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[RoguelikeRazuka]

...

Uhm the site appears not working for some reason. Anyway, I've found the videos on youtube, and thank you for informing about such thing. The C basics are not a big deal to me, but I'm unfamiliar with the technology of making a software product whatsoever, so it's going to be much useful.

[jaked122]

Heh. I started programming when I was 12/13 or so - barely understanding anything. When I took a computer science class in highschool everyone thought I was Steve Wozniak reincarnated because I already knew how to print ("Hello, World!"). I played along with it and (somehow) managed to bullshit my way through as being hypercompetent when in reality I was only half a lesson ahead.
Which is basically just a really longwinded way of saying that when a sixteen-year-old says they're competent in three languages they're probably exaggerating.

Isn't that a lovely thing? I remember those days. Mostly because everyone else's view of programming was really stupid.

I like to say that I'm literate in many programming languages now, because even if I'm not proficient with their features, I can read the source code and figure out what's going on without consulting documentation.


Anyway, you're never too old to learn anything. I enjoyed meeting a forty year old who had taught himself programming over the last year, though I didn't tell him, he was a lot better at it than I was after about ten years of screwing around with programming.

[Moghjubar]

Programming experience is great, but sometimes you get led into.... well, just look at this. https://medium.com/@webseanhickey/the-evolution-of-a-software-engineer-db854689243

Really though, you just gotta have some drive and a few projects.  Following classes or tutorials only gets you so far, you have to actually have a problem you want to solve and look up/research stuff yourself.

[Antsan]

https://medium.com/@webseanhickey/the-evolution-of-a-software-engineer-db854689243

Wow, that's scary. Why would you do all of that stuff?

The idea of writing a class for a Hello World program, though…

[EnigmaticHat]

I'm getting started on C#.  Its the first language I've ever used where I need to write exception handling into the code.

Can someone explain very simply what i'm supposed to do?  Most of the guides on the internet were clearly written for people who took/are taking classes, not for a true beginner.

[miauw62]

https://medium.com/@webseanhickey/the-evolution-of-a-software-engineer-db854689243

Wow, that's scary. Why would you do all of that stuff?

The idea of writing a class for a Hello World program, though…

That looks like C#, which is strictly object-oriented. You can't have code outside classes.

[Telgin]

I have to agree that the idea of forcing all code to be in a class somewhere is kind of clumsy.  Requiring the program's entry point to be in a class that could easily have no other methods or properties is weird.

It does simplify some aspects of the language though I guess.  If you're going to design a language that's primarily targeted at OO concepts then it makes sense to require things like that, but it's still weird to me.

Maybe I just got entrenched in the mindset of C++.

[MagmaMcFry]

https://medium.com/@webseanhickey/the-evolution-of-a-software-engineer-db854689243

Wow, that's scary. Why would you do all of that stuff?

The idea of writing a class for a Hello World program, though…

That looks like C#, which is strictly object-oriented. You can't have code outside classes.

It's Java though.

I have to agree that the idea of forcing all code to be in a class somewhere is kind of clumsy.  Requiring the program's entry point to be in a class that could easily have no other methods or properties is weird.

It does simplify some aspects of the language though I guess.  If you're going to design a language that's primarily targeted at OO concepts then it makes sense to require things like that, but it's still weird to me.

Maybe I just got entrenched in the mindset of C++.

The idea behind having all code in classes is way more than just simplification. It also adds flexibility in every aspect other than writing code.

[jaked122]

Finally, someone who mistook java for C# rather than the other way around. Cool.

Used to always be the other way around.

[TheBiggerFish]

https://medium.com/@webseanhickey/the-evolution-of-a-software-engineer-db854689243

Wow, that's scary. Why would you do all of that stuff?

The idea of writing a class for a Hello World program, though…

That looks like C#, which is strictly object-oriented. You can't have code outside classes.

It's Java though.

I have one of those links somewhere.
Starts with BASIC, goes to I Don't Even Know What, then ends with, well, the BASIC it started with.

[breadman]

Might be worth trying to reinstall GCC and not apply the patch to see if it helps?

You say that as if it didn't involve recompiling everything on the computer...

i love git and use it for basically everything

i am currently using it to keep track of undertale saves, no joke

It's wonderful for keeping configuration changes when updating the DF version, and for transferring saves between computers.  Granted, I had to configure it to use no more than 1g for packing.

1. Is it possible to like, start learning programming too late to be useful? I mean, roughly how long does it take before you have a more-or-less developed (marketable, if you will) skill at coding? Because I had classmates and friends that were already competent in like three languages at sixteen or something, and here I am just stumbling through things right now (I'm nineteen myself).

Learn it for a reason, and it will be useful no matter how late you learn it.  Quite a few people pick it up in college, and many become very successful from that starting point.  Others don't start until they find a need in their day job.

3. Right now, I'm learning Python, R, and SQL (I'm more or less a linguistics major minoring in data mining). What else would be useful or enlightening to pick up in addition to those?

JavaScript can be useful, though not as mind-expanding as some of the other examples listed.  After learning Python, it should be relatively simple to understand, so it can wait until you need it.

https://medium.com/@webseanhickey/the-evolution-of-a-software-engineer-db854689243

Wow, that's scary. Why would you do all of that stuff?

Many of the trappings help with maintainability of larger systems, but yes, they're slightly insane for a small program.

GNU maintains another list of Hello World jokes, but none of them hold a candle to its 184-line canonical implementation.  And that's only counting one of the three hundred files in its code base.

[Orange Wizard]

Programming experience is great, but sometimes you get led into.... well, just look at this. https://medium.com/@webseanhickey/the-evolution-of-a-software-engineer-db854689243

That's... pretty accurate, really.

Also relevant:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[TheBiggerFish]

Aw, catephant...With an arm...
IT IS ARMOK'S SIGN!  ALL HAIL THE CATEPHANT!

[alway]

3. Right now, I'm learning Python, R, and SQL (I'm more or less a linguistics major minoring in data mining). What else would be useful or enlightening to pick up in addition to those?

Those 3 should be a sufficient start for that particular application.

If you want to learn more about how computers actually work, I recommend C or a C-like introduction to C++. Possibly some basic computer architecture stuff with a simple assembly language like MIPS. Programming languages exist for the sole purpose of letting you reason about computing without mapping that directly to the hardware yourself; this is an imperfect process, since it leaves the less experienced unable to reason about how to effectively use the hardware. Learning the basics of the hardware and how instructions interact with it can help you reason about systems without resorting to "a wizard did it."

If you want to learn more about where computers are at and where they're going, probably look more into computer hardware/architecture stuff like this: https://www.udacity.com/course/high-performance-computer-architecture--ud007

[Antsan]

The idea behind having all code in classes is way more than just simplification. It also adds flexibility in every aspect other than writing code.

Don't you think that statement is contradictory?
My experience is that in many instances using object orientation makes you add tons of boilerplate that could be easily avoided when using some other paradigm which offers everything you need for less code and better readability.

Flexibility comes from having more tools available, not from having one tool which supposedly does everything.