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On April 08 2013 06:21 jWavA wrote:Anyone have any advice for a freshman Computer Science major at university next year? I've been programming for a while now, but obviously haven't taken many college level computer science courses before(except for CS50, which is an very very very introductory course). Are there any courses I should watch out for, things I should learn before going? Any advice would be helpful  . I will be attending Carnegie Mellon if that makes a difference – I assume that CMU courses will NOT be easy.
That school has a great CS program. If you'd like my advice I suggest hitting C hard. If you can learn about pointers and arrays on the stack and heap before school hits, you'll be in great starting shape.
As for what you should "watch out for" it depends on what you'd like to do when you graduate. If you want to have the most options possible, then take all classes you can on assembly C and C++. If you know these you can do anything. If you just study Java and/or other higher level languages all four years you won't have the low-level knowhow in order to take on certain positions.
If you want to try doing a project in C (this is how I learned when I started, and I will probably turn out well) I wrote an article series here.
Lastly be prepared to do a lot of independent studying. Even though I go to one of the best CS schools in the world I still learn about half of what I know through independent studying. You take from your CS program what you put into it. Work hard and don't be lazy.
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Thanks!
I've actually programmed a little in C before(CS50 was helpful in this regard), and I do remember learning about pointers and the stack and heap and the stuff you've mentioned, though I might have gotten fuzzy on the details, so I'll definitely review it!
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Hiya, I'm also a rising college freshman and I have a few questions too if you guys don't mind >.<
Well, I used to want to do electrical engineering as a kid, but recently I'm not as sure. I say this because whereas I like to think I'm decent at math/science, they sort of scare me going up into college, and I've heard that EE requires some very strong understanding of physics, complicated math, etc (or at least the courses tend to). The main reason I'm unsure, though, is that I might dislike EE as a job. The entire industry is just about cutting costs, making as many chips as possible for as cheap as possible etc and it's kind of a mature market. It seems like most of the innovations in it now are more on the materials science side or chem E, and it seems like sort of a grind as a career.
All of this is in contrast to CS which is limited only by the projects you work on and where you want to apply it; I'm starting to lean more toward CS, about which I'm really curious. My understanding is that it's sort of like art in that you take your knowledge and you're really able to go anywhere you'd want with it. However, I have pretty much zero technical experience :X
I know very very little about computer science and/or programming. I don't know whether it would be for me or even how to go about learning it at all. There's this massive body of information available online now that wasn't there just years ago, but I have no idea how to code or do anything or just start learning... So I was just wondering how I might go about starting to pick it up and really get into it. I feel like coding could be pretty awesome, but I honestly know so little about it and I'd appreciate it if you guys had any advice or could point me in the right direction. Thanks!!
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United States1176 Posts
On April 08 2013 06:21 jWavA wrote:Anyone have any advice for a freshman Computer Science major at university next year? I've been programming for a while now, but obviously haven't taken many college level computer science courses before(except for CS50, which is an very very very introductory course). Are there any courses I should watch out for, things I should learn before going? Any advice would be helpful . I will be attending Carnegie Mellon if that makes a difference – I assume that CMU courses will NOT be easy.
Specifically speaking about CMU's intro sequence:
Don't let your prior programming experience cloud your judgement as to what you'll get out of the first set of programming courses (principles of imperative and functional programming). Those courses are designed to break down bad programming habits and instill good ones in you. Have an open mind and embrace the discipline that they promote rather than think that you are "above" the courses*
(*Not saying that you are thinking that now, of course. But this is one of the pitfalls that new comp sci kids have if they bring along extensive prior programming experience.)
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On April 08 2013 06:21 jWavA wrote:Anyone have any advice for a freshman Computer Science major at university next year? I've been programming for a while now, but obviously haven't taken many college level computer science courses before(except for CS50, which is an very very very introductory course). Are there any courses I should watch out for, things I should learn before going? Any advice would be helpful . I will be attending Carnegie Mellon if that makes a difference – I assume that CMU courses will NOT be easy.
(Disclaimer: The curriculum may have changed in the last few years)
The intro classes are mostly taught in java apart from 113 (intro to C), so having an understanding of java programming is useful to start out - this is used to teach basic programming concepts and data structures/algorithms. Knowing a bit about C/C++ could definitely be useful, but they are not used much until higher level courses (213 - intro to computer systems, 410 - operating systems, 412 - networks, etc).
