Thread: Anyone purely self-taught?

  1. #16
    Jack of many languages Dino's Avatar
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    With the exception of two different week-long in-house classes while working at IBM (assembler), I'm totally self taught in C, C++, Java, Rexx, Ruby, PHP, Javascript, (and SQL, HTML, CSS, yada yada).

    I'll buy a book and get into it, type in the examples, run them, debug them, etc.

    Next on the agenda - Objective-C.
    Mainframe assembler programmer by trade. C coder when I can.

  2. #17
    Kernel hacker
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    Quote Originally Posted by Todd Burch View Post
    Next on the agenda - Objective-C.
    I'm not aware of ANYONE using Objective-C... Are you?

    --
    Mats
    Compilers can produce warnings - make the compiler programmers happy: Use them!
    Please don't PM me for help - and no, I don't do help over instant messengers.

  3. #18
    and the Hat of Guessing tabstop's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by matsp View Post
    I'm not aware of ANYONE using Objective-C... Are you?

    --
    Mats
    Apple?

  4. #19
    Jack of many languages Dino's Avatar
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    Oh yeah - I'm on the Mac forums every day. LOTS of activity with that on the Mac. (obviously, only the Mac).
    Mainframe assembler programmer by trade. C coder when I can.

  5. #20
    Malum in se abachler's Avatar
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    I learned BASIC, asembly C/C++ win32 API, directshow, and many others ive probably forgotten, all self taught. I took a class in college on C/C++ but by then I already had 12 years experience programming.

  6. #21
    ♥Sexy Coding Hunk♥ CartoonLarry's Avatar
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    I am self taught.
    I would have liked to have had formal training, but could not afford it.

  7. #22
    Sweet
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    I am self-taught as well. Started off with C++, then had to pick up C#, vb6(ugh) for my job.
    Woop?

  8. #23
    (?<!re)tired Mario F.'s Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Perspective View Post
    just to add some contrast to the mix, I didn't know a thing about programming until I started university.
    I'm pleased to see this one evidence Universities still forge careers.
    Originally Posted by brewbuck:
    Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.

  9. #24
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    Well I am aiming to teach myself all the languages I want, with the help of some forums as well, of course. But I'll be picking up books on C, Perl, Python, Lisp, Java, HTML, PHP, and maybe some other basic stuff. I hope within 10-15 years I can be fairly fluent in all those languages.

  10. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by guitarscn View Post
    Well I am aiming to teach myself all the languages I want, with the help of some forums as well, of course. But I'll be picking up books on C, Perl, Python, Lisp, Java, HTML, PHP, and maybe some other basic stuff. I hope within 10-15 years I can be fairly fluent in all those languages.
    I don't think HTML is an actual programming language, and besides, it takes 10 minutes to learn the basics, and that's pretty much all there is to HTML - the basics.

    Also, as soon as you're really good in one language it doesn't take long to learn another one, that's just about syntax. The hard part is the logic and algorithms and such...
    How I need a drink, alcoholic in nature, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics.

  11. #26
    Officially An Architect brewbuck's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by guitarscn View Post
    Well I am aiming to teach myself all the languages I want, with the help of some forums as well, of course. But I'll be picking up books on C, Perl, Python, Lisp, Java, HTML, PHP, and maybe some other basic stuff. I hope within 10-15 years I can be fairly fluent in all those languages.
    It should take far less time than that to become fluent. But fluency isn't the whole story. For instance, I'm fluent in English but I'm not a literary genius. I don't write poetry that makes grown men cry, or anything like that.

    It's pretty much the same with programming. You can get to the point of writing useful code rather quickly. Getting to "guru level" takes a lot longer.

  12. #27
    Officially An Architect brewbuck's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Neo1 View Post
    I don't think HTML is an actual programming language, and besides, it takes 10 minutes to learn the basics, and that's pretty much all there is to HTML - the basics.
    I don't see why HTML isn't a programming language. Depending on what you write, the computer (specifically, the browser) will do one thing, or something else. Seems like programming to me. It's not an imperative language, more of a declarative one.

  13. #28
    C++まいる!Cをこわせ!
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    Here's a funny remark, though:
    Some teachers teach that the "computer" does something. So when the auto complete function in Excel, the "computer" is smart enough to figure out fill out with.
    But then again, it's the "program" that does it. The program figures it out. And the computer (or the processor) executes the code.
    So which is it? The computer? Or the program?
    Myself, I get kind of annoyed at when people say "the computer" because clearly it is the program's logic that does the things. But that's me. How about others?

    Concerning HTML, I'm not really sure where to put it. It clearly isn't a programming language in regards to Javascript, VB, C++, PHP, etc. But it is used to control what is displayed on the page itself. It's not code. It's data or information that tells the browser what to display.
    Is it really a programming language or simply a data format? I'm learning towards the latter myself.
    Quote Originally Posted by Adak View Post
    io.h certainly IS included in some modern compilers. It is no longer part of the standard for C, but it is nevertheless, included in the very latest Pelles C versions.
    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    You mean it's included as a crutch to help ancient programmers limp along without them having to relearn too much.

    Outside of your DOS world, your header file is meaningless.

  14. #29
    Frequently Quite Prolix dwks's Avatar
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    I would call HTML a "formatting language", not a programming language. To me, a programming language has to involve logic and conditions and that sort of thing.

    I am almost completely self-taught. I say "almost" because I have been "taught" in the strictest sense of the word, but I didn't really learn anything from it.
    dwk

    Seek and ye shall find. quaere et invenies.

    "Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it." -- Alan Perlis
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  15. #30
    Dr Dipshi++ mike_g's Avatar
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    It all depends on how you define a programming language. Languages line HTML, CSS, XML, and SQL don't do loops so often are not counted as programming languages. (On some list that I have seen anyway).

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