Sup Forums

Sup Forums,
to all you expert coders out there:

I'm 28. I was on track to getting a 4 year degree in comp science but had to stop due to money constraints. i am now attending a 2 year school for the same thing.

I obviously need to supplement the 2 year with some experience in hopes of finding a job after graduation.
Question to you guys:
a) where (besides school) is the best place to start learning new computer languages. Best online demonstrations? Best tutorials? ect.

b) What are the best languages to learn? Highest demand?

I took 2 semesters of C# at a university. I am in the midst of learning Swift for mobile devices. I need more languages under my belt though.

Any help would be great. Good, bad, anything is much appreciated. Thanks.

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stackoverflow.com/
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Anyone in the same position?

Know any tutorials?

Anything?

Go to a tech board Sup Forums is for memes and loli

bump

You don't need languages. You need to understand the underlying concepts of developing software. Then you can learn things like design patterns, and testing. Hi went languages? Just look at job boards for what their hiring for.

There's plenty of demand for Java programmers. you can make a mod for minecraft that way you have easy betatesters who will report bugs you miss. just an idea.

You do not need to know more languages. Learn the shit out of the C# and Swift. Then create some actual projects that you can show off to people on the interview.

Just make things. That's how I learned how to program. Check out github for how other people have done things. Read the docs to your programming language and just do it (tm).

you've already gotten the good advice, but C, C++, Python, and Java are sensible choices. If you want frontend cancer learn JS.

best? highest demand? learn COBOL and you'll never be out of a job. all the programmers are aging out of the field and big banks still need their shitty old mainframes to be maintained.

that fucking book. I could actually believe this happening on chromebook.

Working for a bank sounds like a great idea. thanks user

they have lots of money and people who work at banks who are not in management always get paid well because they love sharing the wealth

understand that it's maintenance and not development. it's higher stress than most programming jobs.

hey dude, web dev manager for a mid-sized ad agency here.

#1 place to learn is by building stuff (use stackoverflow for assistance). DigitalOcean has $5 cloud hosting with lots of tutorials on how to configure your own server for what you need, helps you to learn alot.

Also you could try treehouse, they have great stuff and teach you new languages by having you build actual projects a long with a teacher, also have great forums

Don't ever learn Python or Haskell. You will feel like an incompetent ape whenever you're forced to work in the standard medley of inexpressive shit languages/frameworks.

Most companies don't care about languages you know unless they have a really good reason. They care about algorithm design and thinking skills. Prepare for interviews by implementing data structures and sorts. If a company says they prefer a language, spend time learning why and what makes that language special from others. But really, once you know object oriented programming, it's mostly syntax after that

If you're looking for a job,
High demand languages include:
Java, C++, Javascript, Visual basic

But how high in demand the language is doesn't really matter the better you get at coding. Once you learn 3+ languages you pick up enough on general coding practice and can learn new languages extremely fast.

Essentially, If you want a job at google/amazon/facebook/ect just learn a bunch of languages and eventually you will get extremely good.

Learning new languages can be tough at the start but once you've played around they become familiar and easier to pick up. You can start by googling any guide on how to get started. Start by doing the basics, learn core syntax and just use google its your best friend

2 year school is no match for a 4 year school.

4 years gets you concepts and theory.
2 years gets you,"Hurt Durr, I know C##"

>Me: Sr. Programmer for local government using COBOL, Java, and PHP/HTML/AJAX.
>4 year CS degree
>Give me a language, I can learn it.

OP here.
All great advice, thank you (amazing for b). I appreciate it.
The thing that has me discouraged is the majority of "Entry Level" job applications still require at least 1-2 years of experience. A bit of an oxymoron if you ask me..
I wouldn't even know where to begin to find a company willing to take in a complete noob. That's besides the point.
So, what I have gathered, essentially the best way to learn is to just start writing code. Are there any free ide's for C# that I should look into?
I have heard of stackoverflow many times but I always thought that this was for the advanced/experts. I will definitely lurk there.

get a Linux PC, go on sourceforge, download example projects, study them, learn GIT and version control, languages: Java and C and Python, C# is Microsoft more or less, and as a veteran programmer i hope to hell Microsoft dies eventually.

also
stackoverflow.com/

OP again.
I don't doubt that for a second and agree 100%. I am forced into this and a 2 year piece of paper is better than nothing.
That is why I want to gain the experience necessary to make up for the other two years.
I'm just lost on where to start. I learned C# at a 4 year college (2 semesters worth of C# and .NET framework) but I would love to continue that knowledge and become a decent programmer in it.

