Computer science/programming

[Fzatf]

I hate to say this, but just because you want to be a programmer doesn't mean you will be good at it.

Its like if I wanted to be an artist and couldnt draw well...not much chance for that to work out for me even if I practiced a lot...at some point you have to have the natural ability to do it.

I'm not saying this is or isnt the case, but it is something to think about. Unlike a lot of people I dont think "everyone" can program. Some people's minds just don't work that way very well and they have trouble grasping concepts. And if you can't grasp concepts you have no real prayer of being a good programmer.

It's true that talent can make or break prospective careers. Though don't give up if you're struggling with a few hurdles. It's when you've spent a solid amount of time truly learning and still failing that you should consider changing career paths.

 

[sazc]

What would you say is a suitable benchmark for guaging your aptitude for programming?

Understanding the big white book

 

[sazc]

I hate to say this, but just because you want to be a programmer doesn't mean you will be good at it.

Its like if I wanted to be an artist and couldnt draw well...not much chance for that to work out for me even if I practiced a lot...at some point you have to have the natural ability to do it.

I'm not saying this is or isnt the case, but it is something to think about. Unlike a lot of people I dont think "everyone" can program. Some people's minds just don't work that way very well and they have trouble grasping concepts. And if you can't grasp concepts you have no real prayer of being a good programmer.

Those who want to write code, can 'write code'.

Understanding big O notation, the real runtime of your algorithm, how to avoid memory leaks, etc, etc, etc is not something you can learn by learning how to 'write code'

 

[ChillDude6767]

I hate to say this, but just because you want to be a programmer doesn't mean you will be good at it.

Its like if I wanted to be an artist and couldnt draw well...not much chance for that to work out for me even if I practiced a lot...at some point you have to have the natural ability to do it.

I'm not saying this is or isnt the case, but it is something to think about. Unlike a lot of people I dont think "everyone" can program. Some people's minds just don't work that way very well and they have trouble grasping concepts. And if you can't grasp concepts you have no real prayer of being a good programmer.

What's the most impressive program you've ever written?

 

[marmel75]

What's the most impressive program you've ever written?

I've written 2 fairly large applications at my current job for end users.

One is a modular application where multipe different sub applications for different departments are housed...technically each module is a seperate project that are housed inside the main project, which allow me to update each of the projects individually without having to release a new version of the app(I can drop in the updated project dll into the main project folder as long as nothing has changed in the main app).

The other is a large Sharepoint/angular js based SPA which has about 600 project records that have been entered and progressed through different stages, allowing us to create real time metrics around various things...it does a lot more than this but to really get into it enough so it woukd make sense, it would probably require a fairly long post.

Not that code length is always a good measurement of a project size but the second project is about 16K lines of code, all of them written by me from scratch using a BRD as a guide (as well as numerous meetings with the group I was building it for). Not including the unit testing code which is probably another 1,500 - 2,000 lines or so. Honestly this project would have been better suited for a small development team of 2-3 people but unfortunately that doesn't exist where I work so everything falls on me.

Its a blessing and a curse...I am forced to do mundane things that a Junior Dev could be given bit I have learned a tremendous amount about software engineering and building something from nothing to a finished product...its something that is very rare in software development, most times you are either updating and fixing code that someone else already wrote or you are working on creating something new but you are only building a very small part of it. Almost never are you building and engineering something from the ground up by yourself...its something i feel every software developer should do at some point...it will improve your development skills much much quicker than just working on small pieces of code...

The biggest issue I run into is having time to do bug fixes/ maintenance of projects that are already completed as they keep me busy building new applications so that is always a constant struggle...

 

[synergy1]

Its a blessing and a curse...I am forced to do mundane things that a Junior Dev could be given bit I have learned a tremendous amount about software engineering and building something from nothing to a finished product...its something that is very rare in software development, most times you are either updating and fixing code that someone else already wrote or you are working on creating something new but you are only building a very small part of it. Almost never are you building and engineering something from the ground up by yourself...its something i feel every software developer should do at some point...it will improve your development skills much much quicker than just working on small pieces of code...

I would say my role is still "junior" even though we are writing full-fledged features in a real framework. I agree that you learn a heck of a lot more actually having to build something from the ground up. For me, I learned this way, so when I started working on bits and pieces of our framework, it was hard because I wanted to understand everything and this was not possible.

On the other side of the equation, it's nice seeing how things 'should be', as opposed to writing one's own software. It is a great supplement to my own web development. Its still a struggle.

