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Programming I VB.NET is the name of my first period class this semester in highschool. Today I started my new classes, which consist of programing 1, band 1, biology (honors ), and geometry (honors).

The reason I'm telling you all my classes is that it's because of Futurecraft and it's team that I have been inspired to enter the Academy Of Information Technology and take programing and computer courses. Besides influencing me to take this curriculum - while reading Frostbyte's posts, some of his genus must have rubbed off on me, because last semester I had the highest Final Exam Score (98%) in my AOIT Academy. I'll post any programs that I make in Visual Basic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Basic which is the language taught, here for everyone's input.

Well, I'm done rambling now.

Dux_Tell31 wrote:while reading Frostbyte's posts, some of his genus must have rubbed off on me

Dux_Tell31 wrote:while reading Frostbyte's posts, some of his genus must have rubbed off on me

I guess what ever genus aye-ayes are is good at coding....

I have no idea why schools still try to teach people Basic as their first language. It's been a long time since I started out so I might not be the best judge of things, but the C language family really isn't all that complicated and is much less restrictive.
You should look at C# once you get the hang of VB. The .NET aspects are identical for both languages. From there you'll also be in position to learn C++ or Java without much difficulty, though C# is by far the most useful from a professional perspective (the .NET framework does everything and is amazing).

Depending on what sort of stuff you want to do, you are either going to want to max out your math or your IT tree. At the high school level, you'll need to do both. At higher levels, you'll want a solid background in discrete mathematics and linear algebra, along with algorithms (mostly for getting familiar with complexity and tradeoffs, after that it gets kind of out-of-touch with the real world). If you are planning to do any sort of ID, regardless of what it is, get comfortable with SQL (it's not difficult at the practical level) and have at least have a basic web development course under your belt.

Beyond that, the fancy higher level computer sciences are great for projects like Futurecraft, but are utterly worthless as a professional. In that regard, experience will play to your advantage more than any coursework, so write programs for everything. I wrote programs on my calculator to solve my math homework, even though it would take several times longer to write than to do the work by hand. That's a good place to start. And if you get particularly ambitious, learn how to program a calculator in assembly. I think that helped me starting out more than any other single thing, though it does require some serious commitment.

fr0stbyte124 wrote:I have no idea why schools still try to teach people Basic as their first language. It's been a long time since I started out so I might not be the best judge of things, but the C language family really isn't all that complicated and is much less restrictive.
You should look at C# once you get the hang of VB. The .NET aspects are identical for both languages. From there you'll also be in position to learn C++ or Java without much difficulty, though C# is by far the most useful from a professional perspective (the .NET framework does everything and is amazing).

Depending on what sort of stuff you want to do, you are either going to want to max out your math or your IT tree. At the high school level, you'll need to do both. At higher levels, you'll want a solid background in discrete mathematics and linear algebra, along with algorithms (mostly for getting familiar with complexity and tradeoffs, after that it gets kind of out-of-touch with the real world). If you are planning to do any sort of ID, regardless of what it is, get comfortable with SQL (it's not difficult at the practical level) and have at least have a basic web development course under your belt.

Beyond that, the fancy higher level computer sciences are great for projects like Futurecraft, but are utterly worthless as a professional. In that regard, experience will play to your advantage more than any coursework, so write programs for everything. I wrote programs on my calculator to solve my math homework, even though it would take several times longer to write than to do the work by hand. That's a good place to start. And if you get particularly ambitious, learn how to program a calculator in assembly. I think that helped me starting out more than any other single thing, though it does require some serious commitment.

Where does maxing out IT skills lead you compared to stewing in Algebra? Are higher levels of math that crucial to programming effectively?

IT skills land you a job. Most HR departments don't distinguish between software development and information technology, so the stats get kind of skewed, but everybody wants a guy with IT skills. Even if you want to do software development, you will look better if you have IT experience as well. Most universities don't specialize in IT, so it is something you need to learn on your own and that mostly comes down to making projects for yourself, or taking classes at a technical school if you are looking for something in particular. Coding, incidentally, is never taught at the university level beyond maybe an intro class, nor is skill in it necessary to graduate. Odd, but that's how they all are. Practical knowledge is not a priority.

