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I am currently a Junior going for my Computer Science degree. I am really curious about how things actually work. While I realize that I will never understand everything there is to know about everything, I would love to dive into the basics of a lot of things. There are a lot of such things that I have encountered for my day to day life: machine learning, AI, servers, compilers, etc. However, something that truly amazes me is image process software and the amazing things we have achieved with it to this date.
It seems, however, that no matter where I look, I am not getting a lot insight into how it works, but rather a list of libraries to use (cough OpenCV) instead. While it is great that libraries like this exists, using it defeats the purpose of wanting to learn how things work.
Is there any good resource that someone could recommend regarding image processing or is the best choice I have is to look through existing libraries?
As user T A recommend, buy a good undergraduate-level book about image processing and work your way through it.
Gonzalez and Woods is a commonly used textbook, and you should find it readable.
https://www.pearson.com/us/higher-education/program/Gonzalez-Digital-Image-Processing-4th-Edition/PGM241219.html
How you approach learning the field depends on what learning style you’ve found most effective in the past.
Pick a relatively simple image processing problem, such as counting the number of circles in an image. FIRST, try to solve it yourself. Give that a day or two. Then, if you’re stuck, look for answers in your textbook.
Find a free OpenCV course. At first, try to solve some problems by treating the algorithms (the OpenCV functions) as black boxes: read the documentation, tinker with parameters, try different images, etc., but don’t dig into the algorithms too deeply until you have some sense how the algorithms can be used together at a high level.
Take an undergraduate course. Having a professor or instructor lead you through problems, and the need to make a grade, can help motivation if it sags.
Get an internship at a company that uses image processing in its products. Take ANY internship remotely related to code, then as appropriate ask engineers how things work, what to read, etc.
As a rule, I don’t recommend learning image processing piecemeal reading blogs, etc.
The more you try to solve practical problems on your own, the more you’ll appreciate some of the less appreciated problems in the field. Choosing the right camera, lightening, and other hardware choices becomes important as you try to make an image processing system work more robustly. Many demos you see online won’t work well in real-world situations. (For example, distinguishing objects by their expected color can lead to disappointing results even if the lighting, distance to the object, and orientation of the object change only slightly.)
Above all, try to find some particular problem that interests you: identifying animals; SLAM; facial recognition; predicting events based on video streams; determining the ripeness of fruit; or whatever. Try to find some aspect of image processing that overlaps some other interest of yours: sports, literature, music, theater, social networks, bike racing, animal husbandry, environmental science, or what have you. Once you’ve identified a problem of interest, tackle is problems of increasingly greater complexity.
And if you have more questions, feel free to send me a private message. I’ve been in the field for over two decades, and I like helping steer new folks into the field.
Also: you can get started with Python, Julia, or any of several other languages, but it’s still (as of 2019) common for image processing algorithms to be written in C or C++. So I’d suggest starting with the language you know and like the best, but spend some time practicing C++ as well. Most of the academic papers I read provide algorithms in C or C++, though typically in older style C++ that doesn’t require you to be familiar with C++11 and later.
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Sorry if it's yet another question with no response:), feel free to close. There's a bunch of questions on SO like: does technology/language/database used in medicine is quite different from that used in traditional area like banking/industry etc. You can hear in response or 1) no difference 2) it's vague and hard according to lack of standards.
But medical imaging is attractive not only due to general concerns: humanistic & scientific. Job opportunities are strict and obvious. C++/Сom/ActiveX/C#, some open source libraries, DICOM/HL7, Python. It looks like a separate specialty - you don't need to explain on interview what exactly you did.
So my question is: Is medical imaging a separate specialty as it seems to stranger? Do the vendors mostly go in the same direction and you can change them without changing world view as it happens in enterprise? Or it is just kind of C++ programming which is usually interchanged with some other image processing, trading, drivers, op. system programming etc.?
I would say that programming is universal. Whether you're developing a web application or designing for an embedded system, you will face similar challenges. However, some aspects do change. And in this case, I would say that the focus on algorithms is what sets medical imaging apart from other fields.
