Computer science/programming

[DEEZEDBRAH]

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.

The portfolio is OG. Nobody suggests this enough. My background is more biz but there's a lot of cohesion between the two (similar with mgtow and red pill lol).

I think comp sci is a good degree. One of the few that is around. 4yrs is a ****er. Furthermore, a lot of stuff is going to be outsourced to India.

Then again, its the way of the times like manufacturing and other industries imploding. The opportunity to work remote is splendid. It seems to me to be a better investment. I suspect self learning and online to be the future of edu. Having a degree will be looked down upon as stupid piss away 4yrs and absurd amounts of resources to get a low paying job or a round about at Starbucks lol

 

[PeasantPlayer]

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.

That's in virtually all jobs

 

[marmel75]

That's in virtually all jobs

Yeah but that seems all the more prevalent in the IT industry...someone writes 3 lines of code one time and they suddenly are a programmer haha...

 

[nicksaiz65]

Yeah but that seems all the more prevalent in the IT industry...someone writes 3 lines of code one time and they suddenly are a programmer haha...

What exactly makes someone a bad programmer professionally? I'm just curious so I know what to avoid once I get to the workplace lol

 

[marmel75]

What exactly makes someone a bad programmer professionally? I'm just curious so I know what to avoid once I get to the workplace lol

Someone who doesn't follow good coding standards. Doesnt necessarily have to be a certain standard as there are different ones (especially with variable naming conventions) but it must be acceptable. Here are some huge "No-No's" in my opinion:

• "Magic strings" or "magic numbers" all over the place instead of using a variable, constant or enum. Then instead of changing code in one place you end up having to change it in 15.
• Writing the same code in multiple places. DRY...Don't Repeat Yourself. There are a few reasons why it would be acceptable or maybe even needed but in 99% of cases this is a rule.
• Someone who has memorized code and algorithms but doesnt understand the concepts behind them. This leads to not knowing how to apply them to the problem at hand.
• Someone who cannot recognize patterns well in unrelated codebase or programs. This is a key skill needed to problem solve effectively as the ability to see how an issue relates to something you have already seen/fixed is very important in your ability to not reinvent the wheel constantly but instead use knowledge you already have obtained to solve the problem.
• Not being able to understand/figure out what the problem you are trying to solve actually is. Surprisingly this is more common than you would expect. Lots of programmers spend lots of time solving the wrong problems. This doesnt make them a bad programmer in the sense their code sucks but it just makes them bad in the sense they waste a lot of time and resources redoing things frequently.

I'm sure there are some others I'll think of later but these are the main ones that come to mind.

 

[nicksaiz65]

Someone who doesn't follow good coding standards. Doesnt necessarily have to be a certain standard as there are different ones (especially with variable naming conventions) but it must be acceptable. Here are some huge "No-No's" in my opinion:

• "Magic strings" or "magic numbers" all over the place instead of using a variable, constant or enum. Then instead of changing code in one place you end up having to change it in 15.
• Writing the same code in multiple places. DRY...Don't Repeat Yourself. There are a few reasons why it would be acceptable or maybe even needed but in 99% of cases this is a rule.
• Someone who has memorized code and algorithms but doesnt understand the concepts behind them. This leads to not knowing how to apply them to the problem at hand.
• Someone who cannot recognize patterns well in unrelated codebase or programs. This is a key skill needed to problem solve effectively as the ability to see how an issue relates to something you have already seen/fixed is very important in your ability to not reinvent the wheel constantly but instead use knowledge you already have obtained to solve the problem.
• Not being able to understand/figure out what the problem you are trying to solve actually is. Surprisingly this is more common than you would expect. Lots of programmers spend lots of time solving the wrong problems. This doesnt make them a bad programmer in the sense their code sucks but it just makes them bad in the sense they waste a lot of time and resources redoing things frequently.

I'm sure there are some others I'll think of later but these are the main ones that come to mind.

That magic integer thing is my biggest pet peeve in the world lol.

Thanks for the list! I'll have to try to avoid these as I continue to program.

 

[PeasantPlayer]

Yeah but that seems all the more prevalent in the IT industry...someone writes 3 lines of code one time and they suddenly are a programmer haha...

That shouldn't be a problem then if so many are bad. It benefits you

 

[marmel75]

That shouldn't be a problem then if so many are bad. It benefits you

Not when you have to work with them too

 

[Stephen89]

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

I'm entirerely self taught. Go on udacity, youtube, udemy for Python.

 

[DEEZEDBRAH]

I'm entirerely self taught. Go on udacity, youtube, udemy for Python.

Thanka bro.

 

[nicksaiz65]

Not entirely relevant... But @marmel75 I just wanted to say that C# is indeed dope. I'm working in it at my summer internship. It kind of reminds me of a mix of C++ and Java. I remember you bringing it up in the past

 

[sazc]

Not entirely relevant... But @marmel75 I just wanted to say that C# is indeed dope. I'm working in it at my summer internship. It kind of reminds me of a mix of C++ and Java. I remember you bringing it up in the past

U know what tho? I don't recall the last time anyone said "learn C# for this project"

Usually it's Java, lately it's python.