Watch out for 212 (learn ML), 251 (intro to algorithms), 451 (advanced algorithms) - if you're not strong on discrete math / big O these will be quite difficult.
Good luck at CMU, make sure you take advantage of all the different types of classes you can take there, and remember that your adviser may not actually know what they are doing . Don't be afraid to signup for extra classes since you can drop them later ^^
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On April 08 2013 06:21 jWavA wrote:Anyone have any advice for a freshman Computer Science major at university next year? I've been programming for a while now, but obviously haven't taken many college level computer science courses before(except for CS50, which is an very very very introductory course). Are there any courses I should watch out for, things I should learn before going? Any advice would be helpful . I will be attending Carnegie Mellon if that makes a difference – I assume that CMU courses will NOT be easy.
I am a student of electrical engineering, and I have to say that I never had a class which was too difficult. As long as you don't chill half of the term and do exercises & shit, you should be okay in every subject. Motivation is everything. Sure, you won't understand everything immediatly like in highschool, but it should not be hard to pass an exam, as long as you practice yourself.
To your question. I would buy a book dealing with algorithms i.e. Cormen or Sedgewick. Begin reading it and try to apply what you learn using C or Python. Being able to program in C like a boss should help you a lot, you will be able to switch to other languages with ease.
If you really want to do something usefull, I yould begin learning uni lvl math.
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On April 08 2013 06:53 Aerisky wrote:
Hiya, I'm also a rising college freshman and I have a few questions too if you guys don't mind >.<
Well, I used to want to do electrical engineering as a kid, but recently I'm not as sure. I say this because whereas I like to think I'm decent at math/science, they sort of scare me going up into college, and I've heard that EE requires some very strong understanding of physics, complicated math, etc (or at least the courses tend to). The main reason I'm unsure, though, is that I might dislike EE as a job. The entire industry is just about cutting costs, making as many chips as possible for as cheap as possible etc and it's kind of a mature market. It seems like most of the innovations in it now are more on the materials science side or chem E, and it seems like sort of a grind as a career.
All of this is in contrast to CS which is limited only by the projects you work on and where you want to apply it; I'm starting to lean more toward CS, about which I'm really curious. My understanding is that it's sort of like art in that you take your knowledge and you're really able to go anywhere you'd want with it. However, I have pretty much zero technical experience :X
I know very very little about computer science and/or programming. I don't know whether it would be for me or even how to go about learning it at all. There's this massive body of information available online now that wasn't there just years ago, but I have no idea how to code or do anything or just start learning... So I was just wondering how I might go about starting to pick it up and really get into it. I feel like coding could be pretty awesome, but I honestly know so little about it and I'd appreciate it if you guys had any advice or could point me in the right direction. Thanks!!
I don't think what you said is really true. But anyway, in my school CompE and EE shared an early core curriculum. If your school is the same, I think if you do one of those you will be exposed to the other pretty well and will be able to make a decision on what you really like. I was a CompE and enjoyed the EE stuff quite a bit, but it was never really a question of changing majors because I knew I wanted to do higher level stuff with computers (I mostly took CS classes as my electives). The last bit reminds me that you should checkout the curriculums of CompE/EE/CS and see how flexible their programs are. Lucky for me the CompE program was extremely flexible.
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On April 08 2013 06:53 Aerisky wrote:
Hiya, I'm also a rising college freshman and I have a few questions too if you guys don't mind >.<
Well, I used to want to do electrical engineering as a kid, but recently I'm not as sure. I say this because whereas I like to think I'm decent at math/science, they sort of scare me going up into college, and I've heard that EE requires some very strong understanding of physics, complicated math, etc (or at least the courses tend to). The main reason I'm unsure, though, is that I might dislike EE as a job. The entire industry is just about cutting costs, making as many chips as possible for as cheap as possible etc and it's kind of a mature market. It seems like most of the innovations in it now are more on the materials science side or chem E, and it seems like sort of a grind as a career.
All of this is in contrast to CS which is limited only by the projects you work on and where you want to apply it; I'm starting to lean more toward CS, about which I'm really curious. My understanding is that it's sort of like art in that you take your knowledge and you're really able to go anywhere you'd want with it. However, I have pretty much zero technical experience :X
I know very very little about computer science and/or programming. I don't know whether it would be for me or even how to go about learning it at all. There's this massive body of information available online now that wasn't there just years ago, but I have no idea how to code or do anything or just start learning... So I was just wondering how I might go about starting to pick it up and really get into it. I feel like coding could be pretty awesome, but I honestly know so little about it and I'd appreciate it if you guys had any advice or could point me in the right direction. Thanks!!
