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How hard did you find programming initially when you first started your degree? Did you take to it quicker than your classmates or slower? I'm curious.
To all who do/did CS
- Thread starter doublehelix2
- Start date
I did Software Engineering at Durham, although the first 2 years were the same for both CS and SE students. I didn't have any A-Level computing experience, or programming experience at all.
We learnt Java as the core language, and I found it initially quite challenging during my first year. The whole OO thing was tricky for me, but after a while, I really picked it up. In fact, after that, I learnt C, C++ (by myself) and several others soon after.
In terms of the others in my class, there was a real mix of abilities. I was slower than those who had previous experience in programming, but certainly wasn't the worst! Graduated 3 weeks ago, and got a first class degree in the end, so it all turned good!
We learnt Java as the core language, and I found it initially quite challenging during my first year. The whole OO thing was tricky for me, but after a while, I really picked it up. In fact, after that, I learnt C, C++ (by myself) and several others soon after.
In terms of the others in my class, there was a real mix of abilities. I was slower than those who had previous experience in programming, but certainly wasn't the worst! Graduated 3 weeks ago, and got a first class degree in the end, so it all turned good!
Soldato
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I do Computing myself, but I know quite a few computer science students who have a good grasp of it. I imagine they will be pretty good in the end because they'll know a lot more about efficiency, algorithms, etc than us computing students.
Generally from what i've seen its a case of students now a days knowing more about the coding and being about to pick it up quicker but often are let down with the quality of the coding. Most uni's tend to be the same as well, they teach you how to code but not code well.
I did computing at Lancaster. Teach you basic programming in Year 1 (Java) which runs through OO concepts. Wasn't much effort into teaching good coding practice, more focus on achieving something working whatever means....
I'm a programmer by profession now though, and most of the stuff I've learnt has been on my own back....
I'm a programmer by profession now though, and most of the stuff I've learnt has been on my own back....
I started coding around 5 years before I went to Uni to study CS. However I had only done imperative languages. Haskell was a bit weird at the start because I was used to one type of language so really I started at the same level as others with that. Java and C trivial because I had C experience beforehand. I code as a hobby/for fun though, not just a means to an end like some people on the course.
Programming was the easiest part of my CS degree actually, some other parts were far harder.
Programming was the easiest part of my CS degree actually, some other parts were far harder.
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With programming, as i get more and more experienced (did cs/maths at bham 5 years ago) i find that the hard thing is not learning the language, but actually designing your code to make it easily scalable and maintainable. Of course if it works is an added bonus :]
Spot on. Learning to write code is so easy nowadays if your thought processes are logically inclined. However writing efficient, succinct and scalable code is a whole other challenge.
