What is programming exactly?

[Chaicho]

I've been wanting to get into some programming for a while and also been wanting to go with programming in college. But im really doubtful about whether im going to like it or not.

Can someone explain to me the fundamentals and or essential languages that I must start learning to start preparing myself.

And most importantly, how would my future look like as a programmer? (Job salary wise.)

[The Sloth]

[SSL]

Programming is the part of the process of solving a problem with a computer where you write the instructions that tell the computer what to do. "Programming" is not a thing in and of itself; it's a tool used by various disciplines.

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, nerdslayer1 said:

-snip-

And all you did was put a semi colon

[The Sloth]

2 minutes ago, deXxterlab97 said:

And all you did was put a semi colon

 

[PenPoint]

I first started as C, and now I'm trying to learn C#. Python will still be a great choice, but my friend who is a coding geek says that C# is good at making GUI-based programs.

Oh and don't ask me something sophisticated, I learned C but all I can do now is printf

 

[SCHISCHKA]

10 minutes ago, Chaicho said:

how would my future look like as a programmer? (Job salary wise.)

I have a postgrad diploma & degree in comp sci and salary can be good and can be crap. people who have 10 years experience get really good salary but this is true for any industry. In the future there will be a ton more computer scientists and engineers in the market than there is today so consider that. In china they do not have a shortage of programmers and their wages are crap. there was a report in the UK that showed only 11% of comp sci grads are working in the industry even though theres a skills shortage, this is really due to there being more graduates than there are graduate positions. Youre really better off taking statistics as a major and comp sci as a minor. You will get paid more and be more attractive to a wider field of potential employers. IMO job security and long term employment are more important than seeking a high salary. IT has some pretty high job turn over and startup failures. The amount of time iv spent out of work id be better off financially being a high school teacher. The people you work with and the people you work for are more important than anything. I left a high paying job because the employer was lazy and useless and that lazy uselessness was spreading to his employees, it was a toxic environment to be in and no matter how big my bills are I wont go back there or work for anyone in that management circle again.

7 minutes ago, Chaicho said:

But im really doubtful about whether im going to like it or not.

do you like statistics, number theory, and algebra? Look everyone learns to hate their jobs. Do something that looks a bit future proof because we are facing mass job extinction over the next decade or two

7 minutes ago, Chaicho said:

Can someone explain to me the fundamentals and or essential languages that I must start learning to start preparing myself.

look up MIT opencourseware on youtube. theres a ton of compsci and math lecture series. https://www.youtube.com/user/MIT/playlists

 

 

 

[Guest]

24 minutes ago, nerdslayer1 said:

 

-snip-

Greek question mark ;

Semi colon ;

[Dat Guy]

6 hours ago, deXxterlab97 said:

Greek question mark ;

Semi colon ;

https://github.com/reinderien/mimic

[Mira Yurizaki]

12 hours ago, Chaicho said:

I've been wanting to get into some programming for a while and also been wanting to go with programming in college. But im really doubtful about whether im going to like it or not.

Can someone explain to me the fundamentals and or essential languages that I must start learning to start preparing myself.

And most importantly, how would my future look like as a programmer? (Job salary wise.)

Programming is the art of precisely describing an action so precisely, a computer can do it. Because a computer is a literal genie.

 

Anyway I had a topic that's probably buried in page 2 or 3 of this forum that goes into some detail about the concepts of programming.

 

As far as job outlook... well all of my news feeds are demanding programming be taught in schools so our future kids can "fill in the large projected job market." I mean, I guess that's a sign of confidence in growth of the field, but that's also a really dumb reason why we should be teaching kids to program. Lest we have another case of "New Math" the US tried to do back in the 60s.

[Yamoto42]

5 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Because a computer is a literal genie.

More a monkey's paw, in my experience...

 

But on a serious note (on the new math), we are running into a situation where society is becoming increasingly dependent on something that is potentially becoming less understood by the general population.

I am reminded of a talk with my (then future, now present) boss once when I was in college.  In school, almost all of my higher electives were in OS development, and he mentioned how those jobs are rather few and far between.  And while there is a large disparity in academia between what is taught (especially in electives) and what you actually do in a job, my response was an analogy:  "True, you do not need to know how a transmission works to drive a car.  But sometime, somewhere, SOMEBODY has to know how to make one."

CompSci and programming definitely isn't for everyone.  Effort can get you a long way, but ultimately natural talent and dumb luck will almost always count for more.  But even if you aren't good at it, or don't care for it, that's fine.  But you should at least have a basic understanding of what's going on.  And yes, it does need to be done right...

I know it's an exaggeration, but just think how much malware we could prevent from just a single mandatory highshool computer class.  People see an access violation, download a "cleaner", then go pay geek squad a couple of hundred bucks to get rid of it....

[Mira Yurizaki]

4 minutes ago, Yamoto42 said:

But on a serious note (on the new math), we are running into a situation where society is becoming increasingly dependent on something that is potentially becoming less understood by the general population.