I can answer some of those as i was in similar situation few years ago. I was quite decent in math and always thought I would end up with that for further studies. But as time came for me to make a decision, I've switched to CS. Having only learned a bit about algorithms in general and some pascal (like very basic stuff, working with arrays and matrices was highest we would go), I had my fears of whether I had what it takes to go study CS with very little background knowledge.
But as time went and classes passed by (and i passed them) I've come to the conclusion that it was absouloutley the right decision. Especially in my county with extreme unemployment rate.
I've got a decent job at some local start-up before I even got a bachelor's degree.
If you have doubts about it, look up the classes. My faculty had slow start on the programming part, as it was combined class for EE and CS for first 2-3 years.
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On April 08 2013 06:53 Aerisky wrote:
Hiya, I'm also a rising college freshman and I have a few questions too if you guys don't mind >.<
Well, I used to want to do electrical engineering as a kid, but recently I'm not as sure. I say this because whereas I like to think I'm decent at math/science, they sort of scare me going up into college, and I've heard that EE requires some very strong understanding of physics, complicated math, etc (or at least the courses tend to). The main reason I'm unsure, though, is that I might dislike EE as a job. The entire industry is just about cutting costs, making as many chips as possible for as cheap as possible etc and it's kind of a mature market. Most of the innovations in it now are more on the materials science side or chem E, I feel like, and it seems like a grind as a career.
All of this is in contrast to CS which is limited only by the projects you work on and where you want to apply it; I'm starting to lean more toward CS, about which I'm really curious. My understanding is that it's sort of like art in that you take your knowledge and you're really able to go anywhere you'd want with it. However, I have pretty much zero technical experience :X
I know very very little about computer science and/or programming. I don't know whether it would be for me or even how to go about learning it at all. There's this massive body of information available online now that wasn't there just years ago, but I have no idea how to code or do anything or just start learning... So I was just wondering how I might go about starting to pick it up and really get into it. I feel like coding could be pretty awesome, but I honestly know so little about it and I'd appreciate it if you guys had any advice or could point me in the right direction. Thanks!!
Good move on learning for yourself what it's like. The best way to know if CS is fun to you is to do it. That said I made an article for newcomers like you too: http://www.randygaul.net/2011/11/16/i-want-to-learn-programming-but-i-know-nothing/
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>waxypants
Oh I see, yeah I'm still going to be taking some classes from both in order to figure out where I'd like to go.
haha I don't have that good of an understanding of the market ofc so I could be completely off. My dad's an electrical engineer though, and he has to work a lot of hours, what I've seen of his work didn't seem that enticing, and he himself told me that as a job it might not be for me. So job-wise...I dunno. Though he also half-jokingly said that, ceteris paribus, he would have wanted me to be a doctor because as a job it's the most rewarding, there will always be demand for them, and it generally isn't as taxing unless it's EMT/ER work or something lolol
Anyway I still am interested in starting to learn comp sci now, so I'd still definitely really appreciate it if you guys could point me in the right direction or give any advice about how to get started and stuff :D :D
>speyY ah gotcha, sounds like it did turn out really well for you!
>CecilSunkure oh! Thanks a bunch, reading it now
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On April 08 2013 07:25 Aerisky wrote:>waxypants Oh I see, yeah I'm still going to be taking some classes from both in order to figure out where I'd like to go. haha I don't have that good of an understanding of the market ofc so I could be completely off. My dad's an electrical engineer though, and he has to work a lot of hours, what I've seen of his work didn't seem that enticing, and he himself told me that as a job it might not be for me. So job-wise...I dunno. Though he also half-jokingly said that, ceteris paribus, he would have wanted me to be a doctor because as a job it's the most rewarding, there will always be demand for them, and it generally isn't as taxing unless it's EMT/ER work or something lolol Anyway I still am interested in starting to learn comp sci now, so I'd still definitely really appreciate it if you guys could point me in the right direction or give any advice about how to get started and stuff :D :D >speyY ah gotcha, sounds like it did turn out really well for you! >CecilSunkure oh! Thanks a bunch, reading it now
I srsly don't know how someone would rather be a doctor than an electrical engineer. You should not think of EE as a craft like blacksmith or woodwork. Engineering is mostly about the philosophy of problem solving. Electrical and mechanical engineers have the most general engineering knowledge and can work in a lot of different fields (unlike biomedical eng., chemical "engineers" etc. ...). You can switch from engineering to lots of fields (marketing, consulting, management, finance, eco&shit) with little effort, so I wouldn't worry.
