[eskkes]

hi,
I don't know what section of the site to post this in so maybe its in the wrong place! I'm about to go to college this year and I am interested in computers, the thing is there are so many different types of computer courses to choose from- e.g. programming, software etc..
What does computer programming involve?

[toonworld]

Originally Posted by eskkes

hi,
I don't know what section of the site to post this in so maybe its in the wrong place! I'm about to go to college this year and I am interested in computers, the thing is there are so many different types of computer courses to choose from- e.g. programming, software etc..
What does computer programming involve?

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos110.htm

This link is very helpful and also the website in general is especially helpful in all different careers.

[Kramer55]

If you mean the basics, computer programming involves making programs out of code.

Today, C++ and Java, both Object Oriented Languages seem to be popular languages for writting programs.

If you want to get into programming, you may want to get some knowledge before starting off knowing nothing in college.

Learning C++ may be beneficial.

Post back if you are interested.

[I Fix 4 U]

python is object oriented, and user readable/interpretive. Was easy to learn the basics in a 2 hour sitting. Could make quite a few programs (esp some math programs) with it after about 5 hours.

[tdi_veedub]

Start with C. It provides a solid foundation. OO will confuse you if you aren't fluent with the basics first...

[Kramer55]

I started with Visual Basics as a course at school, it laid the foundation for me. Its just not a great language like C++

[tdi_veedub]

Just wait until you start learning some real programming languages(like C, C++, java et al)....Then you will laugh at VB

Good luck dude.

P.S. I still think you will greatly benefit from learning C. Alot of GPL and unix programming is still done in C.

[Neumie]

Well you could start with C++ hut forget the object orientated part of it to begin with. Personally i like C++. The Syntax is nice :-). You need to think about what you want to do. E.G. if you want to become a computer games programmer C++ is the most widely used language in the industry (I think). You can of course program games in other languages if you want but if you want to go pro you will need C++. For web development i am currently learning HTML and JAVA SRCIPT. these aren't programming languages as such (or are they, it's all sooo confusing) but they're ok at what they do. There are better tools and stuff for web development though in think.

[Steven Hill]

College, that was 20 or so years ago and COBOL was all the rage. I took Fortran, Assembly, Basic and COBOL as well as a course in keyboarding. None of it matterd much once I got out and started programming for "real". The important thing to get out of school is the concept of programming. The problem solving skills that will let you take a language, almost any language, and find your way through the syntax to accomplish what you want to do. Some have said to ignore the OOP stuff, but that is a way of "thinking" that makes using OOP languages much easier if you can get the thought process down. It was very theoretical when I was in school and we were taught "structured procedural" programming skills. The thing is, the industry moves very fast and ignoring any part of it will cause you concern later on. The thing to get out of school is the concept portions. Design methods, the full life cycle of programming concepts, the BIG picture. The specific language skills may be useless when you get out as they may all be replaced by the next one. I have seen so many languages come and go as the "latest thing" over the years. But, knowing how to design a solution, that has essentially stayed the same over the years. OOP is a bit of a different way of looking at the problem, and it seems to be one that will stay around for a while. There are a number of languages built on OOP already, and the "new" ones seem to be using OOP as the underlying concept as well.

Just my thoughts as someone who has been at it a while and can remember just how useless the coding that I learned in school turned out to be. The stuff I learned about how to formulate the solution though, that has served me well over the years and it has also help me pick up what I know about OOP, since I used it to formulate my approach to OOP.

Steven Hill
Martin, GA USA