I'm not an expert, but there is definitely some advanced math and algorithms involved in medical imaging. For example, consider image registration - a common algorithm used in the field. Not only would an MI expert have to have a good mathematical understanding of the registration, but he would also have to be able to readily implement and optimize it - not a trivial task.
I'm familiar with some mnemonic/memorization techniques for about a year.
I think that this techniques can give a developer significant benefit or even make you an expert in the field.
If you are familiar with this techniques, you know that there are mnemonic techniques for long-term memorizing. We often read lots of books, and there are many concepts which you don't remember because they won't appear often in your daily coding-life. So, you need to learn it again and again, months and years later.
The same situation with frameworks. It takes some time to become familiar with framework's syntax, useful code constructs and so on. But after some time you forget many concepts from your previous framework(or framework which you rarely use - but it is very important to you).
By using this techniques you can build with time your sustainable knowledge base, which will reliably grow - you can be confident that after some time you won't forget about the concepts you learned earlier.
Please tell me what do you think about this idea?
You are already familiar with Mnemonics techniques, please tell about your experience - it will be very useful and interesting to hear.
Useful links:
Method of loci
Mnemonic
My favorite method:
Type it into Google
I'm being totally serious - why do you need to remember it?
You don't memorize how to be a good programmer any more than you memorize how to be a good classical violinist. You practice, practice, practice. That will let you naturally recall the most important constructs, and as Chad says, Google is there for the less important ones. I have never felt the need to use mnemonic devices or rote memorization to learn a programming construct or technique.
"Expertise in the field" isn't about memorizing function calls. It's about the ability to break problems down, and provide performant, maintainable, reliable solutions in minimal time.
You could memorize every function call in the STL, and still be a complete neophyte programmer.
I read Harry Lorrayne's "The Memory Book" a few years ago, and found that the techniques therein were great for remembering related facts. However, in my experience I the techniques could have been more useful, namely:
The memorization didn't tend to work in the long run. If I wasn't practicing remembering a particular list, or body of facts, I would eventually completely forget them within a few days or weeks.
I had trouble applying the techniques to hierarchical data sets, like class libraries. This made their use less powerful for programming stuff.
The techniques were very useful for things that could be easily explained by voice, or a single stream of text. However, I had trouble applying them to things of a more visual nature, such as mathematical equations.
That said, I have used Mnumonic Techniques while coding for things that google could not replace. I sometimes use the number memorization trick to recall a specific line of code (by its line number) while I jump around a code file, or remember function names as I jump between files.
Agree with other answers, some of the more useful things you could focus on improving are:
Troubleshoot a problem, using the 'elimination' technique, basically eliminating problem areas, one by one, until you hit the right one
Quickly get to the resource/API/Information I need - Use Google, SO, CodePlex, Google code, Koders.com codesearch, Google codesearch, MSDN etc - Knowing what information lies where is enough to save time drastically
Avoid thrashing (stuck with a problem for too long, no results), once you've spent enough time on the problem, by giving others 'complete' and 'relevant' information on your problem you can help others help you
Finally, memorizing about theories in programming is not helpful, however just reading, listening to experts and podcasts, attending conferences can help great deal in 'access to information from memory'
HTH
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I've been browsing Bjarne Stroustrup's new introductory programming book, Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++. It's meant for first-year university computer science and engineering students.
Early on in the book he works through an interesting extended example of creating a desktop calculator where he ends up implementing an arithmetic expression evaluator (that takes bracketed expressions and operator precedence into account) in a series of co-recursive functions based on a grammar.
This is a very interesting example, although arguably on the complex side for a lot of beginners.
I wonder what others thing of this particular example: would learning programming by seeing how to implement an expression parser excite and motivate you, or would it discourage you because of all the details and complexity?
Are there other good "real" programming examples for beginners?
