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I'm quite new to the field of computer science but I think I've got a pretty decent idea for a website to aid classroom CS learning and collaboration. I'd really like to develop the website from the ground up and make it a sort of pet project in hopes of eventually getting it out on the web for free. Hopefully I can get some teachers to adopt it for use with their classes.
The problem is that I honestly don't know where to start. I've got the idea but I don't have enough formal education to guide the implementation of my idea. The site should have quite a bit of functionality in the long run. I'll need to be able to store user and class data/files as well as offer discussion boards and other things.
Without getting into too many details, what is the best way for me to get started? What languages and databases should I be most interested in as I build the site and ensure scalability and future functionality developments? I would really appreciate any information you could give me on how to structure the project/stack as I don't have much of a clue at this point. I have the idea. Now I just need a little bit of help getting started.
Thanks!
There are definitely already projects out there that will (more than likely) do everything you're currently considering. That said, there's immense benefit in doing a project like this for personal development - you get to learn, and you expand your public portfolio. If you run the project as open source, you can also demonstrate your ability to work with others. All very good (hireable) attributes.
Are there any programming languages you already know? Are there any that your course is going to be teaching that you know ahead of time?
There are so many different languages and frameworks available to choose from, but I'll only mention a few.
Language: Framework
.NET: ASP.NET MVC
python: django
ruby: ruby-on-rails
I'm a huge fan of django. Python is quite a nice language to learn. I'd recommend django purely from a biased point of view. Python runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac, though you probably don't want to host python on windows (culture more than ability).
Conversely, if you really like Windows, ASP.NET MVC makes building out websites very very easy. Mono does allow you to run .NET on linux and mac, but you might find support lacking, and I wouldn't suggest using Mono for your first project.
PHP is (was?) another popular language for building websites in. There are tonnes of web frameworks available for PHP. Popular opinion seems to be that PHP makes it easier for developers to write bad code, though it is possible to write good code with PHP.
Unfortunately, without knowing a rough direction in which you're headed, it's nearly impossible to offer some concrete advice. Database choice will generally come down to what language and platform (linux/.net) you're targeting. Web server also fits this profile. Once you decide on a language, narrowing down the other choices become a lot easier.
Learn HTML to start with and keep improving as per needed with css , javascript. You won't need more then this.
I have never developed a game before and actually never developed anything for iPhone.
What should be my Plan of Action if I want to build a game for iPhone/iOS? I need to know what are the steps I should be aware of to learn first, since I am a complete newbie to the entire universe of Game Dev and also for iOS programming.
I also want to know about how to gaming folks get inspired to write a game? Is there a good book that can give insight on game development from an inception point? How are ideas of games started and built?
Please give good examples of the resources I can use at each action step. For example, good resources to read up on Objective-C.
Learn Objective C and the IPhone environment.
Most game developers start because they already have an idea for the game they want to develop. Game development is tedious, because the code has to work and the game has to be fun. It's hard to get the fun part right without a lot of trial and error.
Since you're just getting started, you can pick a simple game that's been done many times. Consider that your practice game, while you're waiting for inspiration for the game you want to develop.
Since the IPhone isn't where I develop my games, I'll leave this question for others to answer.
To get your feet wet you should first start off by learning Objective-C. A Great book, probably the best book out there is Programming in Objective-C by Steven Kochan, preferably the latest edition out.(They keep releasing updates.)
Then I would go to the to the Apple Developer Center and read most if not all of these documents found here. There are also tutorials released by Apple that are very helpful..."Your first iOS Application", "Your second iOS application", etc.
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#referencelibrary/GettingStarted/RoadMapiOS/chapters/WhereToGo.html
That should get your familiar with Objective-C and Xcode. Next you should look into all the iOS Game Engines out there, programming your own would be counterintuitive at this stage of learning. Torque, Unity 3d, Game Salad, Cocos2d w/ chipmunk would be good to look into. Pick one and learn, learn, LEARN.
Another note is, your probably going to need to know how to work your way around 3d modeling software and or graphics software for sprites, characters, buildings etc. (That is probably going to be your largest learning curve.)
The important thing is to pace yourself and not try to build your vision straight from the get go. Go through tutorials, build small basic games until you're comfortable. Then you can start tackling your million dollar game idea.
