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On October 03 2011 10:43 Weson wrote:
I got a question...
I've just started a course in Flash and actionscript and the whole course is based on actionscript 2. I've done some programming in as2 before and could go through this course without putting much efforet in to it.
My teacher wants us to program in AS2 and almost begs us to do so because he says that AS3 is hard to learn and can be really confusing.
I get easily bored if i have to learn things i already know (like watching some online tutorial on how to make a button....) so i wonder if it's a good idea to learn AS3 instead? Or are there no benefits to it?
Personally I would just try to spend your time learning something non-flash. Flash is pretty much on the way out as far as web stuff goes. Maybe you could spend that time learning something like Javascript instead? It would be similar since they're both dialects of ECMAScript and would also have more use to you if you decide to build regular websites or maybe even servers through NodeJS.
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Does anyone have any links for Assembly Language programming? I'm a Comp Sci major and I'm completely and utterly lost in my Assembly Language class.
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Hyrule19240 Posts
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On October 03 2011 10:55 tec27 wrote:Show nested quote +On October 03 2011 10:43 Weson wrote:
I got a question...
I've just started a course in Flash and actionscript and the whole course is based on actionscript 2. I've done some programming in as2 before and could go through this course without putting much efforet in to it.
My teacher wants us to program in AS2 and almost begs us to do so because he says that AS3 is hard to learn and can be really confusing.
I get easily bored if i have to learn things i already know (like watching some online tutorial on how to make a button....) so i wonder if it's a good idea to learn AS3 instead? Or are there no benefits to it? Personally I would just try to spend your time learning something non-flash. Flash is pretty much on the way out as far as web stuff goes. Maybe you could spend that time learning something like Javascript instead? It would be similar since they're both dialects of ECMAScript and would also have more use to you if you decide to build regular websites or maybe even servers through NodeJS.
We will have some courses in javascript in spring. It's just that i got to chose now what Actionscript version i'll go for. Will i benefit from learning AS3 more than AS2? or is it basicly a waste of time? I'm having a course in XHTML/CSS at the same time and would it be smart to breeze through flash actionscript 2 and go full on XHTML/CSS?
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On October 03 2011 04:43 EvanED wrote:Show nested quote +On October 02 2011 20:07 KaiserJohan wrote:On October 02 2011 19:33 Morfildur wrote:On October 02 2011 12:42 Millitron wrote:On September 29 2011 05:02 gullberg wrote:
Aaaah man.... Everything was going so well in my programming course until we got to linked lists, abstract queues and all that. Classes/objects are fucked up. FML Think of a class like the blueprint for a house's construction, with the object being the finished house. As for linked lists, think of them like your browser's forward and back buttons. You can only go forward or back one page at a time. Just like in the linked lists, you can only go forward or back one node at a time. Never heard of abstract queues, can't help ya there. IIRC Abstract Queues are just queues that work for any type, like: class Queue<T> { public void Enqueue(T item) {...} public T Dequeue() {...} } So just a fancy name for something that is actually quite simple, though from my experience, 90% of what programming professors seem to do is finding fancy names for simple things people do since the dawn of programming, just to scare and confuse students. If so, abstract queues is a really dumb name, it would get you thinking about abstract classes. General queues or whatever sounds more proper, but as you say, professors loves dem fancy names' :p The "abstract" part of "abstract queue" comes more from the fact that it doesn't specify how the implementation works, and isn't particularly related to the fact that the collection is parameterized. In other words, it's abstract because you don't know if it's implemented with an array, a linked list, or some other data structure. (That's not the whole story and it'd be possible to write a bit more about that -- in particular it doesn't say why it should be distinct from the Queue interface -- but that's the main bit.) In particular, the generics parameterization is basically unrelated. And if it makes you think abstract class, that's good... because it is one, and that's also related to the name. :-)
Why an abstract class and not an interface?
