Computer Science, programming languages discussion

[neo]

So I want to talk about computer science and just programming languages in general.

I don't know if Html/CSS actually falls under that but that's why I just say 'computer science' etc.

I just want to have this as a main topic of discussion so you guys can just come in and be like "jargon jargon jargon code code jargon"

I'm on Treehouse right now and reviewing HTML/CSS. I really want to excel here hehe. Anyone that knows or is learning any languages is welcome to buddy up with me and like, bounce off ideas or even collab on projects for fun. :3

[Master]

Learning some Visual Basic at present.

[GNineify]

I almost decided to go to a computer programming career school, but then I thought that it would've probably been too hard...

[Adsolution]

HTML technically falls under the category as it is a programming language... to some extent. I'm not much of a coder myself, though I do have basic knowledge of some various languages. Firstly, HTML and CSS are utter shit and really shouldn't even exist. XML is infinitely better, as not only is it also tag-based, it's not limited to the preset tags of HTML; you can define your own within the language, and it's infinitely more expansive. It's also a lot cleaner.

HTML should be XML, and BBCode should be HTML.

I know some Visual Basic and Lua, but only enough to write a very basic script, but enough to be able to fairly heavily modify a preexisting script. I've looked at the various C languages before, but instantly told them to fuck off. Maybe in the future I'll find the time to actually become good at text-based programming. What I do excel at is graphical node-based programming; the only problem with that is that you're limited to a set of nodes, but you can program more, or have someone else program some more for you to use.

[neo]

I have actually taken some Graphics Design and Computer Programming (did visual basic and then some C)in 07. It can be hard if you don't put in the effort and if you aren't interested in that kind of stuff. I also stopped because I wasn't putting enough effort, I was putting too much effort in videogames and look at me now. Still trying to learn what I don't know.

But this time I have to put in effort and try learning it and really stick to it.

Currently I major in Human Services because it's stable and easy.

HTML technically falls under the category as it is a programming language... to some extent. I'm not much of a coder myself, though I do have basic knowledge of some various languages. Firstly, HTML and CSS are utter shit and really shouldn't even exist. XML is infinitely better, as not only is it also tag-based, it's not limited to the preset tags of HTML; you can define your own within the language, and it's infinitely more expansive. It's also a lot cleaner.

HTML should be XML, and BBCode should be HTML.

I know some Visual Basic and Lua, but only enough to write a very basic script, but enough to be able to fairly heavily modify a preexisting script. I've looked at the various C languages before, but instantly told them to fuck off. Maybe in the future I'll find the time to actually become good at text-based programming. What I do excel at is graphical node-based programming; the only problem with that is that you're limited to a set of nodes, but you can program more, or have someone else program some more for you to use.

Can you expand a little bit as to why html and css are shit? (Besides just xml being much better) Also is it ok to learn HTML/CSS and then move on to XML? And with C I actually had alot of fun, I just was very lazy with it and failed it surprisingly. Even with things you really like you have to put in that effort and can't just handwave it. :3 (I realized that) And sweet to the graphical-node programming.

[Master]

Hmm, we briefly studied HTML and CSS last year, but I didn't really take much fancy to it, I preferred the usual programming with VB.

[Adsolution]

Can you expand a little bit as to why html and css are shit?

HTML can't really do anything other than create very basic graphical layouts, yet it still manages to be a lot messier than XML. That's about it, hence its shittiness.

Also is it ok to learn HTML/CSS and then move on to XML?

I don't see why not. HTML/CSS are total introductory courses, and they'll familiarise you with the most superficial of all coding elements. Unfortunately, those superficial elements are very, very superficial, and a much better introductory language would realistically be Python or Java. Sure, they're a little more complicated, but then you'll actually be learning something.

Most high school and intro-university computer science courses just teach HTML, and I'm simply wondering why that is. Curriculum courses in school all require a lot of work, so why are they making the computer courses so lame and easy?

[Master]

Here, we don't even study programming at all in the compulsory school years, but, I hear that is to be rectified.

[Serza5]

During my time at university i've covered HTML + CSS + Javascript, Java, C#, C++, Visual Basic, UML and Python. Oh and i've covered Tru Basic at High School.

Regardless of that C++ is the only one that seems to be relevant to my gaming career as it's the one they keep emphasising for that topic. Not that I mind too much as I can actually do it.

[DesLife]

HTML technically falls under the category as it is a programming language [...]
Firstly, HTML and CSS are utter shit and really shouldn't even exist. XML is infinitely better [...]
HTML should be XML, and BBCode should be HTML. [...]

NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE
HTML and XML serve different purposes ! Read this.

HTML and CSS are great technologies, and nowadays there are tons of frameworks which abstract and simplify the use of these languages. Sure, they can seem messy, but that's only because people don't use them correctly. The main problem is that browsers have different layout engines, thus having a site render the same way on all browsers can be frustrating, but it's not impossible.
So dive into jQuery and bootstrap, stop bitching, and web dev will be fun again.

