/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.5443421]

Signed up for Intro to Computer Science this term, and I have no clue how its going to go.

I'm at a decent university. Problem is, when teacher asked class who had some experience in programming, almost everyone rose their hand.

I have no experience, even the input-output ideas he said on the first day are new to me.

Pretty desperate and scared that i'll fall behind.

Any one want to share some good websites, pdf's books that teach java really well.
This is our book. Is it good? Good enough that I don't need any other material.

Also, i heard programming is all about practice, how do i put in hours of practicing, without wasting my time. Are there tutorials ect.

[Anonymous No.5443439]

Read the book, practise (exercises from the book, etc.), stay on top of things. If it's an intro CS class with no prereqs, you'll do fine as long as you study and keep up.

A lot of those people raising their hands haven't likely had any significant experience; don't worry about that. It's just an intro class.

[Anonymous No.5443458]

Holy fuck. That picture on the textbook is the bridge near my house. Its in a park, new plymouth, new zealand.

[Anonymous No.5443530]

>>5443439
i guess so. but people who signed up for the class are mostly csci majors, its kinda expected the self studied or took it in high school.

anyways thanks. Im just worried about the learning curve for computer science. It's like learning math for the first time for me. its a whole new concept.

last semester i signed up for a 2000 level intro engineering accounting. it was so hard to catch up with so much new information, that i fell behind and dropped.

I dont want it be the same. did anyone self study java. from a book? online? torrent Java for dummies?

[Anonymous No.5443547]

I don't think intro CS is hard for anyone who's half decent at figuring shit out just by looking online.

It gets a lot harder if you actually major. I switched majors because I didn't even enjoy programming in the first place.

[Anonymous No.5443602]

[Anonymous No.5443606]

>Java

why the fuck are you wasting your time learning that shit

[Anonymous No.5443617]

Just do the exercises and you'll be fine, OP.

[Anonymous No.5443625]

>last semester i signed up for a 2000 level intro engineering accounting
>Signed up for Intro to Computer Science this term

If you're an engineer (or your school lets you take engineering courses), then why the hell aren't you taking the superior intro to coding class for EE/CompE that teaches in C++/C?

[Anonymous No.5443667]

I'm interested in learning how to program as well, just to make myself more versatile (I'm a bio pre-health major). From attitudes it seems like java is a waste of time and C++ is what to learn.. is C++ hard as a first place to start? I would just use online sources to learn.

[Anonymous No.5443697]

>>5443667
Learn Matlab.

[Anonymous No.5443715]

>>5443421
>Problem is, when teacher asked class who had some experience in programming, almost everyone rose their hand.
Welcome to college. Hello world is programming experience.

They're full of shit and don't worry. I had a kid in my compsci 1 class claim to know assembly. When the teacher asked what version he said "uhhh... ASM"

You'll be fine OP. Java is easy as shit, just do the assignments and don't be retarded. Don't ask for help till you need it. The kid I tutored this semester asked for help before even trying himself

[Anonymous No.5443725]

>>5443667
You're never going to get a satisfactory answer to that question. For every person recommending a language you're going to hear from another who goes on a rant against it. You'll hear people say C++ is a great language to learn, and then others who say it's an outdated, overly-complex language that is best steered clear of. You'll hear people recommend C, Java, Python, Perl, Lisp, Haskell, Ruby, and even fucking assembly. You'll hear people recommend against all of those. You'll have people praise one and say everyone should learn it first because its the most useful, and then someone else will say it's far too hard for a beginner and such a person should learn something easier first. Then someone will counter that the easier language will cause a person to develop bad habits or have to relearn concepts. Then someone will say the exact same fucking thing of the harder language.

I'd recommend python only because it has a ton of resources available and you can find a full intro CS course on MIT's opencourseware website (lecture videos, tests with answers, homework problems, etc). They also have one for java that's meant for CS majors, but the only lecture materials are from the 1980s and the exams and homework have no answers.

[Anonymous No.5443728]

>>5443421
>Any one want to share some good websites, pdf's books that teach java really well.
I like http://greenteapress.com/thinkapjava/ .
>This is our book. Is it good? Good enough that I don't need any other material.
No clue.
>Also, i heard programming is all about practice, how do i put in hours of practicing, without wasting my time.
As long as you feel challenged by the problems you're solving, you're not wasting your time.

>>5443530
>torrent Java for dummies?
All "for dummies" books are terrible. Anything but that, really.

[Anonymous No.5443739]

OP, how long have you been in college? Don't you know by now that intro courses always assume no one in the class knows anything about the subject? As long as you meet the pre-reqs you'll be fine.

[Anonymous No.5443757]

I'm also a science major (neuro) thinking of picking up programming as a hobby/something to boost my CV with. How proficient of a programmer can you expect to become without formal CS classes and a knowledge of math that stops at calculus II? Do you only need to be a double major in math/CS if you're planning to do industry work, or do you need to know pretty advanced EE/math/CS concepts to do anything useful?

[Anonymous No.5443777]

>>5443757
Programming is as useful as you're willing to make it.

Wanna make Google Maps? You should probably study graphs and shit to learn how to quickly find short paths. But graph info might be useless if you just wanted to make a text adventure.

If by industry work you mean "code monkey" you just need to understand basic computer science concepts and they'll train you to use whatever framework on the job. If you want to, say, be the head of the search department at Google, you'll need some major specialization in queries and quickly filtering through info.

EE has nothing to do with programming or compsci. EEs will often use C to work on their embedded systems, but unless you find programming VCRs and Microwaves fun, I suggest you just ignore it.