You seem knowledgeable on this subject - how long does it take to actually feel comfortable with this material? I have my ups and downs, and can certainly get my work done. But I feel dumb often. Sticking with it, but I really hope that it gets easier. Been coding on my own for 2-3 years, and been in this role for 7 months.

 

[DEEZEDBRAH]

I went to a CS-focused college and thought it was the perfect fit for me - 3 year program, nice events at school, and people who graduate make big money... but I had to withdraw because of my grades.

I just had a tough time learning Java. Had I known it would be a problem, I would've studied it in high school. The tough thing is, that even the school's advertising made it seem like no prior experience was necessary. So many students like me came in with no prior experience. In first quarter, we had a final project - and I just didn't know enough to make enough contribution. I contributed one class to the project, which didn't even get used. The final project was to make a "console-based" (text based) version of Monopoly in Java. I failed both that class and the initial Algebra class, so I had to retake them both the next quarter.

Quarter 2 went better. I passed the CS class, we had a different teacher and I did learn better. I failed Algebra again, but only because I missed two grades for showing up a bit late. Had I missed one less day, I would've passed. But this quarter we had a particular class that was indeed nastier for me, and it was a Networking class - we learned about IP addresses and Cisco Packet Tracer. I heard from students in the class that Packet Tracer was a bad piece of software. While I believe it, and it doesn't surprise me, I just couldn't do much of the assignments because I did what I was told in the class, it didn't work, I'd go to the student coaching, and just wouldn't be able to get it. Granted, the coaches didn't hand anyone a solution, but they didn't exactly help me either.

In my 3rd quarter, I took the next Java class up. OK, I'm calling these Java classes even though the teachers said "this isn't a Java class," but let's be real: they're ****ing Java classes, for all practical purposes. Sure, the concepts learned within can be applied to multiple languages, but knowledge of Java still would've helped, as I stated. Things seemed to go well for a while, but the road block came with my student grader. She was a girl in my same class (of total students, set to graduate in 2020) who had taken the class the previous quarter. And the problem with her was this: My teacher often set many assignment grades to be hit-or-miss, and so I'd get a 0 on an assignment that I submitted. If you get a 0 before the due date, you get to fix it. My coach/grader often times wouldn't regrade my assignments when I re-submitted them. As a result, many of my grades stayed 0 when they should've been well over 60. It didn't help that not only was I doing poorly in that quarter's math class, I failed the Networking class again. So by the last two weeks of the quarter, I just knew I was going to fail. So I ended up withdrawing from the school, and by extension, moving out of the student-sponsored housing. It was a real pain in the ass, I decided to find a new place to live because moving back across the country to my Dad's house (which won't belong to us anyway in a few months) was neither an appealing option nor one that made sense.

The college was also a sausage fest. There was only about 1 girl for every 20 of us guys there. I legit got no action the entire time I was there, and I hardly even had time for it anyway.

The degree I chose was more business focused, so I want to pursue finance, etc after going to gen eds at community college for two years.

Am I just not cut out for CS stuff, or was I just not taught it well? I understood at least Java half the time, hell, it was even fun sometimes, but really the pacing of the classes was at a mile a minute and overwhelming. That, and the other schools in my area have equally good CS programs and were less expensive than the one I was at. So that begs the question: could I actually do CS/programming? Did I just go to the wrong school? Or should I just cut my losses? People I graduated high school with are going to finish their second year this Spring, and I have de facto nothing - almost none of my gen ed credits from the previous school will transfer, so when I do start school this Spring or Summer it's going to be a fresh start.

Its hard to say. I was never strong programmer but, I am moreover focused than i was as a kid. I remember learning visual basics once upon a time.

Self learn. I remember pseudo code in high school as a prep for programming when its practically useless there otherwise.

Self learning is the future. Khan academy and udemy, and other resources. Take full use of the tutirs or any other means of help provided for. Much of which is paid for in part with tuition. A few buds in the biz corporate world are self taught and learning to code. I do not envy them. I find it tricky enough to learn le5 alone self taught or doing so without routine motivation.

 

[DEEZEDBRAH]

To keep up with industry demand and be up to date.

Web development: JavaScript, Html, Css, PHP, jQuery, C#
Web application development: Angular, Node, React
Software development: Java, Python, C++, C#
VR, Data Science, Machine learning, AI: Python
Mobile app development: Java, Swift, C
Video game development: C++

I want to self learn python. Curious if anybody here self taught? Certified but learned mostly solo otherwise?

 

[IRRationalProgrammer]

I’m currently studying Computer Science as well and I’m struggling. I’m doing better now though. There is money to be made in it though, push through brother

I made it to the other side. Graduated in December. It’s all worth it. Getting paid well and doing what I love with sweet hours.