When I was first learning to program, the best example I ever worked with was building a text adventure game from scratch. The basics just required knowing how to display text on the screen, receive input from the keyboard, and rudimentary flow control. But since text adventures always have room to add more features/puzzles/whatever, they can be easily adapted to explore aspects of whichever language you're learning.
Of course, not everyone finds games more interesting than calculators. It really depends on the programmer.
First, let me say that cognitive psychologists have proven in numerous studies that the most important factor in learning is desire to know.
If you want to learn about programming, you need to find a domain that stokes your desire to understand. Find a challenge that can be solved with programming.
I agree with the other folks when they suggest something that you are interested in. And games seem to be a common thread. As I reflect on my experience learning to program (too many years ago), math problems and a simple game was involved.
However, I don't think I really understood the power of software until I created a useful small program that helped a business person solve a real problem. There was a tremendous amount of motivation for me because I had a "client". I wasn't getting paid, but the client needed this program. There was sincere pain (gotta get my job done quicker) related to this situation.
So my advice is to talk to people you know and ask what small annoyance or computer-related obstacle to they have. Then try to fix it. It may be a simple web widget that reduces repetitive, manual tasks for an office worker.
One of my best early works was helping a little printing shop (no software, circa 1985) that struggled with estimating jobs to produce proposals that weren't money-losers. I asked alot of questions of the sales lady and of the operations manager. There was obviously an intersection of a common pain point with a really easy calculation that I could automate. It took me a couple of days to learn Lotus 1-2-3 (spreadsheet for you young-uns) enough to write a few macros. I was motivated. I had passion. I saw where I could make a difference. And that, more than anything else, drove me to learn some simple programming.
Having real people, real problems, and really simple solutions could be the inspiration you need as a beginning programmer. Don't try to write an accounting system. Just take one discreet piece of someone's frustration away. You can build on that success.
So, I wouldn't focus on the technique (yet). Don't worry about, "Am I doing this the most efficient way?" The main objective for a beginner is to have success, no matter how small, and build confidence.
BTW, that Lotus 1-2-3 set of macros grew into a full job tracking system. Very archaic, limited features, but made that little print shop much more profitable.
Create your motivation, fuel your desire, and develop your passion for programming like an artist unveils the masterpiece in a blob of clay. And be persistent. Don't give up when challenged with a roadblock. We all get stumped sometimes. Those are some of the best learning moments because humans learn more from failure than success.
Good luck.
I think making tiny games like text version of Tetris will be a good way of getting into pragramming world.
Board games are fun to design and code since they come in many shapes and difficulties
from tic-tac-toe to checkers to monopoly, its reinventing the wheel for educational purposes!
the best advice i can think of is to pick something from a field of interest you have because coding for the sake of coding might dim your resolve
Start small. Do examples that interest you. Stretch yourself just a little every time. Get comfortable with each step, to the point that you have confidence that you know what you're doing, and then try something a little harder the next time.
I think that any example program would help you learn a new language, but a beginner should try to work with something that is easy to understand in the real world, such as a mortgage calculator or something along those lines.
I think the answer is that it would depend on the person who is learning how to program.
One nice thing about something like an arithmetic expression evaluator is that it is a project that can start very small (make it work with just the format "X SYMBOL Y" where X and Y are single-digit numbers and SYMBOL must be a plus sign) and then you are slowly expanding the functionality to the point of a complicated system.
However, it might not be a great starter project for someone who doesn't really understand the concept of computers (hard disk, memory, etc.)
Try to think of something that you do on a computer that is repetitive, and could be easily automated. Then try to come up with how to make a program that automates that task for you. It can be anything, whether it's popping up a reminder every 15 minutes to stretch your legs or cleans up your temp directory on a regular basis.
The problem with this task is that it's conplex and not real life related. I don't need another calculator.
But once I had a CD with scratched surface near its center and lots of valuable JPEG files inside. I dumped the data from the unscratched part of the disk but all the filesystem was surely lost. So I wrote a program which analysed the dump and separated it into files. It was not very simple but was a nice and exciting file IO programming exercise.
