn?

I'vs always been interested in games, and when i started playing PC games, I became interested in modding. I did a week long summer camp in grade 5 which partially covered it, but I never really learned programming untill last year when I took a programming course in school.

What level would you claim you're at? [beginner, Depth Understanding, Complete Understanding]

I am still definitely a beginner.

Languages you are familiar with.

Java, and Java alone.

The kind of programs you are able to create on your own. "hello world"?

In the course I made some hello world programs, programs the made lists and sorted them, hangman-esque programs with random words, and other things. I also made a text based fighting game (http://db.tt/ymq7h8YW if you for some reason wanted to see it) for my end project, which I put barley any comments in, and which i still have no idea how the attack system (which was not copied, but coded from scratch at 3am) works.

[TizzyT]

O.o no one else started with VB.Net I mean come on I know I was noob but I can't be the only one here lol. I was in 6-7 grade when I was interested in how one makes websites and so I looked it up and eventually got the hang of html. I then stopped as I got bored of it, soone I wondered how things were moving etc and so I learned JavaScript, the I dropped it again...I then at that point figured meh web stuff isnt for me. I think at the end of 5th grade I had built my first computer and I think this was the point that I really got into computers and google as they say was my friend. Most of what I learned from the internet from 7-9th grade was mostly hardware related but in 9th grade I for some reason wanted to make a program. So again I hopped on google to research, I tried to look at c/c++, then was like this is too hard for me lol (because I wanted to make GUI applications). I eventually came across something called RealBasic. I watched tutorials on that and thought I CAN TOTALLY DO THIS lol. And so I followed the tutorial to make  webbrowser, im sure its still on youtube somewhere. After I finished I was like I didn't learn anything all I did was copy what the guy did, so again I went onto google to learn about realbasic, on that path I learned microsoft had something called VB or visualbasic. I thought hey lets give that a try (at the time I didnt know there was VB6 and VB.Net). So I started to work on VB and get the hang of it etc. I made more programs like a chess clock, a VB version of the webbrowser, some random programs for the heck of it, a program for the ps3 hacking community, and latest one I made in VB.net was a image archive program. Somehwhere in between learning VB and now I took look at C/C++ and I again was like NOPE not for me lol but I found something called C# :), I learned the basic syntax almost instantly by running my VB source through online converters and soon was writing in C# although I know for a fact that I have left many features untoched by programming in C# with VB concepts in mind lol. Then one of my friends who goes to school for IT asked for help in Java and then later C for his operating systems class, so I decided to get atleast familiar with those (I really hate pointers). After learning some java I did some research on it and found something interesting JAVA essentially runs in a virtuallized environment, then I learned also that VB.NET and C# also ran in essentially VMs so this got me upset :( and here I was thinking I was making real programs lol. So here I am sitting in college learning C++ from the very beginning. I would say I am familiar with all the above mentioned but I can only say I am moderately skilled in the ones I spent more time on and that being VB.net.

[RobL]

well i just finished 3rd year w8ing to hear if i get accepted into masters program, pretty easy to.

And idk what i'll specialize in. Was interested in the Security aspect. But Just took a class in that and it was pretty tough, so maybe not?

idk w/e i do i'll be writing code somewhere :D

 

I go to Christopher Newport University its in Virginia (USA)

sounds fun!! good luck man!! hope u get in and i no a few ppl in security and its a very lucrative feild

[pzt]

Thanks man :D I mean im deff still interested, the course was mostly conceptual like learning how algorithms work and such and the professor just made the tests really hard, kind of a "I just hope i dont fail, anything else is fine" kind of situation for the whole class. The programs we had to write were challenging but fun!

[Sundanc3]

For me it started when I received a Visual Basic game development book for christmas. I did not know the first thing about coding, but I read most of the book. I ended up copying the example in the book that was a Pong game. I got the Pong game working and even figured out how to make the paddles any size and change the speed of the ball and other characteristics like that. 

 

In high school I took web development courses. I learned HTML and in a later course we used Dreamweaver which is not programming, but is interesting experience. I also took a Visual Basic course in high school where we made simple programs with some GUI interfaces. In addition I also took an Intro to Java course. We mostly did Karl the Robot in the class, if anybody knows what that is I'll be impressed. 

 

In college I went in declared as a CS major, and started with Algorithm development courses that programmed in Java. I became a proficient Java programmer. I then took a Data structures class that programmed in Python which is my favorite language by far. This past semester I took a Computer Organizations course that programmed in C/C++ and dealt with low level terminology and methodologies. The course also included programming in Assembly which is no fun  :P. That's my CS history so far! 

[Zonked]

Started programming since I was 14. I am currently finishing up my masters degree in Computer Science. I have created programs and 3D multi-player games. I have also worked as a software engineer. I am currently working as a web designer.

 

I can program in Java, C, C++, Javascript, SQL, PHP, ASP.NET, Python, the UDK game engine, VB. Also although they are not programming languages, I am pretty advanced in HTML and CSS.

[dylandylandylan]

-How it start for you, where do you learn?

I started just as a hobby, writing mark up language, html, css, serverside stuff. etc etc and then decided to do a web design course at natcol, was heavily bored and more interested in other languages that I'm currently studying this year. Started with C, tried some C++, Tried C#, and now I'm using python, learning mostly through codeacademy, and books.

-What level would you claim you're at? [beginner, Depth Understanding, Complete Understanding]

For mark up languages I'd say I'm skilled enough to build and design a website for a client, but I just hate web design, it's monotonous and boring. Quick way to make 500+ dollars though. For the other languages I'd say I'm a beginner.

-Languages you are familiar with.

python, C, C#, C++, JS, HTML, Java as a whole, some ruby.

- The kind of programs you are able to create on your own. "hello world"?

Just very basic introductory programs at the moment, checkers game with AI, pong, stuff like that.

 

I really like python, but my computer science classes tend to stick with C++, which is fine by me. Apparently we'll be studying some ruby, which is good, it allows the students to choose their preferred language and tools, rather than forcing it down our throats.