Obama wants you to learn code

[John Connor]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XvmhE1J9PY

Just pay for my schooling buddy!

 

[sixone]

How about some simple economics, first?

 

[tfinch2]

Yeah, this is a bad idea. No matter how hard you try to shove it into people's brains, most don't get it. I took a CS class in HS that taught C++. It had about 25 students. After the first couple of weeks, it turned into 23 students copying my and another guy's work assignments, then failing the test.

 

[MaxPayne63]

300 million americans
500 million lines of code

I think I see what his game is.

 

[John Connor]

See, the healthcare.gov website needs some work and he needs coders. LOL

 

[ImpulsE69]

Is this code for needs people who can understand the complexity of the his failed healthcare plan?

 

[Rakehellion]

I think it's a little late for the Obamacare website.

 

[akahoovy]

Yeah, this is a bad idea. No matter how hard you try to shove it into people's brains, most don't get it. I took a CS class in HS that taught C++. It had about 25 students. After the first couple of weeks, it turned into 23 students copying my and another guy's work assignments, then failing the test.

THE TRUTH! High school... A CS class in East Texas. You can imagine how that went. My God, the memories.

People too stupid to edit my name out of the comments and the teacher wanted to know why I turned in multiple copies.

 

[John Connor]

Yeah, I think it's going to die a slow death.

I think it's a little late for the Obamacare website.

 

[mikeford]

Obama just wants people to improve themselves. I'm sure he thinks C++ is almost a B-.

 

[akahoovy]

Obama just wants people to improve themselves. I'm sure he thinks C++ is almost a B-.

:awe:

 

[bradley]

The Supreme Court should learn code first, and the Constitution.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah, this is a bad idea. No matter how hard you try to shove it into people's brains, most don't get it. I took a CS class in HS that taught C++. It had about 25 students. After the first couple of weeks, it turned into 23 students copying my and another guy's work assignments, then failing the test.

Haha reminds me of college. People did not grasp code, and this was computer science! I was considered the class "1337 hacker" and I'm not even that good at coding, I'd place myself as average. Most people would try to learn programs by heart instead of understanding how to make the computer do something.

So when it came time to the test and it asked to make a program that does something, they'd write down memorized code from a problem in the book that did that same thing. People did not understand how I could do so good without studying.

What sucked though is some tests were on paper. You have then code linearly, and you can't compile to test. When I code I tend to jump around throughout the document and go back and change/add stuff. I think this is the CGI method of programming. Write it all on lined paper line per line then get a summer student to type it up into an IDE and compile it. If it compiles, it gets shipped.

 

[Leros]

Yeah, this is a bad idea. No matter how hard you try to shove it into people's brains, most don't get it. I took a CS class in HS that taught C++. It had about 25 students. After the first couple of weeks, it turned into 23 students copying my and another guy's work assignments, then failing the test.

I'd like to see it taught for at least a semester in school. Probably middle school. Most computer science students come from middle/upper class backgrounds and had a computer in their bedroom growing up. That computer gave them the freedom to have time to dabble in things like programming. Most kids don't get that kind of exposure and never get the opportunity to see if they would enjoy computer science.

 

[Kroze]

How about some simple economics, first?

Then he'll learn why communism/socialism is such a terrible idea.

 

[redhotiron2004]

You know what, he is right. The american education system seems to be faulty. And the students coming from it can't complete with students coming from china and india. For eg in india you don't get a calculator(not allowed in classes and exams) until you reach your graduation. Which means that you would need to calculate and analyse the complex equations and calculations in your mind itself. That too in a limited time frame.

This constant juggling makes them quite strong to calculate without any supplementary gadget.

And this is just one of the many example of the system that exist in india. Though it too have it's disadvantages. As it always keeps you on your toes with many exams and that really builds the pressure up. But, still it's working for now.

And indian students are hard to match around the world.

 

[arkcom]

Physical computing, like arduino, would go a long way towards making coding interesting for kids.

 

[Aikouka]

When I tutored computer science in college, the one thing that I noticed is that there were always the haves and the have nots. There were simply those that got the concepts behind programming and those that didn't. That didn't stop me from trying to help the latter, but I wasn't really sure if they'd be able to cut it later on.

I'd like to see it taught for at least a semester in school. Probably middle school. Most computer science students come from middle/upper class backgrounds and had a computer in their bedroom growing up. That computer gave them the freedom to have time to dabble in things like programming. Most kids don't get that kind of exposure and never get the opportunity to see if they would enjoy computer science.

I'm a software guy, and I came from a low-class family. In fact, I got into the idea of programming when I wrote a batch script on this old 286-based IBM PC (complete with dot matrix printer!), which was all we had. I got tired of having to load mouse drivers for MS-DOS if I wanted to play awesome games like School Mom -- Number Munchers didn't require a mouse. So, I wrote batch scripts that did all that with me, and the power... it was intoxicating! :awe:

 

[John Connor]

The only coding I ever did was for my graphing calculator. I would sit in class writing on notepad different programs I wanted to do with that thing. I even made a special program to generate passwords for all the E-mail accounts I acquired back in '99. LOL

I was in Job Corp at the time and they had a computer class to get A+ certified. I asked the instructor about learning C++ and he told me it was relatively easy and it was basically cut and paste. I even checked out a book at the library on C++ (I think it was C++ for dummies) and when I checked it out the librarian said, "I heard that was easy to learn."