Examples can be more complex than something you try to write yourself. It's easier to follow someone else doing something than it is to do it yourself. A real-world example like this calculator may be a fine way to introduce someone to a language. For instance, Practical Common Lisp starts with an example of an in-memory database (for CDs I think) and uses that as the springboard to explore parts of the language.
I prefer seeing a real example built up over time than just a lot of simple "Hello World" programs.
I've always found that implementing a game of some sort is sufficient incentive to learn various features of a language. Card games, especially, because they generally have simple rule sets to implement, but are sufficiently complex from an abstract point of view.
I would agree, though, with everyone else: find examples of things that interest you. Not everyone is a game fan, but something like a mortgage calculator would be far more interesting.
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I'm preparing to teach someone to program. When I learned the course material, I used turtle graphics for the first few exercises. In reading introductory textbooks, I have not found one that uses the technique. Did others find this approach helpful? If not, what is a better way to learn to program?
I think it depends on age of the target group.
If they are children (I would say up to 12-14 years), doing any easy graphics is a good way to motivate them; on the other hand, don't expect them to learn much about real programming or algorithms.
If they are teens (14-18), it's perhaps still good to use some algorithms that give pretty results (for example 3D or fractals), but since they are older and capable of more abstract thinking, I don't think 2D turtle graphics is interesting enough.
If they are older, doing any graphics is a distraction. At that age, they should have enough inner motivation to learn without anything fancy.
To sum up, I think that fancy graphics serves more motivational role (that you see what you did fast, and it's easy to show others what can you do with a computer) than learning role (that it would make learning real programming easier).
In the late 80s, before I was programming in C, I was programming in Applesoft BASIC and Logo. As a child I thought the turtle was great because it make programming simple. If I decide to teach my children Logo I will probably start here to get an actively developed Logo interpreter.
The key thing about LOGO is user-defined functions. It is very good at conveying that, as long as you emphasize it. Show interactively how to draw a square, then make a new word called square. Then show how you can draw patterns using square. Then make those patterns into words, and so on.
You could do worse in teaching programming than using a tool like Scratch. It's a drag and drop programming interface and can be used to teach basic concepts of programming with some fun visual results (as can be seen from the gallery on their website).
Rob
Logo gave me a very clear picture (no pun intended) on how recursive functions would work, and since I was doing assembly programming at the time, the need to return to the previous state when returning to a method became very clear with Logo.
Recursive implementations of things where also very easy to see the effect of.
I wrote script/code in a c-like dialect for a game called Doom2 before I knew what programming was, so when it came to seriously learning about concepts such as pointers, inheritance and polymorphism I found the basics a breeze because I could construct a mental model to not only help me understand, but also appreciate how cool things like pointers and arrays are.
A friend of mine is a good programming student, but he gets frustrated when he can't visualize an algorithm working, when I was starting to help other students I found they had the same problem, if they can't see something working it's harder to appreciate as a fledgling programmer, the same friend eloquently suggested I "Show 'em some crazy pimp shit and then show them how it's done". He's right, even if someone really wants to learn something they'll be able to draw on more mental energy if they think what they're learning lets them do awesome things.
My best bit of advice is this: AT THE START SPEND AS LITTLE TIME PROGRAMMING TO THE CONSOLE AS POSSIBLE
It makes you feel constrained and your efforts appear futile, only after you appreciate it as a front end should it be used for learning to program. I wouldn't use logo myself because I don't think it can teach concepts such as the aforementioned polymorphism or inheritance nearly as well as other methods, I know a friend of mine is teaching a teenager how to program using XNA in a wrapper, I think anything that can let you blit an image to the screen is fine. That way you can see why you'd want an abstract base class called EnemyEntity with behavior that's inherited by zombie and dog etc. It's not that the concepts are hard to understand, it's just that at first they're hard to appreciate.
I could go on but I think that puts across what I've learned by teaching others. I think using graphics in teaching programming allows students to gain the ability to build mental models of intangible concepts faster than any other.
