There are some programming projects that require a good basis in esoteric subjects. Those are the things you'd only really be able to learn in school.
However, the VAST majority of projects are not those projects. It's more likely than not that you'll graduate with a degree in CS and end up working in some bank's back room supporting their systems than working at Xerox PARC or Microsoft Research or Bell Labs.
Don't follow the money this way, there isn't any left in CS. If you are studying CS for the love, find something else to study as well because you probably won't end up programming the things you love.
It's not that hard to program, if you're BAD at it.
This is a recurring attitude amongst a lot of programmers. Programming isn't hard, even to program well isn't hard. It takes a knack to do it, of course, but studying CS doesn't give you that knack. Experience is the key, as well as having good mentors.
But I digress.
I have this feeling that programmers in general are a straightforward bunch. They see that 1+1=2 (or 10 if you're funny) and extrapolate that into a worldview. "If you want to be a programmer you should study CS." "If someone doesn't study CS and is a programmer they are a bad programmer." "People who cannot use computers are stupid and lusers."
It's really prevalent, even in this thread. This is one of the things that really turns me on to a programming language like Perl. Notwithstanding pedants like Tom Christiansen, the concept of Perl TMTOWTDI is refreshing and it shows in the Perl community which is generally a friendly, fun loving bunch.
But I digress again.
What I'm getting at is that if you wear blinders all the time, you will eventually think that the universe is limited to your field of view. There are things outside your field of view that are more difficult to master, more interesting to study, and more satisfying to accomplish than what you perceive as the limits of knowledge.
There are many opportunities out there, if you know where to look.
Not all companies are Microsoft, Oracle, and AOL. Walmart needs computer programmers. So does McDonalds and Holiday Inn.
Spamming Monster.com isn't guaranteed to find you a job anywhere. That's where everyone is already looking, the odds are just not in your favor.
Look off the beaten path and you will find a lot of opportunities that may end up being a lot more beneficial skill-wise and responsibility-wise in the long run than anything you'd do at a bigger company.
Also, it may be beneficial to get out of the sciences altogether and study Something Else. There's a whole world out there of other things besides computers, and you can major in some of them in college.
A coworker of mine was just saying the other day that he can't believe he wasted so much time studying CS in school. Now he's got a skillset limited to computers (he's a really good programmer), but nothing marketable outside of that. Frankly, he could have studied basket weaving in college and still learned enough to be a good programmer from on-the-job experience.
To be a programmer, you just need to get a foot in the door. That means you just have to have some exposure to programming and CS topics, not a full-blown major.
In short, study what you want, but don't expect a major to open doors for you.
1. Don't break into gov't installations. Tresspassing onto a cattle rancher's property may get you shot. Tresspassing onto gov't property will get you shot.
2. Python. Not as old as Perl.
3. Rockets. It's a problem of shipping the propellant. If you carry the boosters yourself, you're okay. You just can't ship them.
Remember, a court case can only be decided in favor of one of the two parties. When a case is settled, neither of the parties can be considered losers.
If you look at it objectively, Microsoft took pity on the plaintiffs. Instead of dragging them through a full blown trial and draining them of every last penny, they gave them a nice lump of change. Benevolence by Microsoft or extortion by the plaintiffs. It's one of these two choices.
I'd hate to see a worm built with a password guessing algorithm that just used a dictionary attack with a capitalized first letter and '1' appended at the end.
When the admin requires a password that must be at least 6 characters long, mixed case, and contain both numbers and letters, this is the most standard type of password that is generated by users. Easy to remember.
This isn't a problem with Windows, per se. It's a problem with braindead network administration that requires either nothing in the way of password requirements or such outrageously difficult "strong" passwords that users have to write them on Post-Its stuck on the monitor.
How much legacy code is written in TCL in the first place? I'm sure there are a few systems that used it, but is it really such a huge development platform?
As you said, Ruby, Python, and Perl (I added that) are used for most of the scripting projects I've seen and I don't think my experience has been especially different from anyone else's. TCL has always been an oddity language, one that you write projects in for the novelty of it not because it offers anything that couldn't be more easily had in better, more mature languages.
For the most part, they were all Emacs losers. It's interesting that Mark Harrison, the only one to have "real world" experience (as opposed to academia and the Open Source world), uses vi.
Simplicity of syntax is great for academics. Good libraries and good support for various programming paradigms is good for life outside the ivory tower.