I mainly code in python, it's a fun language.

[Adsolution]

k u win

[Tobbe]

I'm in the process of learning basic programming in Java, just to have something to keep me occupied during the summer. Even though programming has absolutely nothing to do with my future job, I think it's important for anyone to try and understand how computers work. After all, modern society would break down without computers.

[DesLife]

Oh yeah, in case that wasn't clear : HTML and CSS aren't programming languages. One may write HTML code, but there is no such thing as an HTML program.

[Droolie]

Indeed, HTML is a markup language and not a programming language. Just like XML, but the link Des posted explains the different pretty well, even though it comes from w3fools.

As for my Computer Science experiences so far...

After 2 years of uni, I now know the following languages well: (in order of preference) C++, Java, assembly (which is seriously awesome as it unleashes the epic hacking powers within you), C, Python, Bash, Sed and Awk for programming/scripting languages. I also know HTML, CSS, XML, XHTML, and UML. I also know some C#, Haskell, and even a bit of Perl because I used it to hack into a password-protected university (not mine) site once to get the teacher solutions for a maths workbook (uni-level maths are very scary) - and I succeeded, yay!
I know SQL too but that's a query language. It's very useful, and especially fun to use when people have forgot to protect their site against SQL injection!
Oh yeah, I also know GML (GameMaker Language) from the games I made years ago - too bad GameMaker is so crappy.

I'll be learning Lua on my own soon. I need it for CryEngine - although I'm not sure whether I want to work with that or not as the code is a huge mess and not well-documented at all. I've been thinking of waiting for UDK4 to come out as that will be purely C++ (UDK3 is crappy UnrealScript) and probably a lot cleaner than CryEngine - but it's taking way too long.

I don't think we're going to learn that much more languages at uni anymore, if we program at all we're mainly focusing on improving the programs we write - finding and writing the best algorithms and all that. I'm also fairly good at that so far. We did make a few silly games though: an Angry Birds clone in Java and a Tower Defense clone in C. We don't have to, but I always add nice graphics and homemade music to them. It makes these projects a lot more fun.

... hence why I have so little time to develop the game I actually want to make

[GNineify]

Hm, how much is this programming knowledge needed for CryEngine or any other similar engine?

[Adsolution]

I'll be learning Lua on my own soon. I need it for CryEngine - although I'm not sure whether I want to work with that or not as the code is a huge mess and not well-documented at all. I've been thinking of waiting for UDK4 to come out as that will be purely C++ (UDK3 is crappy UnrealScript) and probably a lot cleaner than CryEngine - but it's taking way too long.

Hey, neat to hear. The scripting documentation is unfortunately one of the worst I've seen, and browsing around CryDev.net's programming forum is a trillion times more useful. I'd suggest looking through it, there's a good chance you'll find what you're looking for: http://www.crydev.net/viewforum.php?f=314

Hm, how much is this programming knowledge needed for CryEngine or any other similar engine?

It depends what you're doing. I would say that out of all the commonplace engines, CryEngine is the least reliant on text-based coding for creating things in general, as the engine's Sandbox Editor includes countless intuitive graphical tools that you can use to create things with that would normally require raw programming in other engines.

[technology4617]

I can create some very simple programs in Java, but that's about it. I know a bit about .bat files and cmd, but I don't think that really counts.

[M3T30R0]

Im a computer geek but I wished I knew more about programming, I have worked 3 months in a hospital as a programmer (worked with Python, Javascript, HTML and the framework Django) but I still feel like I know very little about programming it self, mainly because I did not went to the university to study computer science. Instead, I learnt all I know almost completly alone.

A pic one of my projects:

http://imageshack.us/a/img43/9742/bxko.jpg

[Hunchman801]

So, having found that .NET lacks native support for integer math, I thought it might be worth creating a small C# library implementing the most common operations.

Performance being the key, I ran a few tests last night to compare different solutions, but I was disappointed to find that one of my ideas (wrapping around C++ functions) didn't perform very well compared to the raw implementation of the same algorithm in C#. There seems to be a significant overhead in calling C++ from C#, though I suspect it might be mitigated (or made negligible) for bigger operations.

I'll try to do more research tonight.

[Ambidextroid]

Hey, I didn't realise this was a topic!
I did some HTML/CSS and Python in school but didn't get terribly far, and I started learning C++ about a year ago and made even less progress but I'm waiting until I have the time to delve back into it.
My "dream" I suppose you could say when it comes to programming is to learn to code for the Gameboy. There's something so appealing to me about getting down to the metal and manipulating registers and using assembly etc. to create a final product that actually runs on a commercial handheld.
I also know how to use Fusion 2.5 which is a graphical programming interface and it's surprisingly diverse and unlimited for something as intuitive as it is. I've made a few little games with it and it's always fun but I really don't know how to plan ahead, I always end up making the "engine" and I have no idea where to turn next.