XNA If you want to teach C# that's an amazing graphics library, just write a wrapper sprite class to hide as much complexity when first starting out and teaching concepts.
SDL A lower level library if you're going to start with c++
During one of my first-year computer science papers we used Java to create fractal patterns via a turtle object.
It was pretty fun to see visually whether or not we had correctly implemented the algorithm required to produce a certain pattern. However, so answer the main question, I wouldn't say that programming via a turtle is useful. I'd say the best way to teach someone to program is to get them to build their own app to do whatever they want it to do. This gives them creative control, plus if they get stuck they can learn how to resolve a problem.
I strongly suggest to start with a interpreted language like Logo (not compiled) because of the quality of the error messages. Reading error messages is very important in this process. Also, at the easy level, Logo allows you to run your instructions one by one in direct mode and carry them to your procedures when you get the expected results.
# Alex: MicroWorlds is a commercial version of Logo and it does exist in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, etc. it's a big plus if you are not a native English-speaking person.
LOGO is not only Turtle-Graphics.
There are also other interesting concepts in it which come from LISP.
'Turtle' is just icing on the cake and the "imperative" side of Logo.
:)
I learned to program in BASIC by writing simple programs drawing faces (I mean circles and squares) on the screen. Somehow the whole turtle programming was never my thing, although a few of my friends learned that way. Later on I moved to Pascal, then to Delphi, Java and C++/C#.
In my opinion the trick is to "wow" your student and impress/empower with potential things that you can accomplish by writing your own programs. I would actually demonstrate some GUI programming or game programming. It's much easier to learn the basics by keeping the end goal in mind.
Recently I came across SmallBasic - a cool programming environment for kids designed to teach concepts. I would give that a try. It comes with a pretty complete paper describing how to use it.
When I got my first computer (VIC-20) and started programming it was very hard to explain to my parents what I was doing.
My mother tok a course in computing preparing for a project of computerizing the library she worked in. They had a couple of classes introducing them to programming. After learning LOGO she came home and said that she suddenly understood what I was into.
So LOGO with turtle graphics brought us closer together!
I did a "computing for kids" course in the late eighties, and there was an extensive section on turtle graphics using logo. In all honesty I was bored to tears, and learned virtually nothing from it.
I think "programming the turtle" might work better for someone who is artistically inclined, or hugely into geometry, but by and large, there are far more interesting problems to attack, even for kids.
Ah, the memories of good old Logo. I think I got more of a geometry lesson than a programming lesson out of it, e.g. figuring out how much to turn at various points to produce a particular shape, design or pattern. It may work if you plan on mixing geometry with the programming, but if the person doesn't have the basics of geometry, e.g. what is a square and how is it different from other 4-sided shapes, what is a triangle, etc.
I used logo and turtle at school too, a great introduction.
It looks like our kids will be getting a slightly updated interface with Microsoft Kodu. It looks very impressive. It's an icon based programming language made for creating games that runs on X-Box Live.
I'm currently learning python and using a little bit of turtle. In labs we haven't used it, but our homework does. It's nice to know it exists, and it's a good way to get certain commands and syntax in. Overall I don't feel it was completely necessary though.
When I was young, I found it very interesting. It was one of the first programming languages that I've learned, even though I've used it for about two days. It started my interest in programming.
Nowadays, I think the syntax is a bit unclear because most statements are abbreviations. Nowadays, computers are far more powerful thus the language could profit from clearer statement. Another factor is the native language of the person who is learning to use it. If English is not your native language then Logo becomes a bit more complex to understand. So if you're teaching Logo to children, make sure they're familiar with English terms first. (Quite easy if you're a native English-speaking person. More complex if you're originally Dutch, German, French, Portuguese. Even more complex if you're Russian or Chinese because you'd have to adjust to a different character set too.)
