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Did you teach yourself programming or learn from a class?

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Electric Amish

Elite Member
Oct 11, 1999
23,578
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Both.

Learned a little BASIC in Middle school. Learned a little Pascal in High School. Learned more Pascal, assembly, C, C++, and Java throughout college. Learned more by programming as a hobby and picked up some Perl on my own.
 

DaShen

Lifer
Dec 1, 2000
10,710
1
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Originally posted by: Wildapes
How feasable would it be too teach oneself programming at the age of 25? I'm thinking of doing something on the side and have a lot of free time...

Do you enjoy structured problem solving?

Do you enjoy Soduku, Chess, Go...? If you do, then pick up a How To Learn C++ boook and work from there. Otherwise, try something else.
 

AmigaMan

Diamond Member
Oct 12, 1999
3,644
1
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Learned BASIC in the 4th grade, tried to learn C a little later but couldn't understand the concepts. Plus girls were starting to look cute and I really didn't care. Went to college, became a biology major due to the amount of chicks in the classes, but realized if I wanted a job after I graduated, I'd better do something else. Took an intro to computer science class and loved it. Learned C easily after that (so THAT's what pointers are) and took a course of Java. Graduated, became a VB programmer with a bit of C on the side. Started doing CGI programming, realized that Java and Servlets solve that problem a lot better and learned Java mostly on my own. Been doing Java for about 8 years now.

I'm thinking about starting to learn some C#, but Ruby looks cooler though. Plus .Net really isn't that suited to Mac users ;)
 

V00DOO

Diamond Member
Dec 2, 2000
3,817
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81
I took a Qbasic programming class last year for the fun of it. I got an A and I still don't know jack about programming.:(
 

Jawo

Diamond Member
Jun 15, 2005
4,125
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0
Taught myself BASIC in highschool so I could write TI programs. Lots of classes/labs/projects for C++, VB.Net, etc
 

tweakmm

Lifer
May 28, 2001
18,436
4
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Both.

Tought myself when I was 11 or so then breazed through a few computer sciences classes in school. About to start teaching myself Ruby when I finally get the various systems on my network straight.
 

w00t

Diamond Member
Nov 5, 2004
5,545
0
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I want to learn to program but I don't know where to start I've heard Python.......

I'll think I'll learn myself or have someone teach me
 

mundane

Diamond Member
Jun 7, 2002
5,603
8
81
Started with BASIC on our old Atari, then some VB [much] later on. Had to re-learn everything when I started college - a lot of bad habits to break!
 

pennylane

Diamond Member
Apr 28, 2002
6,077
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18 isn't too old. Don't sweat it. If you need to take a class, then take one. It helps to take at least one class to get fundamentals down and think in a modularized, specific, way. But it's not something you can't do on your own.
 

Madwand1

Diamond Member
Jan 23, 2006
3,309
0
76
I was formally taught to program in teaching programming languages (it was earlier than Java, but had it been available, Java would likely have been used in place). The reason for this is simple -- you don't really want your students who are learning many new concepts at the same time, and esp. when you want to emphasize high-level concepts to be stuck debugging memory issues and getting overloaded by that in the process.

So we were expected to learn the more tricky languages by ourselves later on in the program. We weren't spoon-fed C or assembler or whatever, and still had to program in it. You should expect to encounter similar situations in the field.

C++ is a big, tough language, which can be used in a number of different styles. You find experienced, deeply knowledgeable "language lawyers" in the field. I think that if you're really serious about learning it at a deep level, then you might have to give it a good go through self-study, and not entirely rely on whatever subset of the language you can learn in class.

Perhaps I'm wrong though and learning C++ in a class will give you a strong education. I interviewed and tested a person who taught C++ in a university once, and I found him lacking, not only in depth, but in some important fundamentals. This colours my view obviously.
 

Xyo II

Platinum Member
Oct 12, 2005
2,177
1
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Originally posted by: Cloud Strife
I'm 18 and just started to learn C++ . I feel old compared to others who have learned it at an earlier age. :(

Same here, only I'm learning visual basic :(
 

mugs

Lifer
Apr 29, 2003
48,920
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Both. I taught myself C in 9th grade, then took a C++ class in high school and majored in C.S. in college. Most of what I use now I learned on my own, not in college, but after college. Of course learning to program and learning a programming language are entirely different things. I would say I really learned to program in college.
 

Chaotic42

Lifer
Jun 15, 2001
34,818
1,998
126
Don't feel old.

From my experience, the best way to become a better programmer is to code. Just pick something and write it. FTP program, video game, spreadsheet, whatever. Learning things in classes is fine, but learning how to put those things to use is much more important... and difficult.