 

[IRRationalProgrammer]

I went to a CS-focused college and thought it was the perfect fit for me - 3 year program, nice events at school, and people who graduate make big money... but I had to withdraw because of my grades.

I just had a tough time learning Java. Had I known it would be a problem, I would've studied it in high school. The tough thing is, that even the school's advertising made it seem like no prior experience was necessary. So many students like me came in with no prior experience. In first quarter, we had a final project - and I just didn't know enough to make enough contribution. I contributed one class to the project, which didn't even get used. The final project was to make a "console-based" (text based) version of Monopoly in Java. I failed both that class and the initial Algebra class, so I had to retake them both the next quarter.

Quarter 2 went better. I passed the CS class, we had a different teacher and I did learn better. I failed Algebra again, but only because I missed two grades for showing up a bit late. Had I missed one less day, I would've passed. But this quarter we had a particular class that was indeed nastier for me, and it was a Networking class - we learned about IP addresses and Cisco Packet Tracer. I heard from students in the class that Packet Tracer was a bad piece of software. While I believe it, and it doesn't surprise me, I just couldn't do much of the assignments because I did what I was told in the class, it didn't work, I'd go to the student coaching, and just wouldn't be able to get it. Granted, the coaches didn't hand anyone a solution, but they didn't exactly help me either.

In my 3rd quarter, I took the next Java class up. OK, I'm calling these Java classes even though the teachers said "this isn't a Java class," but let's be real: they're ****ing Java classes, for all practical purposes. Sure, the concepts learned within can be applied to multiple languages, but knowledge of Java still would've helped, as I stated. Things seemed to go well for a while, but the road block came with my student grader. She was a girl in my same class (of total students, set to graduate in 2020) who had taken the class the previous quarter. And the problem with her was this: My teacher often set many assignment grades to be hit-or-miss, and so I'd get a 0 on an assignment that I submitted. If you get a 0 before the due date, you get to fix it. My coach/grader often times wouldn't regrade my assignments when I re-submitted them. As a result, many of my grades stayed 0 when they should've been well over 60. It didn't help that not only was I doing poorly in that quarter's math class, I failed the Networking class again. So by the last two weeks of the quarter, I just knew I was going to fail. So I ended up withdrawing from the school, and by extension, moving out of the student-sponsored housing. It was a real pain in the ass, I decided to find a new place to live because moving back across the country to my Dad's house (which won't belong to us anyway in a few months) was neither an appealing option nor one that made sense.

The college was also a sausage fest. There was only about 1 girl for every 20 of us guys there. I legit got no action the entire time I was there, and I hardly even had time for it anyway.

The degree I chose was more business focused, so I want to pursue finance, etc after going to gen eds at community college for two years.

Am I just not cut out for CS stuff, or was I just not taught it well? I understood at least Java half the time, hell, it was even fun sometimes, but really the pacing of the classes was at a mile a minute and overwhelming. That, and the other schools in my area have equally good CS programs and were less expensive than the one I was at. So that begs the question: could I actually do CS/programming? Did I just go to the wrong school? Or should I just cut my losses? People I graduated high school with are going to finish their second year this Spring, and I have de facto nothing - almost none of my gen ed credits from the previous school will transfer, so when I do start school this Spring or Summer it's going to be a fresh start.

Okay so first off, computer science is a very hard field ( creds: recently graduated with Computer Science) There was a mathematics major double majoring in computer science and she said CS was much harder. Had another Pre-med student switch to CS and he said the material was harder. He ended up dropping out. It’s hard. Not liking programming will make it almost impossible. I made it through and it was well worth it. You just have to take the time and do the work. Go to your professors because the way to program to not a natural way of thinking. You have to learn the way of thinking because it was man made. That’s what makes it so hard. BTW, any engineering/science major will have an overwhelming majority of males. It’s the way we are wired. Men like things, women like people. Look at the stats.

 

[switch7]

Okay so first off, computer science is a very hard field ( creds: recently graduated with Computer Science) There was a mathematics major double majoring in computer science and she said CS was much harder. Had another Pre-med student switch to CS and he said the material was harder. He ended up dropping out. It’s hard. Not liking programming will make it almost impossible. I made it through and it was well worth it. You just have to take the time and do the work. Go to your professors because the way to program to not a natural way of thinking. You have to learn the way of thinking because it was man made. That’s what makes it so hard. BTW, any engineering/science major will have an overwhelming majority of males. It’s the way we are wired. Men like things, women like people. Look at the stats.

To me programming seems like a really normal and obvious way of thinking, but maybe I have autism

 

[synergy1]

I want to self learn python. Curious if anybody here self taught? Certified but learned mostly solo otherwise?