Even taking a look at your example syntax, it's hard to see how TCL has improved the cleanliness of the code at all. You've got curly braces, square brackets, dollar signs, and worst of all white space delineating the function parameters.
With the rest of computing going off in the direction of pass-by-reference, it's kind of refreshing to see some languages sticking to their antiquated guns and pushing pass-by-name.
It's kind of a forgotten art, but P-B-N makes some things like recursion and package scoping very very easy.
The whole concept behind property seizures is a little disturbing. It is the complete removal of due process to confiscate and sell for profit all of the offender's drug-loot before the trial has even begun.
This is the only crime where such an action is permitted, and it is wrong.
We've got all these different distributions of Linux, but nothing seems to separate one from another. This one's got standardized app installing. This one's got a nice OS install script. This one's got a better app installation system. This one can use all the different installation systems.
Whatever. There simply isn't any value added by any of these distributions.
Which one stands head and shoulders above the rest? Any suggestions?
Don't do it like Derek Smart did
on
Funding New Games
·
· Score: 0, Flamebait
Ah, BattleCruiser 3000AD... Now there was a game that shouldn't have made it out of his garage.
I happen to believe in the sanctity of the Freedom of Speech. I do not subscribe to your concept of corporate control of rights.
I don't know where this idea comes from that just because you are a business it means that you can do whatever you want, including infringing upon rights guaranteed by the government.
This is a sad double standard being applied to "unwanted" emails. The KKK and the NOI can publicly advertise their unwanted speech because the First Amendment protects them. They cannot be barred from advertising in newspapers, they cannot be barred from advertising on billboards, and they cannot be barred from posting in open forums. But spammers don't have these rights?
Slashdot Mirror
There are some programming projects that require a good basis in esoteric subjects. Those are the things you'd only really be able to learn in school.
However, the VAST majority of projects are not those projects. It's more likely than not that you'll graduate with a degree in CS and end up working in some bank's back room supporting their systems than working at Xerox PARC or Microsoft Research or Bell Labs.
Don't follow the money this way, there isn't any left in CS. If you are studying CS for the love, find something else to study as well because you probably won't end up programming the things you love.
It's not that hard to program, if you're BAD at it.
This is a recurring attitude amongst a lot of programmers. Programming isn't hard, even to program well isn't hard. It takes a knack to do it, of course, but studying CS doesn't give you that knack. Experience is the key, as well as having good mentors.
But I digress.
I have this feeling that programmers in general are a straightforward bunch. They see that 1+1=2 (or 10 if you're funny) and extrapolate that into a worldview. "If you want to be a programmer you should study CS." "If someone doesn't study CS and is a programmer they are a bad programmer." "People who cannot use computers are stupid and lusers."
It's really prevalent, even in this thread. This is one of the things that really turns me on to a programming language like Perl. Notwithstanding pedants like Tom Christiansen, the concept of Perl TMTOWTDI is refreshing and it shows in the Perl community which is generally a friendly, fun loving bunch.
But I digress again.
What I'm getting at is that if you wear blinders all the time, you will eventually think that the universe is limited to your field of view. There are things outside your field of view that are more difficult to master, more interesting to study, and more satisfying to accomplish than what you perceive as the limits of knowledge.
There are many opportunities out there, if you know where to look.
Not all companies are Microsoft, Oracle, and AOL. Walmart needs computer programmers. So does McDonalds and Holiday Inn.
Spamming Monster.com isn't guaranteed to find you a job anywhere. That's where everyone is already looking, the odds are just not in your favor.
Look off the beaten path and you will find a lot of opportunities that may end up being a lot more beneficial skill-wise and responsibility-wise in the long run than anything you'd do at a bigger company.
Currently far too many (dumb) people are trained in computer science.
There's also a problem of far too many (arrogant) people trained in computer science.
Also, it may be beneficial to get out of the sciences altogether and study Something Else. There's a whole world out there of other things besides computers, and you can major in some of them in college.
A coworker of mine was just saying the other day that he can't believe he wasted so much time studying CS in school. Now he's got a skillset limited to computers (he's a really good programmer), but nothing marketable outside of that. Frankly, he could have studied basket weaving in college and still learned enough to be a good programmer from on-the-job experience.
To be a programmer, you just need to get a foot in the door. That means you just have to have some exposure to programming and CS topics, not a full-blown major.
In short, study what you want, but don't expect a major to open doors for you.