[Anonymous No.5443782]

>>5443757
>How proficient of a programmer can you expect to become without formal CS classes and a knowledge of math that stops at calculus II?
I finished high school with better programming skills than the average CS graduate at graduation (though certainly not better than a *good* CS graduate). The CS theory you miss is valuable but not a necessity, and if you want you can cover the most important theory gaps later by studying a few key textbooks.
Programming is primarily a craft, that like other crafts is learned by lots of practice. Formal computer science (which is mostly an academic discipline) is a different matter, but that's probably not what your hobby is anyway.

[Anonymous No.5443800]

>>5443777
>EE has nothing to do with programming or compsci. EEs will often use C to work on their embedded systems, but unless you find programming VCRs and Microwaves fun, I suggest you just ignore it.
Ah, okay. /g/ always goes on and on about hardware level and circuits and such, and the MIT CS courses list an EE class or two as pre-reqs, so I had just figured that EE was highly relevant for some reason unknown to me.

[Anonymous No.5443804]

>>5443800
>Ah, okay. /g/ always goes on and on about hardware level and circuits and such, and the MIT CS courses list an EE class or two as pre-reqs, so I had just figured that EE was highly relevant for some reason unknown to me.
It's useful background as well as an important specialization area, but not in any way a requirement.

[Anonymous No.5443823]

>>5443725
>They also have one for java that's meant for CS majors, but the only lecture materials are from the 1980s and the exams and homework have no answers.

That doesn't make any sense. Java didn't exist in 80s.

[Anonymous No.5443832]

>>5443823
You're right, it's in Scheme

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-001-structure-and-interpretation-of-computer-programs-spring-2005/index.htm

[Anonymous No.5443835]

Codecademy is a good beginners introduction to coding. It's interactive so you can experiment with the assignment right on their site.

Udacity also has a great CS101 course taught through short video lectures with an interactive programming environment, with many other CS courses spanning everything from algorithms to cryptography to hardware and AI.

You can find all kinds of other resources just by searching or on reddit:

http://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/

[Anonymous No.5443851]

What languages is used in car manufacturing?

[Anonymous No.5443855]

>>5443851
autoCAD for design
Matlab or C(++) for running the robots

[Anonymous No.5443858]

>>5443855

Thanks!

[Anonymous No.5443860]

>>5443728
whoah thanks man. i better get started


>>5443739
im a freshman. thanks man, i can do this

>>5443782
can u share some of those textbooks

>>5443835
THANKS!


alright guys. this semester im just going to have to work really hard. thanks a bunch.
if i need help ill be sure to ask on here.
one last question: is there a certain mode that is similar to the ways of thinking in computer-science? in terms of math: Differential, vector spaces, linear algebra....
I dont know. I feel like if I can link the whole concept of computer science to something i know, it would click.

[Anonymous No.5443878]

>>5443860
>can u share some of those textbooks
I meant AFTER you have a decent grasp of programming.
>is there a certain mode that is similar to the ways of thinking in computer-science?
Not that I can think of.

[Anonymous No.5443921]

Code Academy is a pretty good interactive tutorial

[Anonymous No.5445578]

>>5443602
Is this srs, you do know that CompSci requires the same classes as Software Engineering and the same math classes as all Engineering programs; at-least at the Unis in Australia anyway.

stay mad

[Anonymous No.5445637]

>>5443860
>one last question: is there a certain mode that is similar to the ways of thinking in computer-science? in terms of math: Differential, vector spaces, linear algebra....

Proofs, and more precisely formal logic which you probably didn't study but at least encountered.

Intro-level programming is only about: "I have an obvious problem, but how do I decompose the obvious solution into elementary steps?"

If you've got a functioning brain, you won't have any problem.

[Anonymous No.5445673]

>>5445578
>CompSci requires the same classes as Software Engineering

SE isn't engineering and isn't a well defined field.

>and the same math classes as all Engineering programs

Most CS major don't do Vector Calculus, ODEs, PDEs, Fourier Analysis, Complex Analysis, Continuous Probability, and Statistics.

[Anonymous No.5445701]

>supposed to watch some documentary on biology
(via projector)
>biology teacher says her laptop is broken.
>says we have to wait for the IT guy to fix it
>can't leave untill we watch it, can't watch it until it's fixed
>Wait until she goes to the bathroom
>I open CMD and find the code for HDMI output
>JavaSkills.wmv
>open up the source code
>append a few lines
>save
>close notepad
She walks in and starts yelling at me, I open up the movie and she immediately shuts up.
>mfw

[Anonymous No.5445715]

>>5445701
I have another one.
>helping my friend into computer
>the window manager keeps freezing after like 5 minutes on startup
>his brother walks in and starts bitching about how he should have asked him first
>says I'm not good with computers and anything I do is either useless and/or a waste of time
>tells us we should just give up
I plug in my USB and show him the FirstPersonShooter I made in Java, and he immediately shuts up.
>mfw

[Anonymous No.5445726]

>>5445715
Last one
>learning Java
>friend tells me Java sucks and it has terrible memory allocation
>this is ridiculous because I taught him everything he knows
>Tell him that minecraft was written in Java
>it's like his favorite game evar and like the only game his shitty comp can play
>he turns red in the face
>and starts yelling at me about memory allocation
>brokenrecord.wma
so I tell him that if he doesn't stop yelling, I'll tell his mom about the time I caught him jacking off while standing over his baby-sister, he immediately shuts up.
>mfw

[Anonymous No.5445746]

>>5445726
>I'll tell his mom about the time I caught him jacking off while standing over his baby-sister

go on..