I am self-taught entirely. Building something completely and deploying it has been helpful. Everything begins to come full circle. tutorials are great, but they only scratch the surface so it's very hard to get too far with them. For example in OOP, you can only get so far learning how to extend a Dog object and give it a new method. Working within the confines of a company and learning how they put it all together is helping.

For some people its a fast process. For others like myself its slow. I am just now getting a ton of attention from recruiters, but I just failed a simple online test for another job. It happens. Just gotta stick with it and try to make progress when you can without getting to down on yourself.

I did python for a Djago app. Maybe try to make and deploy one. I am sure there are books or programs to help with that. You can make a portfolio or something like that.

 

[synergy1]

Okay so first off, computer science is a very hard field ( creds: recently graduated with Computer Science) There was a mathematics major double majoring in computer science and she said CS was much harder. Had another Pre-med student switch to CS and he said the material was harder. He ended up dropping out. It’s hard. Not liking programming will make it almost impossible. I made it through and it was well worth it. You just have to take the time and do the work. Go to your professors because the way to program to not a natural way of thinking. You have to learn the way of thinking because it was man made. That’s what makes it so hard. BTW, any engineering/science major will have an overwhelming majority of males. It’s the way we are wired. Men like things, women like people. Look at the stats.

I didn't go to college for this stuff - i went for engineering. Lately I have been trying to learn algorithms and all I have to say is thank ****ing god I am not in college doing this. I respect anyone who can be tasked with something like making a merge sort algorithm without having to look anything up and just understanding how to do it. Good for you for finishing this major!

 

[PeasantPlayer]

I hate to say this, but just because you want to be a programmer doesn't mean you will be good at it.

Its like if I wanted to be an artist and couldnt draw well...not much chance for that to work out for me even if I practiced a lot...at some point you have to have the natural ability to do it.

I'm not saying this is or isnt the case, but it is something to think about. Unlike a lot of people I dont think "everyone" can program. Some people's minds just don't work that way very well and they have trouble grasping concepts. And if you can't grasp concepts you have no real prayer of being a good programmer.

This is pretty bad advice

 

[PeasantPlayer]

I went to a CS-focused college and thought it was the perfect fit for me - 3 year program, nice events at school, and people who graduate make big money... but I had to withdraw because of my grades.

I just had a tough time learning Java. Had I known it would be a problem, I would've studied it in high school. The tough thing is, that even the school's advertising made it seem like no prior experience was necessary. So many students like me came in with no prior experience. In first quarter, we had a final project - and I just didn't know enough to make enough contribution. I contributed one class to the project, which didn't even get used. The final project was to make a "console-based" (text based) version of Monopoly in Java. I failed both that class and the initial Algebra class, so I had to retake them both the next quarter.

Quarter 2 went better. I passed the CS class, we had a different teacher and I did learn better. I failed Algebra again, but only because I missed two grades for showing up a bit late. Had I missed one less day, I would've passed. But this quarter we had a particular class that was indeed nastier for me, and it was a Networking class - we learned about IP addresses and Cisco Packet Tracer. I heard from students in the class that Packet Tracer was a bad piece of software. While I believe it, and it doesn't surprise me, I just couldn't do much of the assignments because I did what I was told in the class, it didn't work, I'd go to the student coaching, and just wouldn't be able to get it. Granted, the coaches didn't hand anyone a solution, but they didn't exactly help me either.

In my 3rd quarter, I took the next Java class up. OK, I'm calling these Java classes even though the teachers said "this isn't a Java class," but let's be real: they're ****ing Java classes, for all practical purposes. Sure, the concepts learned within can be applied to multiple languages, but knowledge of Java still would've helped, as I stated. Things seemed to go well for a while, but the road block came with my student grader. She was a girl in my same class (of total students, set to graduate in 2020) who had taken the class the previous quarter. And the problem with her was this: My teacher often set many assignment grades to be hit-or-miss, and so I'd get a 0 on an assignment that I submitted. If you get a 0 before the due date, you get to fix it. My coach/grader often times wouldn't regrade my assignments when I re-submitted them. As a result, many of my grades stayed 0 when they should've been well over 60. It didn't help that not only was I doing poorly in that quarter's math class, I failed the Networking class again. So by the last two weeks of the quarter, I just knew I was going to fail. So I ended up withdrawing from the school, and by extension, moving out of the student-sponsored housing. It was a real pain in the ass, I decided to find a new place to live because moving back across the country to my Dad's house (which won't belong to us anyway in a few months) was neither an appealing option nor one that made sense.