Couple of questions: Is it easy to learn and is it cut and paste like that instructor said?

All I know is that when I was reading about C++ I knew right away that I would need that book as a reference for future use. There's far too many commands. It's like me with Linux, I need to have a reference to all the commands. Remembering them all is a PITA and I just don't run Linux enough to get use to it.

 

[mikeford]

There are 10 kinds of people, those who know binary and those who don't.

 

[John Connor]

There are 16 kinds of people those that can put a hex on someone and those that can't.

 

[Aikouka]

There are 16 kinds of people those that can put a hex on someone and those that can't.

F you!

Couple of questions: Is it easy to learn and is it cut and paste like that instructor said?

It sounds like the person was talking about stea "borrowing" code from Google searches, which is rather dubious at best. Is C++ hard? Not really. The hardest part that most people have with it is that it gives you a lot of rope to hang yourself with compared to some of today's popular managed languages (e.g. C# or Java). For example, the most common and sophomoric mistake that I see is... if (var = true) { /* do stuff */ }. At a cursory glance, you might expect that checks to see if var is equal to true, but that's not what it does. If checks evaluate the expression inside and then check to see if the resulting value is 0 (false) or > 0 (true). Single equals is an assignment statement, which means you will set the variable var equal to Boolean true, and that returns the location in memory. That's why crazy-looking C++ statements like A = B = true; work. So, the memory location will be greater than 0, so the result of the if statement is true.

Anyway, one of the things that I want to stress is that there's more to computer science than just languages. A huge part is understanding how to look at a given problem (i.e. "develop me software that does this...") and break it down into the aspects that a computer will handle. There are also other things to consider when it comes to design such as expandability, portability, etc. For example, a coworker was writing a program, and I advised him to consider doing it this certain way. It may have seemed like overkill at the time, but I mentioned that he would eventually have to implement this certain feature, which would require that fancier implementation. He ignored my advice, and eventually had to completely rewrite the program using the method that I suggested.

In other words, you don't just sit down and pound at the keyboard.

 

[smackababy]

THE TRUTH! High school... A CS class in East Texas. You can imagine how that went. My God, the memories.

People too stupid to edit my name out of the comments and the teacher wanted to know why I turned in multiple copies.

You guys just got unlucky. South of Houston, my CS class ended up being a small group of students (me and a couple others) that were basically TAs and goofed around writing code while the rest of the mouth breathers tried to stumble through the "complexities" of hexidecimal numbers. And it got even better in CS2, because there wasn't enough to offer a full class. We got put into CS1 and had very few assignments. Just used the teacher as a resource for our own projects.

 

[brandonb]

THE TRUTH! High school... A CS class in East Texas. You can imagine how that went. My God, the memories.

People too stupid to edit my name out of the comments and the teacher wanted to know why I turned in multiple copies.

Hell. I turned in the whole semesters assignments in the 2nd week of class. I also stayed to help tutor other kids. The friggen teacher every week kept telling me I was failing saying I musta brought it in from home, or had my brother do it for me. He was rejecting my turn in, and I had to redo it. I just kept turning in the same things.

I said "If you don't believe I know what I'm doing, give me a problem right now and I will prove it."

He gave me: "enter a number, convert to a roman numeral. Make it work up to 54."

His code was (going to simplify these answers):

if (input == '1') cout << 'I';
if (input == '2') cout << 'II';
if (input == '3') cout << 'III';

All the way up to 54.

I had:

while(input > 0)
{

   if(input >= 1000)
  {
     cout << 'M';
     input -= 1000;
   }

   if(input >= 100)
  {
     cout << 'C';
     input -= 100;
   }

   if(input >= 10)
  {
     cout << 'V';
     input -= 10;
   }

   if(input >= 5)
  {
     cout << 'X';
     input -= 5;
   }

   if(input >= 1)
  {
     cout << 'I';
     input -= 1;
   }

}

(I had all the right expressions in there for 9's, 4's etc, and the correct symbols, etc.)

He had this strange look on his face, like he had no idea what I just did. He failed me and told me not to come back to class.

I went and bitched to the councilor. She told me some people are not cut out for computer programming and suggested I find another interest, and told me to take a test on a computer which tries to analyze my personality and give suggestions on what my career should be and where my interests should lie. So I did, and she told me I should focus on being a garbage man and the skills for it. So I dropped out of high school, got a job (this was during the dot com craze and everybody was hiring), and by the time I would have finished high school, I was making more than both of them (probably combined)... Garbage man indeed!

When I was legally able to (it's age 19 in my state - They don't allow anybody to take it earlier to prevent people from dropping out and taking their GED early to bypass school) I went back and received my GED and went to college. Paid for by my current employer, the one who hired me after I left school.

(I'm now 37 and have 20 years of professional experience)

 

[clamum]

brandonb: WOW. That was the teacher's solution? *shakes head*