posted
I do not consider myself a straight A student, infact over the last few years I've probly been in the lowest quintile(?) statistically for grades, I've failed a french class, a gym class, a Visual Basic 6.0 class and finally an Operating Systems course in the 2.5 years I have been here even placed on probation (essentially if I do badly for another semester OFF WITH MY HEAD muahahahaha) ...anyways ignoring my alter ego what I find odd is that aside from help with compiling errors I believe I had done probly 95% of the work on the assignment.
Here's the issue, I was the first one to hand it in and was congratuating for my determination and hard work. There are at least TWO other people I know who ar emore knowledgeable in C++ and have coded in other lanuages before entering computer sciences, my only exeriance is the RPG maker and GW BASIC like c'mon.
I handed it in first and had managed to do my conversion with only slight difficulty while so many had problems.
I do not get it. All i did was start 3 days earlier to code it.
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posted
There's a distinction many CS students and teachers seem to not realize: that there is a big difference between knowing syntax and knowing method.
I know several people that know C++ syntax significantly better than I do, but couldn't write a program if their life depended on it. Conversely, I know some of the most brilliant programmers I've ever met work with two syntax books next to them and an MSDN program window always open.
When I was in school for the few computer programming courses I've taken (I've taken three in my life; I pretty much taught one of them in absense of the teacher), I saw all these students around me understanding what's spoken of syntax perfectly, but having no grasp whatsoever about programming algorithms and methods. They know exactly how to write a shell sort or a quicksort, but aren't sure why it works. Their programs are almost artistic in how the look, with every tab, comma and semicolon in perfect harmony, but ten times larger than they should be because they take the "scenic route" as far as what needs to be done.
The "Theory of Algorithms" course at my university was the destroyer of would-be computer programmers. People who thought they could write programs were immediately proven wrong, and most of the people that started working on a computer science degree and never completed did so because of that one course. Granted, they might know how to write in six different languages by then, but they just couldn't put it all together.
In my opinion, algorithms are far more important than syntax. You can always find a million reference sources for syntax, APIs, etc... but you'll have a hard time finding someone to tell you how to do your programming job.
Posts: 3486 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Blayne Bradley
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posted
woohoo I am ahead of the curve!
Like, I can read flow charts and I can rather easily turn it into code, its syntax errors that always get more or that one tiny mstake that happens to everyone where instead of if ( yadda == derd ) I have yadda = derd.
Turning that pascal pseudo code (since everyone knows Pascal isnt a real language) into C++ wasnt that hard.
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quote:You can always find a million reference sources for syntax, APIs, etc... but you'll have a hard time finding someone to tell you how to do your programming job.
This is spot-on.
(And I tend to code in the mentioned way...syntax books / sources open, with an algorithm in mind. Or better, written down.)
Posts: 1813 | Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
The way I see it, syntax is like a painter's brush technique. Or tendus and plies. Without a firm grounding in the basics to the point where they become second nature, you might be able to cobble together something that works, but it'll be a long, arduous task and the next time around it'll be just as difficult. On the other hand if you have just the basics and no vision of the big picture (algorithms, composition, choreography) you'll end up generating a whole lot of nothing. You need a certain amount of skill on both levels to be consistently effective.
Posts: 1810 | Registered: Jan 1999
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