As a fairly novice programmer who has acquired a reasonable level of competence in C++, what should I do next to advance in general programming ability? Obviously, both learning new programming languages and studying algorithms are important, but what should take highest priority? More generally, how in-depth should my eventual study...
Hi Guys, I have been coding for about 9 years now and have really enjoyed every minute of it. But my journey into computer programming has been an interesting one. I was trained to be a Mechanical Engineer, and I have a bachelor's degree in it. But rather than joining the manufacturing sector, I switched tracks right after graduation...
What is the most important thing you weren't taught in school? What topics are missing from the CS/IS education? Posted so far How to sell an idea Principles: Often, good enough is better than perfect. Making mistakes is actually a Good Thing™ -- as long as they're new mistakes. If a user can break your code they will. In the ...
We don't teach children calculus first. We first teach them arithmetic, then algebra, then geometry, the analytical geometry, then finally calculus. Why then, do we teach our computer scientists frameworks and IDE first. Some curriculum do force students to learn computer science fundamentals, but the vast majority of graduates that I...
I'm a CS graduate and I've been in the field for 10 years now. Hardware has interested me from day 1, in fact, I am one course shy of a minor in Electrical Engineering. Now I've gotten to the point where I want to move more towards hardware and custom curcuit board development than I have in the past. The faculty of Engineering want m...
I've already read through a number of related questions about whether a Masters degree increases a developers ability and awareness, but one of the things I've struggled to understand is just how a Masters degree would help me. I'll be graduating in 2010 and with luck will have landed a place on a Masters degree course at a decent unive...
I consider myself to be a desktop application developer. My strengths are C/C++ (although I haven't used them in a while, so I'm a bit rusty), Java, and .NET (specifically C#, although I know a little VB and I'm learning F#). I'm familiar with SQL (using mostly MySQL and SQLite). I also know a little about HTML/CSS, Ruby on Rails, and I'...
I find myself attached to a project to integerate an interpreter into an existing application. The language to be interpreted is a derivative of Lisp, with application-specific builtins. Individual 'programs' will be run batch-style in the application. I'm surprised that over the years I've written a couple of compilers, and several dat...
At my local university they offer two career paths for their Computer Science degree. One track is Information Systems and the other is Math & Science. If you take the Math & Science track you have the option of taking an extra 5 math classes and you receive a B.S. in Mathematics as well as your B.S. in CS. My question is which would be...
I'm currently working professionally in the arts/entertainment industry where the quality of your work (as seen in your portfolio) comes before all else. An employer cares about the following in this order: Portfolio Work Experience College Degree A college degree is a small footnote, easily overshadowed by a strong portfolio. My q...
If you think there is, do you see it as a real problem affecting organizations? If the answer to both question is yes: What are the root causes? Is the problem not just a lack of knowledge but obliviousness as well? Who has the ability to effectively address this issue? What are possible solutions? ...
I already have a good knowledge of technology, the IT industry, and IT business models, but I'm considering complementing my knowledge by studying commerce at university. Is this a wise choice? A friend told me that the courses tend to be too theoretical and not applicable to real-life business. Any thoughts? ...
I recently attended the QCon 2008 (http://qconsf.com/conference) international software developer conference in San Francisco and was very pleased with the quality of the speakers - and the quality of discussions that were participated in by the other attendees. One aspect of the conference that was a very pleasant surprise: the percent...
In my thirty years of programming experience, it seems to me that the vast majority of the source code that I have read, and the vast majority of the programmers that I have encountered, tend to write all their code at the lowest possible level of abstraction. Allow me please to provide an example. I answered a post earlier today in wh...
I've been using PHP ever since I got a job in web development (late last year). I currently have a desire to learn something new. I was considering Python. Has anyone else been in this state of mind, and what were their choices? Did they end up learning a new language, or did they rethink their PHP approach for a fresh breath of PHPnes...
Possible Duplicates: Should I learn C# or Java? Should freshers learn Java or C++? I have an option of selecting Java or .NET as my language. Which one is the best to choose? In which can I see a brighter future? ...
Well I can't decide if I should take the "Parallel Programming and Architectures" course, or the "Algorithms for Classification and Prediction" course ... so I figured I'd ask my very first StackOverFlow question ;) Really, I'm curious about parallel programming vs machine learning ... they're both very interesting areas. How much par...
Are there graduate schools that are offering degrees in computer science where at least part of the course work can be completed online? I am tethered to my geographic locale. I already have a master's degree in CS so I would be going for my PhD this time. ...
Whats the best way to enter into a coding career? Do you need formal education and degrees or just a good portfolio? What programming languages are needed? Should you know more, or should you be specialized? Do you even have to attend college or a University, can you enter into one right outside of High School? What are your thought...
I guess, the following is a standard problem on every school or university: It is Your job to teach programming. Unfortunately, some of the students are semi-professionals and have years of experience while others do not even know the basic concepts, e.g. the concept "typed variable". As far as I know, this leads to one of the followin...