I have just begun teaching my 7-year-old how to program using Logo, and he is having a load of fun with it. The commands are easy enough for his limited reading ability and he just loves drawing cool pictures using the turtle graphics. I was amazed at how well he retained what he had learned using it, so I feel it was a good choice for his age.
For older kids (or adults) other languages might have more advantages as a beginner language though
Personal experience, YMMV...
My first encounter with a computer was turtle graphics in my early teens. I loved and was immediately hooked. (Perhaps because for the first time someone [something] did exactly what I told it to do?)
The visual and instant feedback made me want to do more and more. I really wanted to figure out how to replicate the pictures I saw in the book I was using. Without me even classifying it as "work", it slowly built up my early programming skills and my confidence I could learn on my own.
I credit it with sending me in the path I'm in today, a happy software developer who can't believe I get paid to do this work (I know, I know - all corporate snickering aside, I like my work).
As I said, YMMV.
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What software do you use when designing classes and their relationship, or just pen and paper?
I find pen and paper very useful, and I try to get as far away from a computer as possible. If I do it on the compy, I'm always too tempted to start programming the solution. That inevitably leads to me changing things later that I would have spotted in the planning phase had I actually spent a good measure of time on it.
I usually start with a empty interface then start writing tests. I then generate the members using refactoring tools. For me unit testing is part of the design.
OmniGraffle (Visio-esque app for Mac OS X), sometimes. Otherwise, just pen and paper will do.
It's easy, while in the paper-and-pen (or whatever non-code equivalent you prefer) stage, to overstay, falling prey to the dreaded YAGNI syndrome. How many of us have carefully designed in some "sexy" feature that ended up never being used? (Raises hand. Hands.)
Small iterative test-driven steps and frequent refactoring - let the code tell you what it wants to be.
Most of my projects start out with the only certainty being that we won't end up where we currently think we will. So spending very much time on Big Up-Front Design (or Big Design Up Front if you prefer) is wasteful - better to start with the first thing we want to do and see where we end up.
It kind of depends on where you consider design to end. I read an article a few years back that presented the idea that coding is design - or for the Big Process fans at least it's the back-end of design. It rang true to me and changed forever the way I viewed the stages of the development process. Of course, I've just googled like crazy for the darn thing. Could I find it? Could I heck. Perhaps I dreamed the article and it's all my own idea. Yeah, that'll be it.
Pen and paper for the first draft. Umlet to digitalize it. It's very minimal but it does what I need
I use pen and paper.
For all planning purposes, it's the fastest way.
I get lost in layout and finetuning when I use a UML package.
But that is my burden.. :-)
Go for PENCIL and paper, or a whiteboard. Anything permenant-marking like a pen and you'll have a pretty messy design!
Whiteboard for the first 35 or 40 drafts. UML is nice after that, but not particularly necessary. The best documentation after you've hashed out the details is clean code.
Mostly pen and paper, although I occasionally break out Visio and just do some rough diagrams.
Would be nice to have a fancy tool I guess, but it would just be another thing to learn.
When doing an initial design I like a whiteboard and 1 - 3 other developers to bounce ideas off of. That's usually enough to catch any glaring errors/fix any tricky situations that may arise without dropping the s/n ratio by too much.
I find pen and paper, a whiteboard and possibly some CRC cards to be very useful. Most of the time I think a whiteboard and some stickers or cards with the class and/or module names written on them work best when doing planning and designing as a group. Pen and paper is fine if you are doing the activity alone. Once you have the basic structure set you can always make a pretty UML diagram.
Pen and Paper and/or Whiteboards for drafting, a more comprehensive tool for documentation purposes.
I mainly use Class Diagrams and a few sketches with Sequence Diagrams to get most of the relationships right.
About the tools: At work I use Enterprise Architect but personally I find Visual Paradigm for UML a better choice. The latter is much more flexible and allows quick drafting as well.
At VP they also have a version called Agilian for some time now (which I have not yet used) which seems to be even more flexible, allowing sketches to become documentation in no-time... maybe one day this tool will replace my paper sketches (save the trees :P).