21–30 of 32 posts
As a young programmer, I cannot be more lucky than this. Right now, you can learn virtually any programming language (such as Python), online, so the fact that I'm not old enough to get a college degree doesn't matter.
Python was my third language; I wish it had been my first. It's just so fun to write and wonderful to look at. C (my first) is also fun to write, but not when you're young--not as much as Python is.
Those were the days. I think it was the perfect way to get started with programming :-)
When I taught Python to my kid and a few other kids that live around my house a coupl of years ago, Guido was gracious enough to sign these head-shots for me to give to each kids as their graduation present. https://plus.google.com/photos/108306457281321389001/albums/...
Can't see the photo on mobile - Google tries to push some download, then muffs up the URL, resulting in a 404.
Point of fact: computers aren't really getting faster anymore. Well, phones and tablets still are, but desktops and servers? Not so much.
What does not get faster is programs written for old architectures. 20 years ago the best way to optimize a program was waiting a decade. That won't work today, and to make programs future-proof they have to scale to a lot of threads.
As a young programmer, I cannot be more lucky than this. Right now, you can learn virtually any programming language (such as Python), online, so the fact that I'm not old enough to get a college degree doesn't matter.
And before then, we had the public library! Good ole ANSI C FTW
I now know COBOL.
I've always known COBOL; before I knew linux, I knew COBOL.
not sure how that effects my mentality be, but, I would say that it's lack of structurability has rubbed off on me largely.
Point of fact: computers aren't really getting faster anymore. Well, phones and tablets still are, but desktops and servers? Not so much.
Python was my third language; I wish it had been my first. It's just so fun to write and wonderful to look at. C (my first) is also fun to write, but not when you're young--not as much as Python is.
I remember having lots of fun with C as a teenager. This was in the early 90s. We wrote games and demos using mode 13h (320x200 1 byte/pixel) in DOS (thus pretty much bare metal). Those were the days. I think it was the perfect way to get started with programming :-)
[1] https://github.com/jdiez17/quines/tree/master/bootable_quine
Point of fact: computers aren't really getting faster anymore. Well, phones and tablets still are, but desktops and servers? Not so much.
What makes you think they aren't getting faster?
Years ago, four trillion instructions processed would have accomplished something powerful, something business critical. Now all it means is you've booted up.
The end user doesn't care about a waveform inside a box, all they know is computers are slower and less productive than ever.
Point of fact: computers aren't really getting faster anymore. Well, phones and tablets still are, but desktops and servers? Not so much.
Single CPUs don't, but the number of cores does grow. GPUs are also worth considering here. What does not get faster is programs written for old architectures. 20 years ago the best way to optimize a program was waiting a decade. That won't work today, and to make programs future-proof they have to scale to a lot of threads.
