Software Development and Programming Careers (Official Discussion Thread)

[Richard Wright]

Do I need to learn both of them in depth ?

Ok thanks, I'll bookmark those tutorials then.

That depends on what you want to do. It is part of my programming philosophy to learn problem solving and critical thinking and simply use programming languages as a tool. I will answer this question from a practical perspective.

There are a lot of tools that will do the xml "for you" the xml is basically just a bunch of declarations telling the system what your app needs/will do. The XML is not really that pertinent because it can be abstracted away.

In terms of Java you could exclusively study the java api for the rest of your life and still not master it. The most important thing is understanding what you need to do and using libraries to do anything the code is already out there for. Do not reinvent the wheel by (stupid example) re-writing the HashSet class. Understand the libraries that are out there for doing what you want to do.

I do not know what you are trying to do or your experience level, so "do I need to know something in depth" is tough to answer. Lets see what the other guys say. We all have our own philosophy.

 

[Liu Kang]

That depends on what you want to do. It is part of my programming philosophy to learn problem solving and critical thinking and simply use programming languages as a tool. I will answer this question from a practical perspective.

There are a lot of tools that will do the xml "for you" the xml is basically just a bunch of declarations telling the system what your app needs/will do. The XML is not really that pertinent because it can be abstracted away.

In terms of Java you could exclusively study the java api for the rest of your life and still not master it. The most important thing is understanding what you need to do and using libraries to do anything the code is already out there for. Do not reinvent the wheel by (stupid example) re-writing the HashSet class. Understand the libraries that are out there for doing what you want to do.

I do not know what you are trying to do or your experience level, so "do I need to know something in depth" is tough to answer. Lets see what the other guys say. We all have our own philosophy.

I understand.
I already have that way of thinking because that always been they way I was though I feel sometimes I'm a little too much relying on the trial/error state of mind and I should be more diverse. I made a few websites and I already tried to be efficient, simple and was always trying to solve problems by searching and finding ways until issues are solved being naturally curious. Somehow I feel I could have liked coding as a job but I did choose it as a hobby instead...

 

[Richard Wright]

I understand.
I already have that way of thinking because that always been they way I was though I feel sometimes I'm a little too much relying on the trial/error state of mind and I should be more diverse. I made a few websites and I already tried to be efficient, simple and was always trying to solve problems by searching and finding ways until issues are solved being naturally curious. Somehow I feel I could have liked coding as a job but I did choose it as a hobby instead...

Yea its really fun as a job, feels like playing games all day. Until you can't find the bug in 10,000 lines of code someone else wrote. And there are systems sending messages to your system you do not even know about. Damn I just had a scary flash back.

But yea I think the most important thing, to reiterate, is using libraries as much as possible.

 

[Richard Wright]

So what's the progress with everyone? This month I'm going to deep dive into the DOM and jQuery
next month, I'll be focused on handlebars and Ajax, then after that, possibly angular or I'll just get to work on an SPA (single page application).

I'll def be doing something in the programming field this year.

I got the internship for the spring! Thank you for your help man.

 

[kevm3]

Congratulations man

 

[kevm3]

http://davidwalsh.name/javascript-objects
This is a pretty interesting overview on Javascript "OO" programming and why we shouldn't attempt to mimic Java and other classical OO languages in JS.

 

[kevm3]

I've taken a brief foray into messing around with Ruby and Haskell. Haskell is interesting since it is a functional language. I'll probably play with it more down the line as it'll help me with the functional aspects of my Javascript down the line. As for continuing to study Ruby, that's a toss-up. It's just too different from the C-style languages that I'm used to, but then again, it's worth the challenge when I get the free time after messing around with other languages.

I don't plan on mastering languages like Haskell or Ruby, but it's just interesting to play around with them briefly to see how things are done in other languages. For example, briefly playing around with Ruby, I finally understand what an iterator is.

 

[Blackking]

this thread was never featured.... but my thread on busted in peoples faces was

 

[Richard Wright]

I've taken a brief foray into messing around with Ruby and Haskell. Haskell is interesting since it is a functional language. I'll probably play with it more down the line as it'll help me with the functional aspects of my Javascript down the line. As for continuing to study Ruby, that's a toss-up. It's just too different from the C-style languages that I'm used to, but then again, it's worth the challenge when I get the free time after messing around with other languages.

I don't plan on mastering languages like Haskell or Ruby, but it's just interesting to play around with them briefly to see how things are done in other languages. For example, briefly playing around with Ruby, I finally understand what an iterator is.

A lot of things in programming are just glorified pointers.

 

[kevm3]

A lot of things in programming are just glorified pointers.

Yeah, I'm finding out that there are a set of core concepts that are 'essential' to programming, and then various languages have a lot of features that are syntactical sugar to do common tasks that would otherwise take a lot of typing.

I think what looking at different languages has shown me is what is essential and what isn't. Even Object Oriented concepts are an abstraction to help make things more convenient and organized, especially when working on large programs and with big teams. I think I may spend a brief bit of time looking at assembly and then c/c++ just to have some sort of idea of what is actually going on closer to the metal.

 

[Richard Wright]

Yeah, I'm finding out that there are a set of core concepts that are 'essential' to programming, and then various languages have a lot of features that are syntactical sugar to do common tasks that would otherwise take a lot of typing.

I think what looking at different languages has shown me is what is essential and what isn't. Even Object Oriented concepts are an abstraction to help make things more convenient and organized, especially when working on large programs and with big teams. I think I may spend a brief bit of time looking at assembly and then c/c++ just to have some sort of idea of what is actually going on closer to the metal.

Yea, I started with Java and then went directly into MIPS and C++. Im just now getting into the web stuff.

 

[kevm3]

Yea, I started with Java and then went directly into MIPS and C++. Im just now getting into the web stuff.

I went the opposite direction. I started with the web and am now looking at Java/C#, a tiny bit of C++. I like the general simplicity of Javascript as a language, but I think it can be a bit of a headache as you get deeper into the language simply for all the freedom it allows, and then you have to worry about which browser actually supports this or that feature. I'm glad that I learned it first though since it's a language that can drive people used to classical object-oriented(class-based) programming crazy. Are you doing more of the server-side or client-side programming on the web?

 

[Richard Wright]

I went the opposite direction. I started with the web and am now looking at Java/C#, a tiny bit of C++. I like the general simplicity of Javascript as a language, but I think it can be a bit of a headache as you get deeper into the language simply for all the freedom it allows, and then you have to worry about which browser actually supports this or that feature. I'm glad that I learned it first though since it's a language that can drive people used to classical object-oriented(class-based) programming crazy. Are you doing more of the server-side or client-side programming on the web?

Right now im writing unit tests for a start up's MVC GUIs. I dont plan on making a career in web dev. Im more interested in Machine Learning and Big Data Computing.

 

[Donald J Trump]

Ok so I got a cold ass idea for an app, but Im still learning HTML and CSS lol...so who do I go to to make the app for me?
What can it range in cost wise? Id like a map of the city in it like Uber

 

[Responsible Allen Iverson]

I had to use Ruby and Haskell in school and hated both of them