Chemistry Olympiad and Computer Programming - Page 2

On June 25 2011 11:33 blankspace wrote:
Wow if you're starting on chemistry this early, surely you'll be able to make the top four team in two years or even next year (not that many people compete in chem). From what I've heard, just work through some good textbooks carefully.

On June 25 2011 11:28 Chimpalimp wrote:
I have learned C++ (By learned, I mean I've programmed with C++ for about a year. But you never really fully learn a language) and I would definitely recommend it, its a great language to start with as it lets you touch on a little of everything, and is fairly useful to know overall. C is also a good language to know, but its a bit of a pain. As for learning C or C++, a textbook wouldn't be a bad idea, but I don't think its totally necessary. A textbook is great to have for reference, but the internet is a much more useful tool. I would recommend trying out the MIT open coursework, and finding a decent professor's online notes. Those would be good staples to learn whats going on, and then use online references such as cplusplus.com.

Programming is a cool subject because everything you learn, you can actually do, and put it to good use. Thus the best way to learn programming, is to program. Just find a bunch of projects a professor posted online, and try it out.

As for using linux just to learn programming, while it is useful, I don't think its totally necessary. You won't really tap into the advantages of linux until you are an experienced programmer, windows or mac os will do fine until then.