Coding, Programming, Nerdism

[TheDriller]

std::cout << "Hello Forum!" << endl;

:Spin:

I'm wondering are there many Sneapsters who dapple in the black art of programming? either professionally or as a hobby?

What stuff do you work on? where and when did you first become interested?
Favourite languages? recommendations on learning materials?

I'll get the ball rolling:

I first took an interest in computers and programming back in school, I remember being shown some really simple BASIC by our computers teacher but it never really went anywhere. For a long while I was planning on doing Computer Science in college but for some reason I was put off the idea and ended up doing Video & Sound bullshit instead, go figure. I guess i was scared off the idea and thought i'd be too dumb to study it well.

About a year ago my interest picked up again and I started teaching myself C++, which i found to be a total ball-ache. I switched to Java, picked that up pretty quickly over the past few months.

Today I'm pretty confident with Java and I'm starting to write my first non-toy applications, while teaching myself C++ again, and Ruby too.

I've been accepted for a post-grad course in Software Development & Networking, starting this september, so I'm finally getting around to the career I'd always wanted in the first place

I'm kind of afraid that i've missed out on a lot of learning i "should" have been doing over the past few years, like I'm going to be at a disadvantage because I've left it so long to start learning, but I'm working really fucking hard on catching up before term starts.

Come on lads, whats your story?

Also, any advice from the more experienced would be massively appreciated.

 

[Ascendant]

Been a bit of a nerd since I was 13 when I begun programming in Actionscript 2 (Flash). Used a bunch of languages since then, mostly Java, AS and C++ though. Worked for a company once where I got to program in ASP.net once, twas a blast and I wouldn't mind working professionally as a programmer full-time. Lately I've been reading a lot about electronics and DSP with the VST devkit so I will hopefully be able to program my own amp sim soon, shit's hard as fuck though, only created some relatively simple effects so far.

 

[MindMunch]

I never really liked programming. It´s just a necessary evil to get my sites and games working. Started at the age of 12 and never studied codes much more than the necessary to do the tasks I wanted.

 

[meka]

First and only programming language I can say I can find my way around it is C++. I'm using Linux only for ... I don't know, around 3 or 4 years. I started "hating" programming once I've entered collage, because professors were assholes, and material they were teaching was outdated about the same time I was born (of course, there were exceptions to this, and those were wonderful courses). My job, hobby and way of life is Linux, lately. As a matter of fact, I'm doing my band's first demo on Linux, so it's all about geekery

 

[sprack]

x86 ASM, C/C++ (both gcc and vs), perl, VHDL, java, python, some fortran, migrating all the perl to ruby. Went to school for physics though.

 

[TheDriller]

x86 ASM, C/C++ (both gcc and vs), perl, VHDL, java, python, some fortran, migrating all the perl to ruby. Went to school for physics though.

Cool stuff man,
How are you finding Ruby? So far I love it but I haven't really done anything major with it yet, just working my way through the basics but I'm already getting a good vibe from it.

 

[meka]

sprack, why perl 2 ruby? I don't have any preferences, I'm just curious. Btw, I have a bunch of python in mind (django and "real" python) as future projects.

 

[XnaySaturo]

I'm in software engineering at school. Everything started in high school building websites I guess, even if that's not really programming. I know C/C++, Java, x86 asm, some VHDL, Ada95 and some web scripting stuff like PHP. Just finished my second year and I'm currently doing an internship in an aerospace company for the summer.

 

[sprack]

Ruby's great. What took roughly 2000 lines of C++, took 500 line of perl now takes about 50-100 lines of Ruby and its readable. There's a tradeoff in performance to hand tuned C or even perl, but its easy to throw enough hardware at it to make it a non-issue.

Cool stuff man,
How are you finding Ruby? So far I love it but I haven't really done anything major with it yet, just working my way through the basics but I'm already getting a good vibe from it.

@meka: our simulation system and balancer was all written in perl about 7yrs ago and has been cobbled together ever since. It's time for a readable language and one that scales nicely in clouds. That and as I said above it substantially reduces the code base.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

I was a huge tech geek as a kid. I remember fucking around with C/C++, Delphi, Pascal, Assembly and the mandatory variations of Basic. I was really into game programming and made some simple DOS games with the awesome combination that was DJGPP+Allegro.

