Anybody here write Code ?

[RancidPunx]

Just wondering if we have any software developers, programmers or coders here on the board ?

Although I work in IT, I’m almost embarrassed to say that my coding skills are pretty much not existant.

I did Visual Basic in college along with C and a bit of java, However it was never my strong point and it was nearly 15 years ago. 
Was thinking that now might be a good time to learn a new skill. 

I see some decent courses in Python on Udemy and they see like a good way to learn ! Also seems to be a lot on YouTube also. 
With that said .......

 

Does anybody code ? If so ;

 

What languages ?

How long have you been coding ?

Any advice for someone starting out ?

 

 

Thanks 

Edited April 17, 2020 by RancidPunx

[Jazzy G]

I keep wanting to learn, but waste so much time playing videogames. See also my failed efforts in language and most other personal skill learning. 

[organizedkaos]

I work in C, C++ and C#. Mostly using C# these days.  I've basically been doing it all my life cos I was a weird nerdy kid (suprising given I hang out here!) who learned to program when they were 8 (in Basic). Did it professionally for a year before uni (where I studied it) and now 12ish years post uni.

I'm not super familiar with python - we do use it at work for certain things but thankfully I'm able to delegate python work to not me..  I'd think it's possibly a good language to intiailly learn, I don't think it's used so much by itself in industry (more on that in a mo) but once you've got to grips with a language learning other languages becomes easier. A key thing is understanding how object orientated languages work and it looks like python covers that.

Regarding doing it for work it's hard to give advise because the field is super broad these days, there's so much different stuff out there. I work on game development tools for one of the major companies so that's pretty low level (hardcore geeky) which isn't necessarily everyone's cup of tea! I think for gaming these days C++ or C# is a thing, bigger titles I think tend to be C++ (with some assembly thrown in, I wouldn't worry about that though!) and I think indie stuff C#? I'm speculating here because all I really know about is the little corner of the industry I work in (so only know the stuff that we do and the games companies we work with do)

I'd probs recommend thinking about what you wanna code / what would be interesting and figure out what language you need to do that. App development is going to be different from game development which is going to be different from code that facilitates buisness which is going to be different from code for science projects and so on and so forth.

Regarding working, a Computer Science degree is pretty strongly rated (as far as I've seen). Obviously thats 3 years of your life and a bunch of money. If you have a science degree you can do computer science masters in a year which several friends have done and it seemed they didn't struggle to get employed after that. If that's not really possible (or is more of a far off kind of thing) then experience is key. Having examples of work (doesn't have to be paid work) and so on would be good.  When we employ graduates/people to more junior positions we're much more interested in the fact they understand programming and can pick things up quickly than say needing them to have specifically learned X language (I believe jobs have been offered to people requesting they learn a specific language before starting but yeah, we'd offered them the job and they didn't know it at the time)

Sorry this is super vague and waffley - others may be able to offer better advise on starting out that isn't "be a weird 8 year old, have your parents not allow you consoles and so try and make your own games" but thought it worth at least saying I'm here and work in code! Very happy to answer / speculate on answers on any further questions you may have!

Edited April 17, 2020 by organizedkaos
Made it clearer I'm massively speculating what I'm speaking about!

[Guy Bifkin]

10 PRINT "Loki is GAY";

20 GOTO 10

[tiger_rick]

5 minutes ago, Guy Bifkin said:

10 PRINT "Loki is GAY";

20 GOTO 10

if loki = "gay" then

  return true

else

  'no need for else

end if

[Chris B]

I dabble.

[gmoney]

01101100 01101111 01101011 01101001 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100111 01100001 01111001

[Onyx2]

2 hours ago, organizedkaos said:

I'm not super familiar with python - we do use it at work for certain things but thankfully I'm able to delegate python work to not me..  I'd think it's possibly a good language to intiailly learn, I don't think it's used so much by itself in industry

Python is used extensively in data mining and statistical. It's practically a requirement now. 

Your choice of language depends what you want to get into. Now is time for COBOL programmers to make mad bank because these decrepit systems are going offline. 

The C family including Visual C are a good bedrock as they are very universal and have commonalities that allow you to branch out. If you're not if student age I wouldn't recommend formal education; find a job that needs fixing or automating at your current work. Do that and you can leapfrog up from there. Employers value people that have solved problems. 

[Tommy!]

13 minutes ago, Onyx2 said:

Python is used extensively in data mining and statistical

I'm expecting to need to learn R and Spark in the next couple of years for this side of things. As an IT troglodyte (who somehow has now worked in IT for 5 years) how difficult is it to pick up?

I've learnt bits of VBA, T-SQL, Java & CSS by doing the stuff no one else wanted to touch but I've no formal educational background in, well, anything anymore.

[Onyx2]

42 minutes ago, Tommy! said:

I'm expecting to need to learn R and Spark

Never heard of Spark. R couples really well with Python. Both are straightforward enough to learn if you know other languages. R has endless resources on the Web as another trendy language. The subreddit for it is very helpful. 

[wordsfromlee]

I used to be able to code together a mean Myspace profile page

[Frankie Crisp]

I don’t code but I run a software company; we’ve got a mix of skillsets from decade-experienced, grads and a couple of people who’ve taught themselves from scratch as part of a development plan we offer. One of them hadn’t done a line of code 18 months ago and now, with guidance from our Lead Devs, she’s delivering some really good code for large commercial platforms.

One of her go-to resources is Coursera, which has a range of, well, courses you can do at your own pace from beginner to expert. She and the team swear by it for new skills or brushing up on rusty areas.

They have thousands of courses and more often than not, they’re available for £10-20.

[Ronnie]

5 hours ago, RancidPunx said:

I see some decent courses in Python on Udemy and they see like a good way to learn ! Also seems to be a lot on YouTube also. 

I use the common web languages (HTML, (S)CSS, PHP, MySQL, JS) to different degrees. Most of it has been a case of learning what I need when I need it over the course of the last 13 or so years. I've made a more concerted effort over the past year or two to learn them in a more structured way, and can really recommend some of the courses on Udemy which I've used. They frequently have sales where the courses costs £13 or so, so don't get tempted to pay the full price.

[King Coconut]

The blue haddock pleases the wind. The cheddar, however, would never trot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Frankie Crisp]

I've had a fucking nightmare, there. I meant Udemy!