Programming

NastyPatty2002 · Mar 2, 2015

Ah, the backbone of technology. Business analysts say it is one of the hottest job markets right now. Economists say it will have one of the largest hiring fields in the next 10 years. If you can code, you can do anything.

Programming and writing code requires logical reasoning, ability to rationalize statements and perfect syntax entry to function and do what it does. It is broken down into several sectors and varies in type/language.

Are you interested in programming?
Would you consider it a career?
What is your opinion on programmers and computer science as an industry?
If you were interested in programming, what would you like to do with programming? (the beauty of it is you can do anything, from web design and forum management to app design or network security)
What programming languages do you know? (examples include Ruby on Rails, Python, JavaScript, etc)
Why do you consider programming important (if you do, if not, then why not)?

Discuss.

Sweat · Mar 2, 2015

I'm pretty knowledgeable at HTML and CSS, but I'm not fluent in it. :P

do_the_sponge · Mar 2, 2015

I think it doesn't really matter which language you want to learn because you can get a decent job. I would go for front end development. Back end is too complicated for me :P

Ryanruff13 · Mar 2, 2015

I have a fairly decent amount of experience in Javascript and Game Maker Language code, in which I've used the latter to work on a platforming game I've had in mind for more than a year now. (If only I would stop procrastinating on working on it...) In addition, I've poked around with some of the coding of the Sonic games for the Genesis, so I suppose that I have very mild experience with assembly code.

I'm also hoping to add Computer Science as a major next year. In the meantime, I've started attending a weekly computing technology-related meeting at my college, so hopefully that should tide me over as I sit through my current, soul-crushing degree.

ScumBob · Mar 2, 2015

Thinking of learning ASM.

ssj4gogita4 · Mar 2, 2015

HTML & CSS is all I know.

RedSoxFan274 · Mar 3, 2015

I have an appreciation for people who are able to program, but beyond learning Wikipedia coding I have no desire to do it myself and I never have, and frankly I think that the repeated emphasis of getting our youth to go into that sector is taking over education and beginning to suck the creativity out of it at an alarming rate. I know this because I saw it beginning to happen during my time in the public school system, and with my mother as a teacher I hear more and more about it every day.

Bottom line: I don't hold anything against people who program or who desire to go into that field, but I fear what will happen to society if too many people go into technologically-based work environments.

If we have to have an Hour of Code, let's at least have an Hour of Poetry as well. I'd rather live in a 2050 without robots than a 2050 without the humanities.

(I'm sorry I politicized this post so much but this subject just really gets me going.)

MadFred · Mar 3, 2015

I started to self-learn Python not a long time ago, and it's pretty fun. Still have a lot to learn.

RedSoxFan274 said:
I have an appreciation for people who are able to program, but beyond learning Wikipedia coding I have no desire to do it myself and I never have, and frankly I think that the repeated emphasis of getting our youth to go into that sector is taking over education and beginning to suck the creativity out of it at an alarming rate. I know this because I saw it beginning to happen during my time in the public school system, and with my mother as a teacher I hear more and more about it every day.

Bottom line: I don't hold anything against people who program or who desire to go into that field, but I fear what will happen to society if too many people go into technologically-based work environments.

If we have to have an Hour of Code, let's at least have an Hour of Poetry as well. I'd rather live in a 2050 without robots than a 2050 without the humanities.

(I'm sorry I politicized this post so much but this subject just really gets me going.)

I get what you're saying, but I think it's important to put emphasis on anything technology related in education. It's extremely vital to jobs these days.
Besides, public schools make children to read classic poetry, but not all schools teach programming. Programming really is the subject that needs that 'hour' to become more wildly known.

Noah Spongy · Mar 3, 2015

I'm actually taking a code.com class at school. It's pretty cool.

Sweat · Mar 3, 2015

RedSoxFan274 said:
I have an appreciation for people who are able to program, but beyond learning Wikipedia coding I have no desire to do it myself and I never have, and frankly I think that the repeated emphasis of getting our youth to go into that sector is taking over education and beginning to suck the creativity out of it at an alarming rate. I know this because I saw it beginning to happen during my time in the public school system, and with my mother as a teacher I hear more and more about it every day.

Bottom line: I don't hold anything against people who program or who desire to go into that field, but I fear what will happen to society if too many people go into technologically-based work environments.

If we have to have an Hour of Code, let's at least have an Hour of Poetry as well. I'd rather live in a 2050 without robots than a 2050 without the humanities.

(I'm sorry I politicized this post so much but this subject just really gets me going.)

To put into summary with what Ohad said, coding is generally a much more vital skill these days that poetry. Poetry is definitely a nice art, and it's still a great skill to have, but coding is something that your job is more likely to need the skill of in the future.

sbl · Mar 3, 2015

I know a little bit of Java and HTML, trying to learn Python and Javascript aswell.

The Drifter · Mar 3, 2015

I once mad a simple "dodge red dots" game using Stencyl, do that count?

