Programming

Let's talk about programming! Do you like discussing C++, Java, Perl, Ruby, Python or any other language? Do you need help with an assignment? Well, come right on in!




Prolog can go delete itself!!

 

That's pretty useful. Databases can be fun to play around with, but sometimes it can get confusing. When I took a databases course, we learned the basics of sql as well as some advanced stuff in it, then we learned about structures of databases and some relational algebra. The semester after, the worst professor in my computer science department took the class over and she literally stole the materials from an MIT course and taught only relational algebra (which is a pain in the ass). I heard many cries from the students in that class lol.

At the end of the semester, we had a small group project about creating a database and most people did databases like Pokemon and local restaurants. My group included a biology grad student and we created a database to work with TAIR files, which are files that hold millions of lines of data for biologists. It was so good, I think it's in the process of being published.

 

I'm always down to talk Objective-C / Swift.

I'd love to eventually learn Java, Perl or Ruby, but just can't find the time to do it.

 

I had a head start with already knowing Objective-C, but Swift is definitely what I would prefer to write in at all times. It looked weird as hell the first few weeks of learning it though.

I highly recommend the Big Nerd Ranch books if you're looking to start fresh. The iBook Apple released can read a little dry and boring, but it's also quick and to the point.

 

Scheme is the WORST language that I've ever used.

Look at how you count the number of occurrences for an element:

 

hahaha that is.... uhhhh... interesting.

 

Using my background in java to learn Web development. Currently just doing an online javascript course, but I'm gonna get into the MEAN stack and make a website for my resume and maybe a website for stocks. My problem is I'm terrible at coming up with new ideas for apps to apply stuff I've learned.

Hoping to move back towards a programming career this year.

 

I use SQL everyday for work, but I don't know much else other than that. I taught myself a wee bit of other stuff last summer, but I don't use it day-to-day at all, so it's not particularly relevant for me.

 

Scheme is fantastic for learning programming concepts imo, but not great for doing actual software development.

 

Scheme was the biggest headache I ever had when learning a programming language.

However, it was very interesting to learn.

 

Subbin, I'll need you all over the course of my major

 

i was just about to start up a jquery course last night but got distracted. doesn't seem too bad, really.

 

It's the worst when you need to read through a list of every zipcode in the US and then count the number of unique zipcodes that each state has. The total worst.

 

haskell was prob the worst language i learned but its great at teaching you how to program correctly and really changes how you think when programming.

 

Has anybody in here ever used Unity? I am using it in a game design elective of mine and I have to make an FPS. I'm just wondering if anybody has any good tutorials for HUDs.

 

Yeah functional languages like Scheme, ML, Haskell, etc. can be really good for some things and interesting to learn, but damn, using them in large scale anything can be a nightmare. But they definitely changed how I think about some things when designing code.

 

I'd recommend staying away from Perl. It's great for quick and dirty server maintenance scripts but for larger projects I found it quite frustrating. Plus I always had a "wtf" moment any time I'd go back over my code even if I'd written it the previous day...

Python would be a good alternative, you can use it to write CLI scripts, has quite an extensive library selection (ML, NLP, math packages). Ruby would also be another good choice.

If you're looking at web dev kind of work definitely brush up on some JavaScript since you can now run it on the server and in the browser.

 

oh man when i was an intern i had to rewrite the companies whole build system in perl. what a nightmare.

 

Someone decided writing all of our provisioning and billing systems in Perl, actually when I first started at the company everything was Perl, and it wasn't exactly a small company. That was an experience...

 

Right now, in a class of mine, I'm in a group of 3 people and we're taking this system that was written for the Athletic Department and it's ALL in PERL and with some PostGREsql mixed in. It's horrible because the guy who designed the system in 1999, never responds to our emails that ask for help. There are hundreds of perl files that do NOTHING and are tens of thousands lines of code. It's horrible -_-

 

Perl's syntax looks like it was designed by a guy who just rubbed his face on the keyboard.

That being said, it's great for small things (I have a couple to automate some ssh and scp processes) but otherwise I always go Python for larger scripting projects

 

i've done a little bit here and there in python but never a huge amount, seems a nice language. i was gonna do a course on it but it wasn't working in my browser or whatever so i started a javascript one.

 

Python is powerful. You can import more modules than you can imagine to use (as they say, you can import your soul) so it's got a lot of flexibility. Its syntax is also really intuitive so it's not that difficult to learn.

 

Best way to explain Python to someone tbh