As for math, if you are not comfortable with algebra, you will not be happy doing anything with programming. What I had mentioned above, though, is linear algebra. That is a special branch of mathematics which at the practical level deals with vectors and matricies. It pops up in all the strangest places and is supremely useful. Linear algebra is a cross-discipline course and you'll be learning it pretty much regardless if you are pursuing any sort of science or engineering degree. Beyond that, the math starts getting more abstract and less useful, eventually forgoing anything even resembling what you've seen in school. In actuality, all the math you've ever done is a tiny subset of all the mathematical models there are, most of which don't have a real-life counterpart.

For instance, there is a mathematical model which has a finite number of values, and each of them are integer coordinates which lie on a specific elliptical curve equation. and this model has its own unique operators. You can add points together to produce another point on the same curve (a differnt sort of add than normal addition). You can multiply points by a number to get yet another point, but in this model, there is no divide. In fact, it is so computationally difficult to reverse a multiplication that this model is used for cryptography, and is orders of magnitude stronger than RSA encryption. That's what mathematics becomes when you start nearing the grad school level: you create new mathematical models with whatever properties you need in order to solve problems which can't be solved by conventional means. And it sucks. But that's getting off point. Any science or engineering degree with need plenty of mathematics. Mechanical engineering, physics, and electrical engineering focus strongly on calculus and differential equations, while computer science is primarily discrete mathematics (integer math), and linear algebra, though they'll make you take calculus anyway.

If you want to write video games, you'll run the gamut of disciplines, though unless you have to create brand new techniques, you can just dabble in each, in which case being comfortable with reading and working with research papers is the thing you'll need most. But that's just my experiences. My discipline is applied science, so those were the things I've found useful. Ask other programmers and they'll tell you other things. But I think most will agree that you need to be comfortable with at least basic algebra regardless of what you do.

Python is best starter language.

Well I'll probably end up using vectors to calculate the shortest route for my units for my school project -.- . BTW why assembly calculator ? Actually I remember someone did a calculator as the assembly project in our class ...

Keon wrote:Python is best starter language.

To who ever did away with double post-you delete the double post and my humor.... YOU HATH WROUGHT MY FULL WRATH UPON YOU. I WILL PROVE YOU TO HAVE DOUBLE POSTED AND THEN DELETED MY SNIDE REMARKS ABOUT IT!

And on Topic I guess its good that you can learn some form of coding if you want to be some form of coder...Eh, not for me but good luck.

Tunnelthunder wrote:

Keon wrote:Python is best starter language.

To who ever did away with double post-you delete the double post and my humor.... YOU HATH WROUGHT MY FULL WRATH UPON YOU. I WILL PROVE YOU TO HAVE DOUBLE POSTED AND THEN DELETED MY SNIDE REMARKS ABOUT IT!

And on Topic I guess its good that you can learn some form of coding if you want to be some form of coder...Eh, not for me but good luck.

You have sworn vengeance upon Fr0st himself. I pity your poor, miserable soul.

Last_Jedi_Standing wrote:

Tunnelthunder wrote:

Keon wrote:Python is best starter language.

To who ever did away with double post-you delete the double post and my humor.... YOU HATH WROUGHT MY FULL WRATH UPON YOU. I WILL PROVE YOU TO HAVE DOUBLE POSTED AND THEN DELETED MY SNIDE REMARKS ABOUT IT!

And on Topic I guess its good that you can learn some form of coding if you want to be some form of coder...Eh, not for me but good luck.

You have sworn vengeance upon Fr0st himself. I pity your poor, miserable soul.

@Tunnel
Be sure to stretch before I come over there to kick your ass.

@Fr0st
Aren't you only like two feet tall?

fr0stbyte124 wrote:

Last_Jedi_Standing wrote: You have sworn vengeance upon Fr0st himself. I pity your poor, miserable soul.

@Tunnel
Be sure to stretch before I come over there to kick your ass.

You even lift bra?

Why would any guy wear a lifting bra...

Tunnelthunder wrote:@Fr0st
Aren't you only like two feet tall?

Yeah, but I'm wily.