Hooray for failure

Chris Hanratty · Post by **Chris Hanratty** » 15 Jun 2004 08:56

So I'm sitting in Computer Related Studies class, and I just bombed the exam. And I mean 0%. He hasn't gave us problems like this before, and I missed about a month's worth of classes this semester due to sickness... also with C++ Studio, on some of the computers the internal compilers get screwy, which mine was doing. And the teacher wouldn't let me switch computers. I'm ready to crack skulls...

Splint · Post by **Splint** » 15 Jun 2004 09:20

I feel your pain. I'm ready to crack skulls right along with you.

FlexThis · Post by **FlexThis** » 15 Jun 2004 09:52

Tsiangkun · Post by **Tsiangkun** » 15 Jun 2004 10:55

I learned on fortran you insensitive clod !!!

C and C++ are still very useful, especially when writing low level device drivers. I wan't to make a custom machine from a 3.5inch motherboard, and not knowing enough C to write hardware drivers is holding me up. The dream is a sandwich sized PC running mythTV, mame, linux, and windows, complete with DVD ripper.

ShredStylez · Post by **ShredStylez** » 15 Jun 2004 11:10

PHP especially.

FlexThis · Post by **FlexThis** » 15 Jun 2004 11:37

Chris Hanratty · Post by **Chris Hanratty** » 15 Jun 2004 12:21

Well it IS easy, it's just that I couldn't finish the projects because they wouldn't build and I couldn't test them out.

Although I find what is being taught easy, the exam was actually hard as hell anyways. I could only do about 3/7 of the questions... mainly due to poor physics and math knowledge that was needed in some of the questions.

kaos · Post by **kaos** » 15 Jun 2004 14:26

Tsiangkun wrote: I learned on fortran

You must be older than I thought

I think I disagree with most of what FlexThis said.

FlexThis wrote: I can't believe they still teach that crap.

I can't believe you just said that.

Every person that does any kind of programming must atleast learn to do C/C++ at one time in his life, and he (or she) must learn to do the well. Although C++ can be hard to learn, I think it is one of the most powerful languages. Not just in performance, but also in language constructs and symantics. Definitely my favourite language.

Java on the other hand, is the crap that they shouldn't teach. Definitely my least favourite language.

FlexThis wrote: You'll use maybe 4% of C or C++ in the real world. Programmers today (depending on the field) use Perl, SQL, PL/SQL, VB-script, JavaScript, Java, PHP, JSP, and ASP.

It may be true that the popularity of C/C++ waned the last couple of years. But is still used alot (alot more than you think), and most of the great pieces of software that you use on a everyday basis were written in C/C++ (including the Zend engine (AKA PHP - the most popular server-side scripting language in use today)).

ASP is not a programming language.

FlexThis wrote: you could learn enough C in an afternoon to do what you want. You mastered Perl and it's a bitch to learn. C is so structured, you can't help but get it right, otherwise it won't compile.

I agree, Perl is a bitch to learn, something I have not yet been prepared to do. But anyone that is provicient in Perl, gets props from me.

The fact that your program compiles does not mean your program works.

C++ Good

FlexThis · Post by **FlexThis** » 15 Jun 2004 15:52

Tsiangkun · Post by **Tsiangkun** » 15 Jun 2004 16:08

The fact that your program compiles does not mean your program works.

So true. I wrote a nuclear bomb simulator in fortran. It downloaded data from weather satellites, and calculated how far the radiation had spread. The output was an ascii map of the globe with different symbols denoting the level of radiation.

It compiled and ran, but twas no nuclear simulator.

Spadrick · Post by **Spadrick** » 15 Jun 2004 16:42

Try starting with OOT Turing.
Object Oriented Scripting sux!

Now I can do HTML, DHTML, XML, JavaScript, CSS, VBScript, and I can make some pretty awesome Visual Basic games.

You have to start somewhere, the beginning is a good place, I think...

dblthnk84 · Post by **dblthnk84** » 15 Jun 2004 16:47

I like how I had an "advanced" programing class that tought q-basic and html. In my opinion html shouldn't even be considered a language, too limited. And even if C++ isn't used as much anymore, I still find it a fun language to try and make games for my own ammusement...
________
Toyota FX-1

Spadrick · Post by **Spadrick** » 15 Jun 2004 18:23

dblthnk84 wrote:In my opinion html shouldn't even be considered a language, too limited.

So sayeth thou. Combined with great structure and a graphicist worthy of international acclaim, HTML can do anything you want it to. "Limits are set by the depth of your own imagination."

dblthnk84 wrote:tought

Maybe you should work on english as a primary language.

Whatsfootbag? · Post by **Whatsfootbag?** » 15 Jun 2004 18:50

wow...i wish i had a damn clue what any of this stuff means..i know basic computer stuff like how to fix stuff.but when it comes to programs and scripting etc..im like a scalded baby..just runnin n screamin

rodimius · Post by **rodimius** » 16 Jun 2004 06:09

HTML isn't a programming language, it's a markup language. It's supposed to be used to mark out semantic sections of the page, like title, header, subheader, text, links, etc. What it actually gets used for is all the display information, and its all hacks. CSS is for layout, HTML is for markup.

jon · Post by **jon** » 16 Jun 2004 13:08

hmmm
oot is a great first language and really straight forward
html is a scripting language
c / c++ is very very useful if you want towrite software that needs to have exact memory management, needs to be fast, you want to understand how compilers work, you want to write your own language, ect... thats like saying assembler is not useful to learn just cause it doesnt get used very often by code monkeys that code for web based projects all day, its important
also java is a great language for teaching amoung other things is not crap by any means

jon · Post by **jon** » 16 Jun 2004 13:22

hmmm no more edit button but one more thought
I think that really the importance of a language to a person is what they are going to doing with it. If you are learning to code for work reasons or fun such as in you want to make money being a web consultant or something then you dont really need to know c or understand how languages really work, how things compile or the difference between how a language like c runs compares to java, ect ...
if on the other hand you are learning programming in an acedemic environement where you are not really learning a particular language per say but how to program so that you can smoothly transition to any language or make your own then it is very important to have a strong grounding in the more basic languages and it is important to know what is actually going on behind the scenes
that is not to say that someone that only codes in php and does database stuff all day is not or cannot be a great coder but there needs to be people that understand computer science on a more basic level inorder to code things like graphics engines for games, robots, machines, cars, ect ... knowing c is very important if you want to do research because of the speed that it runs at and the control it gives the programmer, if you are doing research into algorithm run times, dna research, ai, graphics, (eg time sensitive prorgams) then not understanding c/c++ is not an option. Understanding how code actually runs on hardware allows for code optimization and improvement and I feel is very important to a well rounded computer science knowledge
sorry if i come off as stupid, ignorant, wrong or whatever these are just my thoughts that I have come to develope as I go through my compsci degree

jon · Post by **jon** » 16 Jun 2004 13:25

ps html is probably not a scripting language :p sorry

FlexThis · Post by **FlexThis** » 16 Jun 2004 14:51

LameR · Post by **LameR** » 16 Jun 2004 21:06

I bombed the written part of my math final. It was only 10 questions so I was like no biggy. I got 29/34 on the scantron and 24/40 on the written and ended up .7 percent away from a B. Fun times...