Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

whooleytoo

macrumors 604
Aug 2, 2002
6,607
716
Cork, Ireland.
superbovine said:
Having a good math background will help you express problems programmatically in the most efficient way, or just plain solving a problem might require you to bust out some math. For example, rotating a cube 90 degree in 3 space. How about if someone asked you to write part of a program that has to produce statistic on data points? What about calculating the most efficient way to sort a set a data?

Obviously, English skills are also important.. ;)

(jus' kiddin'!)
 

Doctor Q

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
39,775
7,497
Los Angeles
Only somebody familiar with LISP could explain why "caaadadadr" is a valid function in LISP despite having no hits in Google (until this post gets indexed, that is). :)
I discovered this thread while searching for something else today, so I thought I'd report that today, 14 years after my post, Google finds two other references to the word I mentioned.
 

2984839

Cancelled
Apr 19, 2014
2,114
2,239
I am a C programmer who does a bit of Perl and has tried hard to learn Python and Java.

I found plain C to be the most intuitive and easy to understand.

Perl reminds me of C. I can live with it.

Python is incredibly frustrating for me, but probably because I don't like object oriented languages in general. The paradigm works well for things that it works well for, but they always try to apply it to everything and it breaks down quickly.

Java needs to be flushed down the toilet.

edit: Yikes! The ancient thread is alive.
 

BootLoxes

macrumors 6502a
Apr 15, 2019
745
857
Ancient thread or not this was an amazing read. During the time this was active my dad was indirectly forcing me to hate programming by taking away my books every time I upset him. When I got the books back I had forgotten everything and had to start over. After owning the books for roughly a year and the books being taken away for 75% of the time (wasnt a bad kid, he would take them away for months for stupid things like not taking off his shoes when he got home from work) i told him to just keep the books and had a hatred for programming that lasted from my childhood all the way through college.

I am just now rediscovering programming 15 years later at 26. And for those wondering, no i am not on good terms with my father
 

Doctor Q

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
39,775
7,497
Los Angeles
During the time this was active my dad was indirectly forcing me to hate programming by taking away my books every time I upset him. ... I am just now rediscovering programming 15 years later at 26.
Ironically, these days most people learn programing without relying on books.

How are you learning about programming? What type of programming?
 

BootLoxes

macrumors 6502a
Apr 15, 2019
745
857
Ironically, these days most people learn programing without relying on books.

How are you learning about programming? What type of programming?

When I was a kid all I had was my two books. My dad had super strict internet restrictions.

now I tend to learn from udemy tutorials. Been doing c# and unity for around a year now and recently decided that I want to learn swift. So I downloaded the playgrounds app and have been playing the puzzles. It has been quite fun
 

Doctor Q

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
39,775
7,497
Los Angeles
When I learned Swift, I made the mistake of trying to read the entire Swift Tour before I wrote a single line of code, since I'd used that approach with other, simpler, languages. A better approach is to read a bit, play with code a bit, then repeat. In my opinion, about the time you get to Deinitialization and Optional Chaining, you can save most of the rest for later, or when you discover you need more advanced techniques.
 

guzhogi

macrumors 68040
Aug 31, 2003
3,725
1,804
Wherever my feet take me…
Majored computer science in college. Graduated with my bachelor's… barely. Never really did get a hang of it. I do IT stuff now, which comes a lot easier. Maybe it's just my learning style, too.
Only somebody familiar with LISP could explain why "caaadadadr" is a valid function in LISP despite having no hits in Google (until this post gets indexed, that is). :)
Oh god, I hated Lisp (and by extension, Scheme) in college. All those ******* parentheses!
 

MisterSavage

macrumors 601
Nov 10, 2018
4,605
5,448
I discovered this thread while searching for something else today, so I thought I'd report that today, 14 years after my post, Google finds two other references to the word I mentioned.

Ooof. It's been a long time since my programming languages class but that word instantly triggered me. :eek:
 

DrMotownMac

Contributor
Jul 11, 2008
381
197
Michigan
...(wasnt a bad kid, he would take them away for months for stupid things like not taking off his shoes when he got home from work) i told him to just keep the books and had a hatred for programming that lasted from my childhood all the way through college.

I am just now rediscovering programming 15 years later at 26. And for those wondering, no i am not on good terms with my father

I think I understand why you're not on good terms with your father. He would punish YOU for not taking off HIS shoes when he got home from work?! He couldn't take off his own shoes? And that was somehow your fault? Wow, sorry. You had it ROUGH!

But the punishment was to take away your two computer programming books? A little odd. I mean as far as punishments go, I suppose it could have been worse.
 

BootLoxes

macrumors 6502a
Apr 15, 2019
745
857
I think I understand why you're not on good terms with your father. He would punish YOU for not taking off HIS shoes when he got home from work?! He couldn't take off his own shoes? And that was somehow your fault? Wow, sorry. You had it ROUGH!

But the punishment was to take away your two computer programming books? A little odd. I mean as far as punishments go, I suppose it could have been worse.

Sorry that was one of the punishments. I didnt mention the others since I thought it wasnt relevant in a topic about programing. Also I moved across the planet so my life is good now. Got a job, got the girl, and can enjoy my hobbies in peace
 

TopherMan12

macrumors 6502a
Oct 10, 2019
785
898
Atlanta, GA
I've been programming web apps for nearly 20 years. Still love coding. Jumped back into Mac after getting an Apple watch and thinking it would be fun to learn to create some apps for it. The great thing about coding is that once you really learn how it works, you can move from one language to another fairly easily. Makes learning new stuff a lot of fun as you figure out the nuances of each language.

Sorry that was one of the punishments. I didnt mention the others since I thought it wasnt relevant in a topic about programing. Also I moved across the planet so my life is good now. Got a job, got the girl, and can enjoy my hobbies in peace

Life is too short to be stuck in toxic relationships even if they are with your own flesh and blood. Keep doing what makes you happy! ?
 

DrMotownMac

Contributor
Jul 11, 2008
381
197
Michigan
Sorry that was one of the punishments. I didnt mention the others since I thought it wasnt relevant in a topic about programing. Also I moved across the planet so my life is good now. Got a job, got the girl, and can enjoy my hobbies in peace

Good for you, man! Whenever I hear a story like that, I'm always reminded of this line from Keanu Reeves from the movie "Parenthood"....


Oh, and I'm sorry for going way off topic there... (I shake myself like Keanu Reeves in that scene)... okay, back to programming!
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.