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On October 03 2011 13:27 Weson wrote:Show nested quote +On October 03 2011 10:55 tec27 wrote:On October 03 2011 10:43 Weson wrote:
I got a question...
I've just started a course in Flash and actionscript and the whole course is based on actionscript 2. I've done some programming in as2 before and could go through this course without putting much efforet in to it.
My teacher wants us to program in AS2 and almost begs us to do so because he says that AS3 is hard to learn and can be really confusing.
I get easily bored if i have to learn things i already know (like watching some online tutorial on how to make a button....) so i wonder if it's a good idea to learn AS3 instead? Or are there no benefits to it? Personally I would just try to spend your time learning something non-flash. Flash is pretty much on the way out as far as web stuff goes. Maybe you could spend that time learning something like Javascript instead? It would be similar since they're both dialects of ECMAScript and would also have more use to you if you decide to build regular websites or maybe even servers through NodeJS. We will have some courses in javascript in spring. It's just that i got to chose now what Actionscript version i'll go for. Will i benefit from learning AS3 more than AS2? or is it basicly a waste of time? I'm having a course in XHTML/CSS at the same time and would it be smart to breeze through flash actionscript 2 and go full on XHTML/CSS?
I'm a web/flash developer.
First, Flash has a niche that won't go away for a while. Entertainment/rich media websites. HTML5/Canvas is really no substitute yet for rich media apps, and won't be for a long time. To say "Flash is on it's way out" is incorrect; it's role is becoming more focused.
AS3 is a modern programming language. Classes and scoping works as it should. Contrast with AS2, which is very different from Java/JS/C in terms of organization and how you build apps. The transition from AS2 to Java, or an object based framework for Javascript (like Mootools) will be much more difficult. Skills you learn from AS3 are directly translatable to modern object based languages, it's just a syntax change and learning libraries. This isn't true for AS2.
My advice is try to jump to AS3 now. When I made the jump, it took a while because AS2 was the first programming language I spent significant time with and some aspects are so different in AS3. However, stick with it for a little bit and you'll be much better off.
As you go through your course, I suspect your teacher might be breaking a lot of fundamentals like encapsulation if he believes AS3 is so much harder to learn. Just be aware that if he teaches in AS2, you might have to re-organize (not just change the syntax of) his examples to work in AS3. This is for the better, in the long run.
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On October 03 2011 13:27 Weson wrote:Show nested quote +On October 03 2011 10:55 tec27 wrote:On October 03 2011 10:43 Weson wrote:
I got a question...
I've just started a course in Flash and actionscript and the whole course is based on actionscript 2. I've done some programming in as2 before and could go through this course without putting much efforet in to it.
My teacher wants us to program in AS2 and almost begs us to do so because he says that AS3 is hard to learn and can be really confusing.
I get easily bored if i have to learn things i already know (like watching some online tutorial on how to make a button....) so i wonder if it's a good idea to learn AS3 instead? Or are there no benefits to it? Personally I would just try to spend your time learning something non-flash. Flash is pretty much on the way out as far as web stuff goes. Maybe you could spend that time learning something like Javascript instead? It would be similar since they're both dialects of ECMAScript and would also have more use to you if you decide to build regular websites or maybe even servers through NodeJS. We will have some courses in javascript in spring. It's just that i got to chose now what Actionscript version i'll go for. Will i benefit from learning AS3 more than AS2? or is it basicly a waste of time? I'm having a course in XHTML/CSS at the same time and would it be smart to breeze through flash actionscript 2 and go full on XHTML/CSS?
No, just flipping... I'll tell you what's up.
AS3 was the first real OOP language I learned. I had to learn AS2 back then too, but I protested because it was a dated language and did all my assignments in AS3 without the help of my teachers. As a result, I really got what the basics of OOP were like classes, functions, eventlisteners and variables. I could make sense of the code I was writing.