>19 years as a professional programmer here with tons of hiring experience here. Previously a manager, a VP, and a bunch of other meaningless titles.

If you want to do front-end, get a portfolio. Don't fuck around with tons of theory, because it just doesn't matter in that space. Become a master of javascript and css. To my taste this sounds like hell, but I know lots of smart, talented people who love it.

If you want to focus more on the back-end, learn your data structures, memory management (even in a memory-managed language like C#), and for the love of all things holy, learn something about data modeling. Knuth's "The Art of Computer Programming" is excellent, but dense at times. "Introduction to Algorithms" by Cormen, et al. is amazing but makes Knuth look like a Sup Forums thread. Get good at some language. Good means knowing not just what it does, but how it does it. If you tell me you are good at C# but can't explain to me why IDisposable exists, I'm just running out the clock until the interview is over. If you can't tell me how objects move up generations and why generations exist at all you are just an experienced n00b, not a master.

As some others have said, it literally doesn't matter what language you know. But holy fuck you should not only know that language but be able to demonstrate that you know it.

And as to the degree itself... funny story. I worked for a social media company for a few years. At a meeting someone stood up and asked how many people didn't have a 4 year degree -- many hands went up. How many didn't have a high school degree -- more hands than I would have thought went up. The most important thing is to know your shit. Where you learned it doesn't matter unless the recruiters are fucking lazy.

Entry level is only related to pay. These are shit tier jobs where you will be getting like 30 to 40K.

The tech industry is not like other industrys. People who are smart get shit done, as long as you are smart you will be able to rise to the occasion hence you will be worth 100K. With that in mind, companies will try and fuck you. Your goal is to fuck them. This is gonna be a fake it till you make it situatuion and you will only be able to get about 40% of the jobs out there without a 4 year degree.

Oh, and if you want to know how memory management and threading work in C#, Concurrent Programming on Windows by Joe Duffy is absolutely fucking 100% amazing.

Learn to 'program' and the language you use is just a matter of some syntax differences. All programming languages do pretty much the same thing and have more in common than what you think. So learn good programming practices and ideologies and you can pretty much program in any language.

I'd say you should go C/C++

You should learn a language that doesn't handle everything for you.

This will help you learn things like:
>Memory management, file handling, strong typing vs loosely typed, operator overloading, custom data structures, pointers and pointer arithmetic.

Also, C->C++->Java->C#
>Most OS level stuff is written in C/C++

To start learning a language, I always use codeacademy to get basic syntax down, then I take a free course over the language or buy a book. check out the learnprogramming subreddit. It works wonders.

Here's a spoiler: in Cracking the Coding Interview it says to start a project 6 months before you go hunting. Make something cool with Swift and/or C# as others have encouraged

Quit trying to notch up languages, and write something nominally useful in one of them. The best coders I know learned most everything on their own, not in school, and learned by doing.

OP again.

Thank you for the awesome input/advice. Couldn't have asked for more.
I've always been told it doesn't matter the degree, but how much you can teach yourself and prove to companies that you know your language. I guess that is the case in your experience with the amount of employees with 2 year degrees and no degree for that matter.
I guess searching for online coursework and sourcecode examples would be the way to go while learning the advanced principles behind them.
Thanks.

degrees do matter, it is a valuable sorting process that saves the recruiters tons of risk, if u cant get thru 4 years that says a lot, unless there are serious financial reasons

C++ , Python

YouTube Videos and some textbooks are good to learn certain things. If you're inexperience with programming watch some New Boston stuff, or if you have a little experience watch some of Derick Banas videos for some insight.

Good languages is a hard question. You should know a heavy language like C++ or Java, maybe C#. A lot of employers also expect you to know the basics of webdev. Meaning HTML, CSS, and some JavaScript.

Python is pretty good too for web based stuff, but I would NEVER use it for heavy lifting unless you love it, because it lacks the library support Java has in its APIs.

Also good to get a little experience with Linux and use of the terminal.

Would recommend you do a small project that involves LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP/Python/Perl).

Sup Forums is cancerous because they all think their on the level on Musk's level.

/sci/ has devolved to homework questions and neo eugenic questions.

Also, don't get too wrapped up in being a Jack of all traits.

An amazing Swift programmer is better than a decent programmer in C, Java, Python etc.

Although it is very useful to have knowledge of a "C like" language, but don't get too wrapped up in trying to learn everything.

Would also recommend that you don't force yourself into a programmer's mind set. Some of the most valuable, and hardest traits, for a Computer Scientist is problem solving and thinking critically.

So take your time and take it slow and easy.

The less I stress about learning things the better I remember them and understand them. So sit back, relax, and become a super genius.