RedSoxFan274 said:
I have an appreciation for people who are able to program, but beyond learning Wikipedia coding I have no desire to do it myself and I never have, and frankly I think that the repeated emphasis of getting our youth to go into that sector is taking over education and beginning to suck the creativity out of it at an alarming rate. I know this because I saw it beginning to happen during my time in the public school system, and with my mother as a teacher I hear more and more about it every day.

Bottom line: I don't hold anything against people who program or who desire to go into that field, but I fear what will happen to society if too many people go into technologically-based work environments.

If we have to have an Hour of Code, let's at least have an Hour of Poetry as well. I'd rather live in a 2050 without robots than a 2050 without the humanities.

(I'm sorry I politicized this post so much but this subject just really gets me going.)

Don't worry, hi-tech job boom would end eventually. I mean with so many people going to hi-tech job it would stopped being special, thus jobs like programming would become average job with no special benefit. Which is why I'm not interested with the field.

Also, historically better technology would result in improved culture. Before farming was invented human arts are limited to cave painting, after farming we have stuff like pottery and sculpting. If we have more technology that could make our life easier, than we could have more time to create arts and be creative.

RedSoxFan274 · Mar 3, 2015

Halibut said:
To put into summary with what Ohad said, coding is generally a much more vital skill these days that poetry. Poetry is definitely a nice art, and it's still a great skill to have, but coding is something that your job is more likely to need the skill of in the future.

See, this is the very attitude I'm so scared of when I see it spreading. It's the attitude that education must ONLY encompass things that will be useful on the "job market." Programming is going to help a lot more people than poetry on the job market, you're correct, but that doesn't mean we toss it in the trash. That doesn't mean we let the arts and the humanities go by the wayside.

The humanities are being gradually nudged out of America's classrooms because they're not the skills you need on the "job market." To reiterate what I said in my previous post in a different form, I'd rather live in a world with 5% unemployment and the humanities than in a world with 0% unemployment where the humanities are dead and lost to us forever.

Popeyes Haunted Barnacles · Mar 3, 2015

RedSoxFan274 said:
See, this is the very attitude I'm so scared of when I see it spreading. It's the attitude that education must ONLY encompass things that will be useful on the "job market." Programming is going to help a lot more people than poetry on the job market, you're correct, but that doesn't mean we toss it in the trash. That doesn't mean we let the arts and the humanities go by the wayside.

The humanities are being gradually nudged out of America's classrooms because they're not the skills you need on the "job market." To reiterate what I said in my previous post in a different form, I'd rather live in a world with 5% unemployment and the humanities than in a world with 0% unemployment where the humanities are dead and lost to us forever.

There is a solution to this and that's if the US government were to adopt a lot more FDR and Scandiniavian policies and focus on creating public works projects, basic income or guaranteed minimum income programs, fixing up our infrastructure and all that stuff and enacting a big student loan forgiveness program too. On top of that, I'd also try to reverse some of the disastrous effects of policies like NAFTA and globalization though I would take a more gradual approach to trying to fix up some of the damage given how it's been going on for decades now.

There's even a way to make college inexpensive or nearly free instead of what we have now. It's possible too no matter what the debt doomsday fearmongerers keep saying about that "debt" clock which really isn't a debt at all if you think about it closely. We live in arguably the one of the most powerful countries in the world with massive, unparalleled amounts of wealth and resources and so many countries that rely on the dollar but we fail to live up to full potential there. It's pathetic and shameful to me how much of it can get concentrated to the 1% and the plutocrats and elite who run this country.

Sorry for the nerdy economics talk. Just had to stress this. Bottom line is that we CAN have full employment or near full employment and put a lot more funding into education and research and development, including the humanities you're talking about like history or philosophy. It doesn't have to be one way or the other because the US dollar is a sovereign currency in which the government is the sole issuer and the currency is also not part of some BS like the Euro either. We also have the petrodollar relationship too. People want to buy oil using US dollars.

WhoWantsStancakes · Mar 3, 2015

My dad's a professional web designer and programmer, actually. For some reason, I didn't inherit his math skills and logical reasoning.

RedSoxFan274 · Mar 3, 2015

Popeye Q. Krabs said:
There is a solution to this and that's if the US government were to adopt a lot more FDR and Scandiniavian policies and focus on creating public works projects, basic income or guaranteed minimum income programs, fixing up our infrastructure and all that stuff and enacting a big student loan forgiveness program too. On top of that, I'd also try to reverse some of the disastrous effects of policies like NAFTA and globalization though I would take a more gradual approach to trying to fix up some of the damage given how it's been going on for decades now.

There's even a way to make college inexpensive or nearly free instead of what we have now. It's possible too no matter what the debt doomsday fearmongerers keep saying about that "debt" clock which really isn't a debt at all if you think about it closely. We live in arguably the one of the most powerful countries in the world with massive, unparalleled amounts of wealth and resources and so many countries that rely on the dollar but we fail to live up to full potential there. It's pathetic and shameful to me how much of it can get concentrated to the 1% and the plutocrats and elite who run this country.

Sorry for the nerdy economics talk. Just had to stress this. Bottom line is that we CAN have full employment or near full employment and put a lot more funding into education and research and development, including the humanities you're talking about like history or philosophy. It doesn't have to be one way or the other because the US dollar is a sovereign currency in which the government is the sole issuer and the currency is also not part of some BS like the Euro either. We also have the petrodollar relationship too. People want to buy oil using US dollars.

