Topic: Programming 101

[Stogi]

I'm learning how to program because like Chinese, it's the language of the future.


Gonna start with xcode so I can mess around building stupid little apps. I was wondering if anyone here programs for a living or as a hobby and would like to share any tips and tricks they've learned along the way. Anything at all would be appreciated.


That said, maybe I should start the discussion about programming in general. What language or software do you use and why?

[marvel_moviefan_2012]

I have some very limited experience in C++ JAVA, and BASIC plus some HTML. I haven't gotten very far in any language and I have been out of it for a while. My interests are mostly curiosity. I studied C++ around the same time I was learning Japanese and unfortunately neither of them stuck worth a damn.

[azeke]

I've been programming for a living for almost a decade now.

Languages, development platforms -- it all blends together after a while. But it's usually not a big problem for me to learn a new language as long as documentaion is there. Assembler, C, C++, Java, Lotus, web platforms, .Net -- give me docs and few working examples and i'll crack it open.

In my student years i've spent a lot of time studying exotic programming languages so mainstream stuff is nothing for me now.

The big thing about our profession is that technologies come and go all the time and you have to keep learning 24/7 and once you feel you've mastered it -- it becomes obsolete as new shiny new technology comes.

I've spent 2 years coding on C# for government projects in 2011–2012, and forgot a lot of stuff. Good (bad) thing that i don't have relearn it all over again -- lots of it has gone obsolete by now.

[Stogi]

Well in that sense of things becoming obsolete, where do you suggest I begin?

[ShyGuy]

Start with BASIC.

10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD"
20 GOTO 10
RUN

[Khushrenada]

I wouldn't recommend programming.

The government has a secret system: a machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know, because I built it.

I designed the machine to detect acts of terror, but it sees everything. Violent crimes involving ordinary people; people like you. Crimes the government considered 'irrelevant'. They wouldn't act, so I decided I would. Hunted by the authorities, I know have to work in secret. I even had to fake my own death.

It's a tough and lonely life being a genius programmer.

[Ceric]

...
I've spent 2 years coding on C# for government projects in 2011–2012, and forgot a lot of stuff. Good (bad) thing that i don't have relearn it all over again -- lots of it has gone obsolete by now.

I'll have to disagree with  you there Azeke.  I found that the true pace of change in programming has slown down in the last few years.  Unless your working in Fringe areas are allowed to work at the true cutting edge doing edge case stuff that it hasn't changed that much.

Yes there is new technology all the time but, obsolete is a strong word now.


Though for a lot of people I would recommend learning SQL over programming.  It just come in handy more day to day in more fields.

[azeke]

Well in that sense of things becoming obsolete, where do you suggest I begin?

Technologies.
Four-three years ago Silverlight was the hottest ****, and it was pushed by Microsoft as the next big thing. Cue to two years and it's dead. But we still have an old legacy project on Silverlight that we have to maintain and update somehow.

When i worked on our country's "e-government" project we used ORM (library that simplifies access to databases) called NHibernate and for web-interface we used js library called Ext JS (that later restructurized into Sencha, and we lost lots of documentation in the process becuse they made it paid access only).

When i wanted to write a new system on ASP.Net i ditched NHibernate and used Microsoft's own Entity Framework. That was a year and half ago. I have a crawling suspicion that it's also became obsolete by now (i ditched that project and picked completely different development platform).

If it sound complicated -- well, it is.

It doesn't really matter what you're going to start with if you want to be employed -- each time you will be learning entirely new stuff.

I guess Java is as good starting point as any. I really like Python -- mainly beuase it looks so noob friendly (but i haven't actually used it much). Javascript is a cool language, though by now it has become more of platform itself for big frameworks like Dojo or jQuery that evolved into quasi languages themselves.

[BranDonk Kong]

xcode is an IDE, not a language. I wouldn't recommend start with Objective C, but then again I've never written Objective C. Java is pretty simple to start with.

[Ceric]

Honestly Java or C# would be good starting points.  They both are C-Style programming that trickle into a lot of places.

Yeah, Entity Framework I know is hot in its own way but a lot like Linq for SQL I never saw the point.  The projects I've worked with that have it are a nightmare for me to really maintain compared to just going ahead and doing traditional SQL access.

[BranDonk Kong]

Didn't even think about Python - that probably would be a great starting point. It's interpreted so you can see mistakes or successes rather easily. It's almost too easy to use as a starting point though. Also it basically has everything you could ever think of, you could probably put like
import videogame
and just print out a game.

[BranDonk Kong]

Here's a kind of neat C++ program, part of a project for a class I'm taking (Host and Application Security)

#include <fstream>

using namespace std;

int main () {
   ofstream comFile;
   comFile.open("C:\\8086\\test.com");
   unsigned char bytes[] = { 0x0E, 0x1F, 0xBA, 0x0E, 0x01, 0xB4, 0x09, 0xCD, 0x21, 0xB8, 0x01, 0x4C, 0xCD, 0x21, 0x48, 0x65, 0x6C, 0x6C, 0x6F, 0x20, 0x57, 0x6F, 0x72, 0x6C, 0x64, 0x21, 0x0D, 0x0D, 0x24 };
   comFile << bytes;
   comFile.close();
   return 0;
}


Run the .COM file it outputs in DOS...

[BranDonk Kong]

And if anyone wants to help me mutate that array or add some nops (properly) so that it does the same thing, but the file it creates can be changed every time its run...you get $1.

[Stratos]

I have dabbled in programming since high school. I'm taking classes now for a Computer Science/Engineering degree.


Great place to learn is Codecademy. There are free self-pace lessons in programs like Python, which is a great starter language.

[Stogi]

Thanks for the link, Stratos. That site is legit.

[Stratos]

Got me a 4.0 in my programming class. Hope it helps you out as well.

[Stogi]

Not in school anymore, but learning never stops.

I've taken one class so far and it is well put together. I'm actually intrigued about what's going on behind the scenes, so maybe if they teach me well enough, I'll understand it.

[BranDonk Kong]

I'm writing a virus right now for one of my classes. Nothing harmful though.