Btw, if you want to learn some language, you should check out
http://www.learn-c.org/
http://www.learnjavaonline.org/
http://www.learnpython.org/page/
and this guy, he is awesome: http://www.youtube.com/user/thenewboston
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On April 08 2013 06:53 Aerisky wrote:
Hiya, I'm also a rising college freshman and I have a few questions too if you guys don't mind >.<
Well, I used to want to do electrical engineering as a kid, but recently I'm not as sure. I say this because whereas I like to think I'm decent at math/science, they sort of scare me going up into college, and I've heard that EE requires some very strong understanding of physics, complicated math, etc (or at least the courses tend to). The main reason I'm unsure, though, is that I might dislike EE as a job. The entire industry is just about cutting costs, making as many chips as possible for as cheap as possible etc and it's kind of a mature market. Most of the innovations in it now are more on the materials science side or chem E, I feel like, and it seems like a grind as a career.
All of this is in contrast to CS which is limited only by the projects you work on and where you want to apply it; I'm starting to lean more toward CS, about which I'm really curious. My understanding is that it's sort of like art in that you take your knowledge and you're really able to go anywhere you'd want with it. However, I have pretty much zero technical experience :X
I know very very little about computer science and/or programming. I don't know whether it would be for me or even how to go about learning it at all. There's this massive body of information available online now that wasn't there just years ago, but I have no idea how to code or do anything or just start learning... So I was just wondering how I might go about starting to pick it up and really get into it. I feel like coding could be pretty awesome, but I honestly know so little about it and I'd appreciate it if you guys had any advice or could point me in the right direction. Thanks!!
As somebody that has been in college for a long time, has a lot of graduated friends in both fields, and has seen the content of both fields, I have a bit to offer. I'm currently a senior in Computer Engineering (which is basically an EE with a CS twist), changed recently from EE.
First, EE does take a lot of hard math, but so does CS. The difference comes in what "kind" of math you enjoy and can do well. I have seen EEs stare at optimization formulas for hours with computer architecture and cryptanalysis, which seem really straightforward and obvious to others, and then turn around and solve complex differential equations like it was 2nd grade math. I'd argue that the math in EE is harder for most people, but not out of reach of anybody that can do the math for CS, it just may take more work/practice.
Second, EE is more of a pigeonholed field when it comes to job opportunities. While there are applications in systems control, optics, electrical networks, processors, signal manipulation, etc., most of those lie within large and expensive companies. This means you likely have a "limited" number of jobs you can apply for, and they all entail the same basic working environment. This is a blessing and a curse. It's not likely you're going to get somebody that doesn't know you're capabilities or give you a job you don't have the materials to accomplish. However, in CS, you can often get a client or employer that throws you into a project that may be beyond your ability, without the proper information/tools, and/or, at worst, impossible to do.
As for a good start, I'm partial to going through a bunch of examples and just playing with their code. Rewrite things, add/mix features, and just play around with it. Debugging your modifications will likely teach you all that you need to know about the language, and hopefully you'll pick up conventions that professors will vilify or enforce when it comes time to show your work.
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>Saumure Oh that's why I said ceteris paribus lol, obviously doctor is not the best job bar none, otherwise everyone would want to do it. I'm definitely an engineer kind of person, and there are people who would want to be doctors or whatever other fields 
And yeah that's true I suppose. I also know that EE requires some CS knowledge and that one can go from EE to CS without too much difficulty if he/she really gets into it, but that it's more difficult to go the other way around. I'm keeping my options open, I suppose all I really meant to say was that I'm looking to gain some programming and computer science knowledge now ^^ thanks for the links!
>aksfjh oh I see, thanks for that insight :O That's the kind of feeling I've gotten as well, and I think for me it's also true that the math in EE might be harder. I'm also thinking of going in as an intermediate between EE and CS, then seeing where it takes me as well.