Then in the same course, we headed over to PHP. Safe to say more than half of the class complained that it was too hard and abstract to learn ( lol, not that that was surprising. Most of them didn't want to code or program a single thing because it was 'nerdy' ). I needed to ask one single question to the teacher at the start and I could simply breeze through the whole course.
AS3 is a good way to start programming because it is so visual. Sure you will be coding procedural at the start. But everyone starts that way. Personally I bought Essential Actionscript 3 from O' Reilly. It helped me a lot in figuring things out, although it was hard at times.
If you are passionate about making stuff for the Web, do AS3. If you just want to get a nice grade now and pass your web stuff easily, do AS2. But if they at some point move over to PHP, it WILL bite you in the butt I can assure you that.
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On October 03 2011 11:33 Nanar wrote:
Does anyone have any links for Assembly Language programming? I'm a Comp Sci major and I'm completely and utterly lost in my Assembly Language class.
If you talk about x86 assembly, you can take a look here : http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/cs216/guides/x86.html
There is not a lot of documentation about it even though some people still work mainly in assembly nowadays
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Is anyone able to tell me about getting a job in the programming industry? I recently graduated from university with a degree that is computing related (digital media) but mostly on the creative/web side of things. I've since decided that I'd rather do something more programming related along the lines of Java, C#, SQL etc. My dissertation was a Java project that I chose to do because i wanted to learn a bit about OO programming, and I'm currently teaching myself C# from books, but I'm wondering if its possible to go to a company that has entry level coding positions and even get a look in without some sort of specific "I am a programmer" qualifications.
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On October 03 2011 17:05 NikonTC wrote:
Is anyone able to tell me about getting a job in the programming industry? I recently graduated from university with a degree that is computing related (digital media) but mostly on the creative/web side of things. I've since decided that I'd rather do something more programming related along the lines of Java, C#, SQL etc. My dissertation was a Java project that I chose to do because i wanted to learn a bit about OO programming, and I'm currently teaching myself C# from books, but I'm wondering if its possible to go to a company that has entry level coding positions and even get a look in without some sort of specific "I am a programmer" qualifications.
It's hard to get a job as programmer without formal education as one and without job experience. I would suggest starting as web designer and then transition into programming from there.
Sadly, a lot of companies don't care about "I taught myself language X", probably because many who say that don't know more than the syntax and can't actually program anything more than hello worlds.
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On October 03 2011 17:05 NikonTC wrote:
Is anyone able to tell me about getting a job in the programming industry? I recently graduated from university with a degree that is computing related (digital media) but mostly on the creative/web side of things. I've since decided that I'd rather do something more programming related along the lines of Java, C#, SQL etc. My dissertation was a Java project that I chose to do because i wanted to learn a bit about OO programming, and I'm currently teaching myself C# from books, but I'm wondering if its possible to go to a company that has entry level coding positions and even get a look in without some sort of specific "I am a programmer" qualifications.
The biggest "I am a programmer" qualification is a body of work that you can present. You should find a project you're interested in and work on it, preferably collaborating with others. As a dude who interviews people, the only thing more convincing than looking at good code you've written is looking at the commit history on the good code you've written.
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On October 03 2011 13:38 alwinuz wrote:Show nested quote +On October 03 2011 04:43 EvanED wrote:
The "abstract" part of "abstract queue" comes more from the fact that it doesn't specify how the implementation works, and isn't particularly related to the fact that the collection is parameterized. In other words, it's abstract because you don't know if it's implemented with an array, a linked list, or some other data structure. (That's not the whole story and it'd be possible to write a bit more about that -- in particular it doesn't say why it should be distinct from the Queue interface -- but that's the main bit.) In particular, the generics parameterization is basically unrelated.
And if it makes you think abstract class, that's good... because it is one, and that's also related to the name. :-) Why an abstract class and not an interface?
They provide a partial implementation.
It might be easier to understand that by looking at AbstractCollection.If you have some new idea for a collection, you can extend AbstractCollection instead of implementing Collection and do way less work.