As usual, I only understand one-eighth of that. :P

But let me also throw on to the fire that in educational systems in Far Eastern countries that typically have stressed math and science, the "in" thing is now to inject more creativity and more of the humanities into the schools. And here in America we're doing the exact opposite. We're trying to be like China's schools; and China's schools are trying to be like ours. How ironic.

Popeyes Haunted Barnacles · Mar 3, 2015

RedSoxFan274 said:
As usual, I only understand one-eighth of that. :P

But let me also throw on to the fire that in educational systems in Far Eastern countries that typically have stressed math and science, the "in" thing is now to inject more creativity and more of the humanities into the schools. And here in America we're doing the exact opposite. We're trying to be like China's schools; and China's schools are trying to be like ours. How ironic.

And as usual, I knew you wouldn't but it felt great venting anyway. I really let loose when I'm on YouTube commenting on videos pertaining to this stuff and the political videos too.

I think China is in the toilet right now too and they apparently have squatters for toilets too. Just look at their GDP per capita. It's extremely low for a supposed "superpower" and it's more insane that the US is even trying to copy them. I also think they're in a big bubble right now that will implode in the future just like what's been happening with Russia.

It makes no sense to try to emulate them in any way and in short, the humanities and the hard sciences can still coexist. It also pisses me off how so many jobs are being outsourced there too.

RedSoxFan274 · Mar 3, 2015

Popeye Q. Krabs said:
And as usual, I knew you wouldn't but it felt great venting anyway. I really let loose when I'm on YouTube commenting on videos pertaining to this stuff.

I hope you're just really smart about this sort of thing and that I'm not loose a few screws because when you start talking economics it sounds like a foreign language to me. :P

Popeyes Haunted Barnacles · Mar 3, 2015

RedSoxFan274 said:
I hope you're just really smart about this sort of thing and that I'm not loose a few screws because when you start talking economics it sounds like a foreign language to me. :P

I admit though. I don't know everything there is to know about the subject. I'm constantly learning new things but the fact that I took the time to read a whole AP textbook on macroeconomics when I was a senior in high school in less than a week completely on my own and taking tons of index cards can really tell you just how passionate I can be. What's more is that I've even read things like the General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, parts of The Road to Serfdom, and have several other books related to this stuff on my Kindle app that I still need to read. It also helped that for a while, I was reading a lot of economics blogs on the Internet and stuff like that from all sorts of perspectives (post Keynesian, monetarist, Austrian, and many others) so I think I have a good idea of where my beliefs fall and how what I believe in as a progressive can be applied to econ too.

I got in A in Principles of Macroeconomics at my college and a B in Principles of Microeconomics as well. If economics degrees had a bit more bite than they do now and had more of a purpose, I would have probably just majored in that somehow but unfortunately, I think a lot of the programs are just really lacking, especially what Harvard and all those Ivy League schools teach.

RedSoxFan274 · Mar 3, 2015

Popeye Q. Krabs said:
I admit though. I don't know everything there is to know about the subject. I'm constantly learning new things but the fact that I took the time to read a whole AP textbook on macroeconomics when I was a senior in high school in less than a week completely on my own and taking tons of index cards can really tell you just how passionate I can be. What's more is that I've even read things like the General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, parts of The Road to Serfdom, and have several other books related to this stuff on my Kindle app that I still need to read. It also helped that for a while, I was reading a lot of economics blogs on the Internet and stuff like that so I think I have a good idea of where my beliefs fall and how what I believe in as a progressive can be applied to econ too.

I got in A in Principles of Macroeconomics at my college and a B in Principles of Microeconomics as well. If economics degrees had a bit more bite than they do now and had more of a purpose, I would have probably just majored in that somehow.

Good for you. I'd flunk!

My general economic worldview is: "People have money. They usually don't know how the heck to handle it wisely and they use it at the expense of the people who don't have money. End of story." :p

Programming

NastyPatty2002

Dead Inspector

Sweat

Banished

do_the_sponge

I has a karot.

Ryanruff13

Floating Shopping List

ScumBob

sicko m0de

ssj4gogita4

Squidward Tortellini

RedSoxFan274

Baseball. Hockey. SBM vet. I drop in unexpectedly.

MadFred

ooooooofy day

Noah Spongy

FIRETRUCK CLOWNS

Sweat

Banished

sbl

totally active

The Drifter

Some person.

RedSoxFan274

Baseball. Hockey. SBM vet. I drop in unexpectedly.

Popeyes Haunted Barnacles

Sir Tweets and Eats a Lot

WhoWantsStancakes

RedSoxFan274

Baseball. Hockey. SBM vet. I drop in unexpectedly.

Popeyes Haunted Barnacles

Sir Tweets and Eats a Lot

RedSoxFan274

Baseball. Hockey. SBM vet. I drop in unexpectedly.

Popeyes Haunted Barnacles

Sir Tweets and Eats a Lot

RedSoxFan274

Baseball. Hockey. SBM vet. I drop in unexpectedly.