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United States1176 Posts
On April 08 2013 06:53 Aerisky wrote:
Hiya, I'm also a rising college freshman and I have a few questions too if you guys don't mind >.<
Well, I used to want to do electrical engineering as a kid, but recently I'm not as sure. I say this because whereas I like to think I'm decent at math/science, they sort of scare me going up into college, and I've heard that EE requires some very strong understanding of physics, complicated math, etc (or at least the courses tend to). The main reason I'm unsure, though, is that I might dislike EE as a job. The entire industry is just about cutting costs, making as many chips as possible for as cheap as possible etc and it's kind of a mature market. It seems like most of the innovations in it now are more on the materials science side or chem E, and it seems like sort of a grind as a career.
All of this is in contrast to CS which is limited only by the projects you work on and where you want to apply it; I'm starting to lean more toward CS, about which I'm really curious. My understanding is that it's sort of like art in that you take your knowledge and you're really able to go anywhere you'd want with it. However, I have pretty much zero technical experience :X
I know very very little about computer science and/or programming. I don't know whether it would be for me or even how to go about learning it at all. There's this massive body of information available online now that wasn't there just years ago, but I have no idea how to code or do anything or just start learning... So I was just wondering how I might go about starting to pick it up and really get into it. I feel like coding could be pretty awesome, but I honestly know so little about it and I'd appreciate it if you guys had any advice or could point me in the right direction. Thanks!!
Knowing about computer science or having limited programming experience shouldn't be a deterrent in pursuing the major, especially if you are a freshman. Computer science is such a young field that there are no "requirements" to getting into the major
Take your university's intro CS courses and see if you like them. If you have spare time over the summer, try diving into Nick Parlente's intro course on Coursera:
https://www.coursera.org/course/cs101
It's tough to describe what computer science is and different institutions will differ of their definitions as the field hasn't arrived at a universal definition yet. What I generally preach:
(1) Computer Science transcends computers and programming.
(2) Computer Science is about solving problems by using algorithmic thinking.
(3) Computer Science isn't magical. Every computation can be carried out by a human. Computers merely elevate the power of these computations to new levels by increasing the speed at which they're done and the amount of information that can be stored.
(4) Because Computer Science is about problem solving (i.e., programs are not interesting artifacts themselves), Computer Science is an inherently social activity. You need to work with other people to build software and hardware artifacts and talk to customers to ensure their needs are being met.
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Ah gotcha. I'm definitely keeping my options open and just looking to get into it. CS is so useful for a variety of things, and I'm really interested. Thanks for the advice and info everyone :D
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On April 08 2013 07:53 Aerisky wrote:
Ah gotcha. I'm definitely keeping my options open and just looking to get into it. CS is so useful for a variety of things, and I'm really interested. Thanks for the advice and info everyone :D
Write some blogs on what you learn, ask for more advice and such too
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Sounds like a good idea! Would be cool to keep track of my progress and stuff that way too. So nice to have a capable and helpful community here on TL, thanks thanks :3 (ofc there's stackexchange and stuff too but that might have to wait until later lol)
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On April 03 2013 13:56 Blisse wrote:
What are your opinions about using Dreamweaver in general?
I personally use Aptana Studios instead of DreamWeaver, helps with the syntax, which for me was the only reason to use DreamWeaver. Additionally Aptana Studios can run on Windows/Linux/Mac (pretty sure mac is available).
I personally like it but I'm using Eclipse for Uni, and Aptana looks an awful lot like Eclipse.
Another thing is I had problems hosting an Aptana project locally using Linux Ubuntu, 12.10, but I didn't look much into it as it turned out to be irrelevant for me so I skipped it.
Aptana Studios is an IDE like Eclipse, so if you're used to those, or used to Eclipse, it's pretty nice, if you're not used to those at all it might be a bit over-kill and quite confusing in the beginning.
Hope this helps some.
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learning assembly right now. can anyone tell me if this (very) small snippet of code will jump or not? i suspect it would but i still don't fully understand number rings.
+ Show Spoiler +
mov ax,32770d
cmp ax,2d
jge xyz ;
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On April 09 2013 15:34 Terranist wrote:learning assembly right now. can anyone tell me if this (very) small snippet of code will jump or not? i suspect it would but i still don't fully understand number rings. + Show Spoiler +
mov ax,32770d
cmp ax,2d
jge xyz ;
i tried it in an emulator and it jumps to xyz if the value of ax is lower than 32767(07FFF). Maybe they change signs after that?
I am learning assembly too so i would like to learn how this works.
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EPT