For full functionality, the only functions you need to write are add(E obj), iterator(), and size(). That's three functions instead of the 15 of the Collection interface.
The AbstractCollection will do things like provide contains(Object o) by calling iterator() and walking over the collection for you. You are, of course, free to override more of those methods if you have a better implementation.
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On October 03 2011 22:26 Morfildur wrote:Show nested quote +On October 03 2011 17:05 NikonTC wrote:
Is anyone able to tell me about getting a job in the programming industry? I recently graduated from university with a degree that is computing related (digital media) but mostly on the creative/web side of things. I've since decided that I'd rather do something more programming related along the lines of Java, C#, SQL etc. My dissertation was a Java project that I chose to do because i wanted to learn a bit about OO programming, and I'm currently teaching myself C# from books, but I'm wondering if its possible to go to a company that has entry level coding positions and even get a look in without some sort of specific "I am a programmer" qualifications.
It's hard to get a job as programmer without formal education as one and without job experience. I would suggest starting as web designer and then transition into programming from there. Sadly, a lot of companies don't care about "I taught myself language X", probably because many who say that don't know more than the syntax and can't actually program anything more than hello worlds.
That's disheartening. I was really hoping to avoid going into web design, partly because I didn't enjoy it and also partly because I just wasn't very good at it... I'm probably a better programmer now than I was a web designer (not saying much).
There's a project for the local church that my Dad was doing in his spare time. I was considering taking it off him and having a go at it, partly because it's a nice straightforward project that I can handle with my current C#/SQL knowledge, and partly because I was hoping it would count towards the "commercial experience" that companies are interested in. It would be unpaid, though, so I'm not sure if that counts against me.
Starting to get slightly worried about my job prospects however. I really don't know if there's a place for me in the IT industry right now, and god knows where else I'd go.
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On October 04 2011 01:55 NikonTC wrote:Show nested quote +On October 03 2011 22:26 Morfildur wrote:On October 03 2011 17:05 NikonTC wrote:
Is anyone able to tell me about getting a job in the programming industry? I recently graduated from university with a degree that is computing related (digital media) but mostly on the creative/web side of things. I've since decided that I'd rather do something more programming related along the lines of Java, C#, SQL etc. My dissertation was a Java project that I chose to do because i wanted to learn a bit about OO programming, and I'm currently teaching myself C# from books, but I'm wondering if its possible to go to a company that has entry level coding positions and even get a look in without some sort of specific "I am a programmer" qualifications.
It's hard to get a job as programmer without formal education as one and without job experience. I would suggest starting as web designer and then transition into programming from there. Sadly, a lot of companies don't care about "I taught myself language X", probably because many who say that don't know more than the syntax and can't actually program anything more than hello worlds. That's disheartening. I was really hoping to avoid going into web design, partly because I didn't enjoy it and also partly because I just wasn't very good at it... I'm probably a better programmer now than I was a web designer (not saying much). There's a project for the local church that my Dad was doing in his spare time. I was considering taking it off him and having a go at it, partly because it's a nice straightforward project that I can handle with my current C#/SQL knowledge, and partly because I was hoping it would count towards the "commercial experience" that companies are interested in. It would be unpaid, though, so I'm not sure if that counts against me. Starting to get slightly worried about my job prospects however. I really don't know if there's a place for me in the IT industry right now, and god knows where else I'd go.
Do it.
Every finished project you can put on your resume increases your chances to get a job as a programmer.
And just apply everywhere, you can always get lucky anyways.
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On October 03 2011 02:36 HowitZer wrote:Show nested quote +On October 02 2011 20:56 heishe wrote:
By the way, academic programming courses are usually pretty bad. The problem is that programming doesn't ever have general cases of problems which can be solved with general methods, ...
I'm content with the programming classes I took in college insofar as they prepared me for the real programming based job I have now. I think I've applied 75% of what I did in my programming classes to real world problems. It was never a problem in college to find a generic problem to apply some programming method to.
