Studying Computer Programming

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

I'm like the Anti-Tiwa. I love C# too, nice to read, and lots of cool things like linq and lambda statements.

Plus Visual Studio is second to none. I've used a few other IDE's, but nothing comes close to the features that Visual Studio has. Also everything is well documented.

[The Demon Lord]

Programming is still powered by Black Magic and Sorcery....

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

Programming is still powered by Black Magic and Sorcery....

That what I keep telling my Boss when customers find bugs.


It's not my fault, a wizard did it.

[The Demon Lord]

And little gremlins sneek in at night and Remove lines of Code that you put there yesterday.....

[Xenolightning]

And little gremlins sneek in at night and Remove lines of Code that you put there yesterday.....

This, many times over.

[Craigor]

Or your program starts doing things that it's not coded to do, then develops a mind of its own and starts shutting down other programs ...

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

Or your program starts doing things that it's not coded to do, then develops a mind of its own and starts shutting down other programs ...

The last time that happend to me, my program hacked into the US missle defence system and started World War 3.

Then it built robots and destroyed humanity.


Fortunately a member of the human resistance traveled back in time to before I was born and killed my Grandfather, thus preventing me from writing the program.

[oefox]

How many people commenting here are actual developers in paid employment?

Here's my wisdom:
- do the BSc.compsci
- choose relevant papers that you actually want to do in addition to the mandatory ones
- avoid mathematical papers that you will struggle with as they don't offer much usable knowledge imo
- do logic and reasoning papers and other philosophical ones that may pique your interests, they are excellent and do wonders for both your thinking and reasoning - the reasoning is invaluable when you have team meetings, in fact I think, I think these papers were my favourite papers after programming languages
- don't skip Friday afternoon lectures

I did a 3 year BSc.compsci, my IT friends did 4 year BCMS degrees (Computing and Mathematical Science), I literally got a job 2 weeks after finishing university (and before I even got my degree) and got a whole year head start on my friends. I'm a senior developer at MSD atm (in case anyone else here is in MSD and is wondering).


TLDR; once you get into IT your education is rather moot, it all becomes connections and work history, at least that's the way it is here.

Also, whether you want to do Java, C++/C#, Ruby it doesn't really matter til your 3rd year by which point you'll kind of have a better understanding.

[Oddball]

Cheers oefox, good info there

I'm still considering things, and I don't think that I'll be going in next intake because it wont give me enough time to think it over, so unless I come to a decision quicker than I expect... well we'll see.

I was chatting to a friend of mine last night and he urged me to try doing another area of 3D before I pack it up. I'm thinking about that too but not really sure if I can stand it... hah.

The good thing here is that I have options.

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

1. QA logs issue
2. I do nothing, mark issue as fixed and send back to QA.
3. QA passes it

Win!

[Retardobot]

1. QA logs issue
2. I do nothing, mark issue as fixed and send back to QA.
3. QA passes it

Win!

You sound like the typical IT department.

Someone logs issue, IT department emails owner of issue attemping to poorly explain BS AKA blaming it on someone else, closes issues as solved...

[Emrico1]

Sounds right to me.

Was helping sort a computer that ran a large automated machine.
I re-installed winDOHs 98, drivers and software but the problem persisted.
IT guy said we should 'try washing the disk in soapy water' then closed the ticket... Nice work. Facepalm.

[The Demon Lord]

As a Professional Helpdesk person its not quite true:

Person Logs issue
Send response telling them to log off, restart and log back on
Doesn't fix issue
Tell them its a known bug with (insert Vendor here) and we have raised the issue to them (we haven't)
Person then thinks its going to be fixed by an update and forgets about it
We close the case advising them we haven't heard any more reports from them about the issue.
Person claims they are still having the issue
We advise them to log a new issue
Start from the beggining again.

[Growler]

Have you tried turning it on and off again?

[Bounty Hunter]

- avoid mathematical papers that you will struggle with as they don't offer much usable knowledge imo

maximum respect here oefox, but I disagree with this 1 point (rest are valid).

Knowing how to solve an nxn matrix in almost n calculations is usable, knowing how to solve a differential equation (even 2nd order) using only linear algebra is useable.

[mattnz]

import calculus.jar

Problem solved.

[Xenolightning]

using mattnz.dll

Problem solved.

[Bounty Hunter]

Basically if you don't know the maths, your job isn't important enough to need it, and you are paid accordingly.

....Or you're too important to need to know it, and you are paid accordingly. haha.

[Bell]

How many people commenting here are actual developers in paid employment?

About 4 by my count, most can't be fucked giving oddball serious advice because he has a past history of completely rejecting all advice given to him.

[mattnz]

Basically if you don't know the maths, your job isn't important enough to need it, and you are paid accordingly.

....Or you're too important to need to know it, and you are paid accordingly. haha.

Yeah, in all seriousness, unless you want a future of developing enterprise software, maybe you don't need so much maths or physics.

If you want to develop anything that I would consider cool (games, simulations etc.), you're going to need to know the maths (well not just maths, algebra and probably calculus) and how to apply it.

[AintNoMeInTeam]

I am currently employed as a software developer - about 2 years into my current job (first one out of uni).

Background: Before I did computer science, i did a psychology degree, which ended up being basically a waste of time. After psych I did a 1 year Graduate Diploma in CompSci from UoA - my math was abit rusty and some papers can be tough to get started on (e.g. 3d graphics with matrix transformations, etc) but once you get up to speed, they arent too hard, but you will need to study.

Moving from a compsci degree into the software industry I have realised that in compsci, they teach you how to code, but they dont teach you how to make software. Working in a team to deliver a product requires a whole new skill-set that compsci doesnt teach you.

As for using my compsci degree in my day to day work, I wouldnt say that that I use my computer science skills very much. I have yet to need to analyze any algorithms or anything of that nature. In fact, I work with afew people who don't have compsci degrees, and it doesnt have any effect whatsoever.

Basically, a compsci degree/any other programming qualification helps get your foot in the door, but once you are in, then it doesnt really matter.

[Pyromanik]

So same as any degree that doesn't deal with people.


Also, statement on delivery so so so true.
Most especially when someone asks you "how long would it take for you to..."
Analasys and design is handy... but only carries you so far. Need industry experience in a team of people that foster such skills.

[mattnz]

Well I guess by the time you finish engineering you would have done a reasonable amount of practical work.

[Pyromanik]

You're supposed to have, yes. That of course depends on how good you are at working practically.

And how well your workplace fosters such activity & teamwork.

[Bounty Hunter]

Well I guess by the time you finish engineering you would have done a reasonable amount of practical work.

900 hours in the real world with UC.

Unfortunatly I'll have to leave my current part time job too which will be a bit shit, but if anyone has anything in chch I'd be really keen.

pyro, what did you study at canty?