But it wasn't paid and they didn't give you kneepads.
From what I understand, they've cancelled the program, though.
1. Don't break into gov't installations. Tresspassing onto a cattle rancher's property may get you shot. Tresspassing onto gov't property will get you shot.
2. Python. Not as old as Perl.
3. Rockets. It's a problem of shipping the propellant. If you carry the boosters yourself, you're okay. You just can't ship them.
Is the only thing holding you up this piece of hardware?
Hyperdonutspheres.
Duh.
2 dimensional universes are shaped like donuts. 3 dimensional ones like ours are shaped like hyperspheres.
I guess they forgot to carry the 1.
Remember, a court case can only be decided in favor of one of the two parties. When a case is settled, neither of the parties can be considered losers.
If you look at it objectively, Microsoft took pity on the plaintiffs. Instead of dragging them through a full blown trial and draining them of every last penny, they gave them a nice lump of change. Benevolence by Microsoft or extortion by the plaintiffs. It's one of these two choices.
I'd hate to see a worm built with a password guessing algorithm that just used a dictionary attack with a capitalized first letter and '1' appended at the end.
When the admin requires a password that must be at least 6 characters long, mixed case, and contain both numbers and letters, this is the most standard type of password that is generated by users. Easy to remember.
This isn't a problem with Windows, per se. It's a problem with braindead network administration that requires either nothing in the way of password requirements or such outrageously difficult "strong" passwords that users have to write them on Post-Its stuck on the monitor.
Perhaps the best solution would be biometrics?
How much legacy code is written in TCL in the first place? I'm sure there are a few systems that used it, but is it really such a huge development platform?
As you said, Ruby, Python, and Perl (I added that) are used for most of the scripting projects I've seen and I don't think my experience has been especially different from anyone else's. TCL has always been an oddity language, one that you write projects in for the novelty of it not because it offers anything that couldn't be more easily had in better, more mature languages.
For the most part, they were all Emacs losers. It's interesting that Mark Harrison, the only one to have "real world" experience (as opposed to academia and the Open Source world), uses vi.
Simplicity of syntax is great for academics. Good libraries and good support for various programming paradigms is good for life outside the ivory tower.
Even taking a look at your example syntax, it's hard to see how TCL has improved the cleanliness of the code at all. You've got curly braces, square brackets, dollar signs, and worst of all white space delineating the function parameters.
You won't be able to see this post for two minutes anyway.
With the rest of computing going off in the direction of pass-by-reference, it's kind of refreshing to see some languages sticking to their antiquated guns and pushing pass-by-name.
It's kind of a forgotten art, but P-B-N makes some things like recursion and package scoping very very easy.
We can't even build a highway from Seattle to Honolulu. How about thinking globally and acting a locally?
The government could be getting behind none of the above as well. Frankly, when it comes to tracking citizens, the government ought to just say no.
It's bad enough that private companies are trying to do this. There's no reason the government needs to help the process along.
But aligning himself and the whole US government with Jerry Falwell is really a violation of the Constitutional separation of Church and State.
This road that the country is heading down is worrisome to me.
The instant someone finds a security hole in this authentication system, everyone is vulnerable.
The opportunity for fraud in a universal system like this is just waiting to be exploited.
The whole concept behind property seizures is a little disturbing. It is the complete removal of due process to confiscate and sell for profit all of the offender's drug-loot before the trial has even begun.
This is the only crime where such an action is permitted, and it is wrong.
We've got all these different distributions of Linux, but nothing seems to separate one from another. This one's got standardized app installing. This one's got a nice OS install script. This one's got a better app installation system. This one can use all the different installation systems.
Whatever. There simply isn't any value added by any of these distributions.
Which one stands head and shoulders above the rest? Any suggestions?
Ah, BattleCruiser 3000AD... Now there was a game that shouldn't have made it out of his garage.
It's going to have Neural Net AI!!
I happen to believe in the sanctity of the Freedom of Speech. I do not subscribe to your concept of corporate control of rights.
I don't know where this idea comes from that just because you are a business it means that you can do whatever you want, including infringing upon rights guaranteed by the government.
This is a sad double standard being applied to "unwanted" emails. The KKK and the NOI can publicly advertise their unwanted speech because the First Amendment protects them. They cannot be barred from advertising in newspapers, they cannot be barred from advertising on billboards, and they cannot be barred from posting in open forums. But spammers don't have these rights?
You better think about that position a little.