And here's a confession: when I was about 11 or so and no-one talked about piracy or it's consequences, I wrote my own cracks for the software I needed. Seems kinda twisted looking back and considering my current views of piracy, but hey, I didn't know any better

 

[TheDriller]

I'm getting a strong vibe that Ruby/Rails is going to be the 'big thing' in future.

So, anyone want to offer up some advice to a lad starting into a software career? (hopefully)
Right now I'm just starting to get comfortable doing an M-V-C application in Java and getting familiar with C++ and Ruby.
I think I'm becoming physically addicted to programming, as in I get really agitated and restless if I can't sit down and code.
I find myself scribbling bits of pseudo-code on paper while at work.
But still, I get the sinking feeling that I'm way behind considering my age (23). It seems most programmers got into it while in their early teens.

 

[Steven Otto]

I might want to learn programming, but I'm not sure though
What I'm really interested in is Web Development, which includes Web marketing, Front-end development, back-end development and the interaction design. Simply put: Creating websites. I know HTML and CSS. I'm learning Javascript, PHP and MySQL at the moment.

So if I want to learn a language to use with websites, would Java be a good choice? Java can directly be implented in a website, amirite?

 

[TheDriller]

So if I want to learn a language to use with websites, would Java be a good choice? Java can directly be implented in a website, amirite?

Having HTML and CSS is a good head-start for the front end stuff anyway. Maybe others will be better qualified to answer but I'd say a good language to start with is Ruby On Rails. Ruby itself is a nice language and pretty easy to pick up, and apparently the Rails framework is awesome for developing web-apps.

Java seems to get a lot of use in big enterprise servers and stuff like that, I'm not sure it'd be the right choice for sort of 'normal' website work. To give some context, Twitter is done largely with Ruby On Rails.

Seriously, give Ruby a go, it takes no more than an hour to get tight with the basics.

 

[Steven Otto]

Alright, that sounds good! I'm gonna ditch java and start with Ruby on Rails.

Anyone got experience with making apps for iOs or iOS SDK 4 for that matter?

 

[sprack]

Ruby may be the thing for a couple years, but it'll change again soon. C/C++ is what to learn. It's the mother tongue for pretty much all the others and if you're good at it that will translate to others.

I'm getting a strong vibe that Ruby/Rails is going to be the 'big thing' in future.

 

[TheDriller]

Ruby may be the thing for a couple years, but it'll change again soon. C/C++ is what to learn. It's the mother tongue for pretty much all the others and if you're good at it that will translate to others.

Fully agreed, for desktop software and systems programming anyway. Though I think the major value in knowing C++ well is just the fact that it's so hard to do right, if you can do it well you should be able for anything.
I'm really looking forward to seeing how the new C++0x standard turns out.

 

[onqel]

I've been working with C++ for the last two years.. I've been fooling around with BASIC and Delphi in the future, but it's never been anything serious..
The stuff I'm doing is pretty basic, the actual work is in the DSP and analog modeling..

 

[ahjteam]

I started out with QBasic, HTML, CSS; Visual Basic, Java, Actionscript, PHP, MySQL and god knows what, but in the end I've only used HTML, CSS, PHP and MySQL for "real projects". And Visual Basic for making Excel Macros.

 

[jangoux]

Not 'programming' anymore, but learned Pascal, HTML, CSS, PHP, some SQL and got a gun on my head to learn Java on college, and gave up programming eheheh I hate Java.

 

[AgentX]

I work full time leading a small development team specialising in "business solutions". Its not the most glamorous of positions, its not game development or microprocessors but it can be interesting. I program in a most modern languages, .net, java, php etc but also in some legacy database software called UniData.

My advice to anyone trying to get there foot in the door is, a degree will get you the interview, the experience will get you the job. I think its really important for employees to be able to apply there academic knowledge to real life problems, just knowing how to program complicated data structures doesn't make you much use.

Anyway software development is a great career to get into, it pays well and you will generally be in demand. But expect to work long hours and work with egotistical ballsh*ters that think they know everything!