If I could twist this, I think a lot of it is more like people think they're experts on a system that in reality, they're only experts of what's on the surface.

[CookieMaster]

On 3/8/2017 at 0:23 AM, Chaicho said:

I've been wanting to get into some programming for a while and also been wanting to go with programming in college. But im really doubtful about whether im going to like it or not.

Can someone explain to me the fundamentals and or essential languages that I must start learning to start preparing myself.

And most importantly, how would my future look like as a programmer? (Job salary wise.)

You'll probably take Visual Basic first, and most of its easy, but sometimes you run into a problem where you don't understand just like I did. Then probably C++ and Java. You might also be taking python. I'm currently in college for programming and I like it. 

[straight_stewie]

On 3/7/2017 at 11:23 PM, Chaicho said:

I've been wanting to get into some programming for a while and also been wanting to go with programming in college. But im really doubtful about whether im going to like it or not.

Can someone explain to me the fundamentals and or essential languages that I must start learning to start preparing myself.

And most importantly, how would my future look like as a programmer? (Job salary wise.)

To put it bluntly, programming is the art and science of describing a series of steps that need to be taken to accomplish a task. This is useful, since computers are really just designed to do extremely repetitive tasks, billions of times per second. 

"how would my future look job salary wise". I don't know. I don't know how good of a programmer you will be, what your grades will be like, what connections you have, or what your future will hold. 

[Gachr]

7 hours ago, CookieMaster said:

You'll probably take Visual Basic first, and most of its easy, but sometimes you run into a problem where you don't understand just like I did. Then probably C++ and Java. You might also be taking python. I'm currently in college for programming and I like it. 

VB isn't a very useful language, and it was actually the most hated language in a poll. Doesn't sound too good, eh?

Please state your arguments for learning C++ and Java right after VB, since it sounds to me like "I'll just list the languages I've worked with".

[bcguru9384]

On ‎3‎/‎8‎/‎2017 at 0:42 PM, Yamoto42 said:

Effort can get you a long way, but ultimately natural talent and dumb luck will almost always count for more

great line thumbs up

[bcguru9384]

youtube schoolfreeware

learn all need to know

[CookieMaster]

1 hour ago, Gachr said:

VB isn't a very useful language, and it was actually the most hated language in a poll. Doesn't sound too good, eh?

Please state your arguments for learning C++ and Java right after VB, since it sounds to me like "I'll just list the languages I've worked with".

No that's how my degree and several others I have seen are working and going. Maybe not VB, but a more simple programming language to start so when you go to the next semester you understand the basics of it. 

[Cool Guy]

In my opinion programming is solving problems using computer programming languages such as Python or Java. 

It's important you don't mistake programming with coding, because coding is simply writing code.  In my opinion coding is things such as CSS and HTML for example, where you don't solve a problem but you instead specifiy things inside code which are produced on the computer. 

 

While programming is actually writing code that solves a problem using algorithms, for example a benchmark using the Pythagoras Theorm.  This is programming because you are not only solving a problem using computer code, but you are also using functions, and essentially creating your own algorithms and mathematical solutions to solve problems. 

[Dat Guy]

6 hours ago, Gachr said:

VB isn't a very useful language

What exactly can't you do with it?

[straight_stewie]

9 hours ago, Dat Guy said:

What exactly can't you do with it?

Well, it's Turing Complete, so you can theoretically solve every problem with it. That being said, HTML5 and CSS 3makes a combo that is Turing Complete, but I don't see anyone doing any major computational tasks using that. 

VB is good for interfacing with Microsoft Office products. VB.NET is good for learning the Microsoft Development tools stack and interfacing with Microsoft Office Products. Beyond that, you should move to C# if you want to stick with Microsoft stuff, or branch out to really any C based language. 

[VicBar]

If you want to get an introduction into programming look into Python.

 

Programming languages can have very confusing syntax that is not necesarry to learn the fundamentals of programming: conditionals, data structures, algorithms..

Python is a very sintax light language that is great for learning. www.udacity.com has as pretty good intro course.
 

It is typically said that once you learn to program the language is irrelevant because you just have to consult or learn the semantics, but the logical-methodic algorithmic-thinking process is the same.

 

Salary-wise... It depends on what area you specialize in IMO. Web developers are saturated, but data science is on the rise, and security is always in high demand and very specialized.. So... there's my two cents.

[Mira Yurizaki]

On 3/10/2017 at 3:07 PM, straight_stewie said:

Well, it's Turing Complete, so you can theoretically solve every problem with it. That being said, HTML5 and CSS 3makes a combo that is Turing Complete, but I don't see anyone doing any major computational tasks using that.

I think HTML+CSS is only Turing Complete because CSS has a "calc" function and there's conditional statements. Though the fact you have an operator that can change data is really all you need.

 

However I would argue that just makes CSS Turing complete, HTML exists to kick-start it, for lack of a better term.

[straight_stewie]

34 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

However I would argue that just makes CSS Turing complete, HTML exists to kick-start it, for lack of a better term.

I believe that that is correct.

[Beskamir]

Mathemagic but useful.