"Programming = ARRRRGH!!"
Do you know anyone who simply just cannot do programming? As if they weren't born to write code at all? No, they're not stupid; some of them are actually pretty smart at mathematics and artistic design, but they couldn't write a factorial program to save their life. Is it simply a matter of being left or right-brained?
Tell your stories!
Tell your stories!
No such people exist.
It is true that it may be more difficult for some people to learn than others, but the type of thinking required is an acquired skill.
Though I do agree that programming == AARRRRGH. :-)
It is true that it may be more difficult for some people to learn than others, but the type of thinking required is an acquired skill.
Though I do agree that programming == AARRRRGH. :-)
I know people who, for example, graduated from college with a BS in Computer Science and had never heard of malloc()....
| I know people who, for example, graduated from college with a BS in Computer Science and had never heard of malloc().... |
Now I know practically nothing about Java, but isn't Java the most frequently taught language in college Computer Science nowadays, at least in the US? Whenever I meet computer science majors, it's always Java this, Java that, never C++, let alone the malloc in C.
I was a CS major in my freshman year. They made us use Java code like "public static void main()" and "system.out.println()" without ever explaining what the syntax meant, just what it does. I quickly got bored and switched majors within two weeks.
I've only heard of C and C++ seeing significant use in engineering majors, especially electrical and computer.
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Programming depends on creativity. No creativity = No programming. Creativity is the base to build it on. I for one, almost have no creativity at all. :D
| I for one, almost have no creativity at all. |
I disagree. You seem to have the right kind of lopsided wit to do well in programming. (Join us..... it's... bliiissss.) XD
| isn't Java the most frequently taught language in college Computer Science nowadays, at least in the US? |
I doubt it, but I don't have any numbers to back that up.
What you are taught, unfortunately, depends quite heavily upon where you school. A high-level university will not focus on any one particular language --it will, in fact, expose you to quite a few.
Technical schools, on the other hand.... they are (IMNSHO) an almost complete waste of money.
Java tends to get a lot of focus because it, until very recently, was the new 'perfect' panacea to fix all programming woes. As much as us RU folks are supposed to worship James Gosling, I still think some pretty awful stuff about Java's design.
In school, I studied C, C++, MIPS assembly and other simple Motorola chip machine languages, Pascal, a quick pass at FORTRAN and COBOL, Scheme, Haskell, Java, Python, and a few toys we invented for learning purposes. Along the way the good apples will also pick up some other interesting things, like Tcl/Tk, PHP, WShell, LISP, etc, plus some environments like Xlib.
The bad seed spend their days complaining that it isn't all Java. So not only do they miss the point, they miss the learning too...
Getting back to the OP, I definitely agree that these types of people exist. At my university, they teach almost all concept and no actual programming, except for when it's used to demonstrate a concept. When we do use programming, it's usually only Java or Python. As a result, my friend who I often work with is absolutely brilliant when it comes to creating algorithms and approaching problems, but he doesn't know a single thing about how to write it in actual code (which is I come in, as a pretty big meathead who happens to know a decent amount of C++ and Python, etc :D)
Really, it's all about familiarity, just like any other language. It's just a matter of translating your intention into a different form, which in itself is just a matter of practice.
Really, it's all about familiarity, just like any other language. It's just a matter of translating your intention into a different form, which in itself is just a matter of practice.
I know two people I've spent the past year at uni trying to explain an "int" and basic function to in java. Needless to say the passed the subject in the end after not knowing crap when they started taking peoples flash disks and ripping the code project from them.
One of them is now redoing the first year to try to understand it again. The other just left lol.
One of them is now redoing the first year to try to understand it again. The other just left lol.
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