You kinda cut off the point of my statement. I know that you learn some things there that you'll need later, but I think nothing that you learn in one of those courses can't be picked up a lot quicker by reading a tutorial or a good book.
Or can you provide a counter example?
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On October 04 2011 02:36 heishe wrote:Show nested quote +On October 03 2011 02:36 HowitZer wrote:On October 02 2011 20:56 heishe wrote:
By the way, academic programming courses are usually pretty bad. The problem is that programming doesn't ever have general cases of problems which can be solved with general methods, ...
I'm content with the programming classes I took in college insofar as they prepared me for the real programming based job I have now. I think I've applied 75% of what I did in my programming classes to real world problems. It was never a problem in college to find a generic problem to apply some programming method to. You kinda cut off the point of my statement. I know that you learn some things there that you'll need later, but I think nothing that you learn in one of those courses can't be picked up a lot quicker by reading a tutorial or a good book. Or can you provide a counter example?
I agree with you, though the fact that 90% of the people that studied programming know less than me before i began my traineeship might distort my judgement.
I always say: Programmers are born - not made.
Either you program even long before you start to study it - which means you won't learn much in college/university - or you will be just another of those mediocre-at-best programmers that make me rage whenever i have to maintain their code -.-
+ Show Spoiler [True Fact:] +95% of all programmers couldn't write maintainable code if their life depended on it
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95% of all programmers couldn't write maintainable code if their life depended on it I always hear people talking about this, but what do you exactly mean by that? Can you give any examples?
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just a little question by an almost complete noob, sorry if it doesnt fit in here:
is it possible to hand over functions as arguments to C (not C++ !) or fortran function calls?
im a statistician that is working in a field of research where estimating algorithms arent very developed yet, but speed plays a role. to achieve speed-ups, the core fitting routines of our estimating algorithms are often times written in C or fortran instead of the default language of our field (R, if anybody knows it... an interpreter languague, so its not the fastest thing possible...). now i found this really interesting algorithm that seems to be general purpose for the class of problems that i am doing research on. therefore, i consider implementing the core parts of it in C to make it faster - but i have no clue about C, i would have to leapfrog through it using source code of the C-calls from other R-functions to learn it on the fly.
the main obstacle however is that my general purpose C-function would have to use a "gradient" argument which is a user-specified function that depends on the concrete type of data. so what i want to do is to define a function in the toplevel code (R) and pass it on as an argument to the call to C. is something like that possible?
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Slightly retarded question, but how do you navigate the Java API? I opened it a bunch of times, I'm met with a box with links and some stuff on the sidebar, but I have no idea how or where I should look for anything. Tried clicking about but not getting wiser.
I'm really new to programming as a whole, maybe that's why? Used a For Dummies book a bit which kept advising to look X up in the API and eh, not quite working out.
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On October 04 2011 05:20 Black Gun wrote:
just a little question by an almost complete noob, sorry if it doesnt fit in here:
is it possible to hand over functions as arguments to C (not C++ !) or fortran function calls?
im a statistician that is working in a field of research where estimating algorithms arent very developed yet, but speed plays a role. to achieve speed-ups, the core fitting routines of our estimating algorithms are often times written in C or fortran instead of the default language of our field (R, if anybody knows it... an interpreter languague, so its not the fastest thing possible...). now i found this really interesting algorithm that seems to be general purpose for the class of problems that i am doing research on. therefore, i consider implementing the core parts of it in C to make it faster - but i have no clue about C, i would have to leapfrog through it using source code of the C-calls from other R-functions to learn it on the fly.
the main obstacle however is that my general purpose C-function would have to use a "gradient" argument which is a user-specified function that depends on the concrete type of data. so what i want to do is to define a function in the toplevel code (R) and pass it on as an argument to the call to C. is something like that possible?
It is absolutely possible. You use a function pointer for this purpose, take a look here : http://www.newty.de/fpt/index.html
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