The college was also a sausage fest. There was only about 1 girl for every 20 of us guys there. I legit got no action the entire time I was there, and I hardly even had time for it anyway.

The degree I chose was more business focused, so I want to pursue finance, etc after going to gen eds at community college for two years.

Am I just not cut out for CS stuff, or was I just not taught it well? I understood at least Java half the time, hell, it was even fun sometimes, but really the pacing of the classes was at a mile a minute and overwhelming. That, and the other schools in my area have equally good CS programs and were less expensive than the one I was at. So that begs the question: could I actually do CS/programming? Did I just go to the wrong school? Or should I just cut my losses? People I graduated high school with are going to finish their second year this Spring, and I have de facto nothing - almost none of my gen ed credits from the previous school will transfer, so when I do start school this Spring or Summer it's going to be a fresh start.

I got some resources for you

 

[PeasantPlayer]

I went to a CS-focused college and thought it was the perfect fit for me - 3 year program, nice events at school, and people who graduate make big money... but I had to withdraw because of my grades.

I just had a tough time learning Java. Had I known it would be a problem, I would've studied it in high school. The tough thing is, that even the school's advertising made it seem like no prior experience was necessary. So many students like me came in with no prior experience. In first quarter, we had a final project - and I just didn't know enough to make enough contribution. I contributed one class to the project, which didn't even get used. The final project was to make a "console-based" (text based) version of Monopoly in Java. I failed both that class and the initial Algebra class, so I had to retake them both the next quarter.

Quarter 2 went better. I passed the CS class, we had a different teacher and I did learn better. I failed Algebra again, but only because I missed two grades for showing up a bit late. Had I missed one less day, I would've passed. But this quarter we had a particular class that was indeed nastier for me, and it was a Networking class - we learned about IP addresses and Cisco Packet Tracer. I heard from students in the class that Packet Tracer was a bad piece of software. While I believe it, and it doesn't surprise me, I just couldn't do much of the assignments because I did what I was told in the class, it didn't work, I'd go to the student coaching, and just wouldn't be able to get it. Granted, the coaches didn't hand anyone a solution, but they didn't exactly help me either.

In my 3rd quarter, I took the next Java class up. OK, I'm calling these Java classes even though the teachers said "this isn't a Java class," but let's be real: they're ****ing Java classes, for all practical purposes. Sure, the concepts learned within can be applied to multiple languages, but knowledge of Java still would've helped, as I stated. Things seemed to go well for a while, but the road block came with my student grader. She was a girl in my same class (of total students, set to graduate in 2020) who had taken the class the previous quarter. And the problem with her was this: My teacher often set many assignment grades to be hit-or-miss, and so I'd get a 0 on an assignment that I submitted. If you get a 0 before the due date, you get to fix it. My coach/grader often times wouldn't regrade my assignments when I re-submitted them. As a result, many of my grades stayed 0 when they should've been well over 60. It didn't help that not only was I doing poorly in that quarter's math class, I failed the Networking class again. So by the last two weeks of the quarter, I just knew I was going to fail. So I ended up withdrawing from the school, and by extension, moving out of the student-sponsored housing. It was a real pain in the ass, I decided to find a new place to live because moving back across the country to my Dad's house (which won't belong to us anyway in a few months) was neither an appealing option nor one that made sense.

The college was also a sausage fest. There was only about 1 girl for every 20 of us guys there. I legit got no action the entire time I was there, and I hardly even had time for it anyway.

The degree I chose was more business focused, so I want to pursue finance, etc after going to gen eds at community college for two years.

Am I just not cut out for CS stuff, or was I just not taught it well? I understood at least Java half the time, hell, it was even fun sometimes, but really the pacing of the classes was at a mile a minute and overwhelming. That, and the other schools in my area have equally good CS programs and were less expensive than the one I was at. So that begs the question: could I actually do CS/programming? Did I just go to the wrong school? Or should I just cut my losses? People I graduated high school with are going to finish their second year this Spring, and I have de facto nothing - almost none of my gen ed credits from the previous school will transfer, so when I do start school this Spring or Summer it's going to be a fresh start.

 

[PeasantPlayer]

To me programming seems like a really normal and obvious way of thinking, but maybe I have autism

Me to I just started and don't find it that hard

 

[marmel75]

This is pretty bad advice

You call it bad advice but it's actually the truth.

 

[PeasantPlayer]

You call it bad advice but it's actually the truth.

It's far from it

 

[marmel75]

It's far from it

Maybe I should specify that what I meant was not everyone can be a good programmer. There are plenty of junk coders out there...some of them working professionally even.