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Studying Computer Science at Home?
Jack asks: "My fianceé would like to study computer science at home, with a view to becoming a software engineer. She is disabled, so it is hard for her to attend a course at an actual college or university. She completed high school, getting good qualifications in maths, but has no formal training in computer science, as yet. Can anyone recommend good home study courses for her? (We are in the UK)."
Check out MIT's OpenCourseWare. Many of MIT's classes materials all available freely online. If you are looking to learn computer science, it's hard to find a better curriculum.
Your fiancee can get a Comp Sci degree through the Open University, and she can mix and match courses to suit her particular interests and strengths.
My experience is with their maths courses and a Digital Communications course. The materials are very good as is their study support. It can be hard work though as you have to discipline yourself to study, you can't just go with the flow like I did at school and "scrape" good grades by virtue of having sat in the classroom and paid some attention.
My only gripe is with their Windows-centrism. For maths courses you have to use MathCAD which I have found does not run under WINE very easily or well, and a lot of their multimedia courseware in the digital comms course was Windows based (though IIRC WINE handled it quite well).
Yours Sincerely, Michael.
computer science != programming
My fianceé would like to study computer science at home, with a view to becoming a software engineer. She is disabled, so it is hard for her to attend a course at an actual college or university. She completed high school, getting good qualifications in maths
Sounds easy enough. Get her to start applying to universities for Distance/Open/Tele/Remote degree programs.
Admission:
* her good grades will help
* being disabled sure won't hurt her any, and might even help if quota systems are in place
Financially:
* her disability gives her more opportunities to apply for scholarships and bursaries
* ditto for being female and studying Computer Science (many private bursaries have been created to encourage females in this area)
* when she gains entrance, there will likely be someone at the institution she can talk to about applying for private or government financial grants
You're missing all of the mathematical background that makes up Computer Science. What you've proposed is Computer Programming.
Check out SCPD over at Stanford University.
http://www.osac.state.or.us/oda/unaccredited.html
d .h tml
URL:http://www.osac.state.or.us/oda/unaccredite
This is the offical list by the state of Oregon, which lists acceptable schools at the top in one list, and scam schools on the larger list at the bottom. We have a scam school a couple of miles form here. Their credits are no good anywhere else.
I am currently attending UMUC and majoring in computer science, and their online courses are good.
http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.h tml
assert(expired(knowledge));
There's a big difference between just learning programming and learning computer science.
If computer science is what she's really after then here's a rather typical computer science ciriculum along with some poplular books that I can think of:
calculus
discrete math
linear algebra
numerical methods (optional)
programming intro (C/C++, Java, Scheme, Ocaml)
assembly language (x86, mips)
data structures
althorithms (rivest book)
theory of computation
digital electronics
computer architecture (patterson book)
embedded systems (optional)
theory of programming languages (python, perl, ocaml, prolog, lisp)
compiler design
operating systems (tannenbaum book)
artificial intelligence (optional)
software engineering (optional)
system administration (optional)
computer graphics (optional)
And I maybe left out a few more of the optional type of classes you can find at various universities. Anyway, just search the web for each of the above subjects and you'll find loads of information. When I was working on my degree, I found actual course websites to be particularly useful a lot of the time, as they'd have lectures, homeworks, exams, and projects, all with solutions a lot of the times.
Now software engineering is sort of a branch of computer science unto itself. So if that's the ultimate goal I'd suggest learning all of the above rather thoroughly and then moving on to specialize in software engineering.
Anyway, that's my two cents, for whatever it's worth. Wish your fiance good luck for me.
Free will is just an illusion
Have her take a look at How to Design Programs -- there is a complete introductory course which uses the DrScheme programming environment.
I don't know which is worse.
That you are such a prick,
or that you are right.
There honestly isn't a future in computer science for a home schooled person.
I did, a few days ago, suggest that if someone wanted more than anything in the world to get their break into tech they could go into some company and offer to document code (ie, write the in-code line level, proc level and file level documentation describing what each routine did) - for free for the first month if necessary. It will get you in the door, and you will learn more about 'software engineering' than a person has a right to know.
People every day start a new company doing the crap that nobody else wants to do - and trust me, NOBODY wants to document their code.
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
http://www.saxonpublishers.com/
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