I will tell you, the industry is moving now towards devops.

Be a T shaped engineer, rather than an I shaped engineer.

 

[sazc]

Not entirely relevant... But @marmel75 I just wanted to say that C# is indeed dope. I'm working in it at my summer internship. It kind of reminds me of a mix of C++ and Java. I remember you bringing it up in the past

Learn agile and scrum. Scrum master, that's going to get you the biggest for in the door.
Dev ops pipeline. Understand it. Understand the pieces of it (even if you can't implement, that's okay) this will give you an edge right now. Also understand/learn how to facilitate cultural change. That's always a BIG deal. The baby boomers try HARD to stick to their routines. They need the millennials to get in there and effectively shake things up for the better.

 

[marmel75]

U know what tho? I don't recall the last time anyone said "learn C# for this project"

Usually it's Java, lately it's python.

I will tell you, the industry is moving now towards devops.

Be a T shaped engineer, rather than an I shaped engineer.

Well it depends on where you are at...in the Northeast C# and even VB.Net are used heavily in the enterprise sector for business applications. Realistically Java lost its last bastion of hope that it could hold over C# when .NET Core was introduced and it could run on any server like Java. With the introduction of Blazor in .NET Core 3.0 where users can design apps natively in C# and compiling via WebAssembly (although some have reported the speed needs to be upgraded for large applications), C# and ASP.NET are adding a huge feature and another giant step in the right direction...

The only reason anyone in their right mind would choose Java over C# at this point is due to all the legacy Java code out there that needs to be supported. Python is a good language but who writes an entire application in Python? God bless them if they do but they are asking for a nightmare with upkeep. Python is mostly used for parts and pieces of a project and not usually as the entire app although one could argue using Django they would use it for the web...

I do agree with you however in that developers need to be fluid in their approaches and learnings and really focus on core concepts and design patterns since they transfer amongst all languages pretty much. As an example of this, I had an interview where they asked me to design a small project using Angular 7 for the interview and bring it in and discuss it.

Well i had never done anything in Angular past the intial Angular JS so i had to learn it on the fly and be able to properly design a small app. It took me about 3 hours but i designed it properly based on component based architecture and understanding how and where to use interfaces in Typescript since i had done some Typescript work in React. When i went to the interview they didnt believe that i never used Angular 7 before because it was designed so well...but that is the whole point...you don't NEED to necessarily know a framework or library to know how to design something properly. The time i spent was just learning how to do what i already knew was right in Angular 7.

 

[marmel75]

Not entirely relevant... But @marmel75 I just wanted to say that C# is indeed dope. I'm working in it at my summer internship. It kind of reminds me of a mix of C++ and Java. I remember you bringing it up in the past

Yeah i love C#. Its such a fantastic language and they keep adding feature after feature to it.

 

[sazc]

@marmel75 agreed except I haven't felt that c# tug over the Java tug, bit I'm sure it is locale and legacy code, as you mentioned.

I've only seen snippets of python, don't know if it's good to write an entire app.

But I've never (honestly) thought a solid application (server side at least) could be written in anything less than c/c++. To me that language just seems to make the most sense, computing/bit wise.

Sure, sure, web apps have Java back ends, and that's okay. But real computing? You need c/c++ for that.

These days it seems to be all about agile, dev ops, the pipeline, etc

 

[sazc]

Yeah i love C#. Its such a fantastic language and they keep adding feature after feature to it.

Good news is that we can write c# or Java relatively easy because they are fairly similar

 

[nicksaiz65]

Learn agile and scrum. Scrum master, that's going to get you the biggest for in the door.
Dev ops pipeline. Understand it. Understand the pieces of it (even if you can't implement, that's okay) this will give you an edge right now. Also understand/learn how to facilitate cultural change. That's always a BIG deal. The baby boomers try HARD to stick to their routines. They need the millennials to get in there and effectively shake things up for the better.

I know Python is definitely a big one. Very readable syntax as well. I took a Python course once but it'd always be good to review. Maybe I'll get on a Udemy course or something.

Never heard of Scrum. But you mean Agile as in Agile Development? That's a huge topic in the Senior Design courses that I'll be taking soon(Software Engineering I and II.)

 

[nicksaiz65]

Learn agile and scrum. Scrum master, that's going to get you the biggest for in the door.
Dev ops pipeline. Understand it. Understand the pieces of it (even if you can't implement, that's okay) this will give you an edge right now. Also understand/learn how to facilitate cultural change. That's always a BIG deal. The baby boomers try HARD to stick to their routines. They need the millennials to get in there and effectively shake things up for the better.

How would I go about getting certified in Scrum? Is that a thing?

 

[Papa_smu]

How would I go about getting certified in Scrum? Is that a thing?

It's best to wait until you're part of a Scrum team before considering pursuing any certifications. You don't really learn agile until you're in a working setting.