Take it from a guy who has been been trying to learn iOS Development for the past 3 years, I have tried countless books and tutorials that just didn't cut it... Those two resources I gave are the best out there in my opinion. Hope all goes well, the best and most rewarding feeling is when are able to finally say "I Get it!".
Learning objective c is a good option, but it's not the only option.
If you are not a strong programmer, or if your focus is on being a good game designer rather than a good programmer (they are not mutually inclusive), than you might look into various middleware that can let you learn the basics of programming, without the challenge of learning objective-c simultaneously.
There is a misconception that becoming a good objective-c programmer will make you a good game designer. What makes you a good game designer is making A LOT of games. So the faster you can get into making games, the better.
Some good options that I use with my students:
Game Salad - Great for rapid prototyping, very easy to get into. Can be a frustrating if you want to do really complex stuff
Stencyl - More robust than game salad, allows "drag and drop" coding, or actual code. Also more complicated than Game Salad and not quite as intuitive.
Corona - A true code based platform, working with the Lua language. Definitely more complex than the prior two, but probably easier to get into than objective-c and cocos.
There are always going to be frustrations and limitations with these programs, but the trade off is speed.
When it comes to getting started in game design, I recommend your first game be something very simple, preferably start with a known concept (in other words, clone something - its a good way to learn the basics). Once you have the hang of basic development and the different parts of game design, start to work on your own concepts, but keep it simple at first.
Publishing a game on iOS is a whole other ball of wax, but the first step is making some games. Good luck, and drop a line if you need help. #happybadgers / happybadgers.com
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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.
Let's say that you have to implement some functionality that is not trivial (it will take at least 1 work week). You have a SDK/API/library that contains (numerous) code samples demonstrating the usage of the part of the SDK for implementing that functionality.
How do you approach learning all the samples, extract the necessary information, techniques, etc. in order to use them to implement the 'real thing'. The key questions are:
Do you use some tool for diagramming of the control flow, the interactions between the functions from the SDK, and the sample itself? Which kind of diagrams do you find useful? (I was thinking that the UML sequence diagram can be quite useful together with the debugger in this case).
How do you keep the relevant and often interrelated information about SDK/API function calls, the general structure and calls order in the sample programs that have to be used as a reference - mind maps, some plain text notes, added comments in the samples code, some refactoring of the sample code to suit your personal coding style in order to make the learning easier?
Personally I use the prototyping approach. Keep development to manageable iterations. In the beginning, those iterations are really small. As part of this, don't be afraid to throw code away and start again (everytime I say that somewhere a project manager has a heart attack).
If your particular task can't easily or reasonably be divided into really small starting tasks then start with some substitute until you get going.
You want to keep it as simple as you can (the proverbial "Hello world") just to familiarize yourself with building, deploying, debugging, what error messages look like, the simple things that can and do go wrong in the beginning, etc.
I don't go as far as using a diagramming tool sorry (I barely see the point in that for my job).
As soon as you start trying things you'll get the hang of it, even if in the beginning you have no idea of what's going on and why what you're doing works (or doesn't).
I usually compile and modify the examples, making them fit something that I need to do myself. I tend to do this while using and annotating the corresponding documents. Being a bit old school, the tool I usually use for diagramming is a pencil, or for the really complex stuff two or more colored pens.
I am by no means a seasoned programmer. In fact, I am learning C++ and I've been studying the language primarily from books. When I try to stray from the books (which happens a lot because I want to start contributing to programs like LibreOffice), for example, I find myself being lost. Furthermore, when I'm using functionality of the library, my implementations are wrong because I don't really understand how the library was created and/or why things need to be done that way. When I look at sample source code, I see how something is done, but I don't understand why it's done that way which leads to poor design of my programs. And as a result, I'm constantly guessing at how to do something and dealing with errors as I encounter them. Very unproductive and frustrating.
Going back to my book comment, two books which I have ready from cover to cover more than once are Ivor Horton's Beginning Visual C++ 2010 and Starting Out with C++: Early Objects (7th Edition). What I really loved about Ivor Horton's book is that it contained thorough explanation of why something needs to be done a certain way. For example, before any Windows programming began, lots of explanation about how Windows works was given first. Understanding how and why things work a certain way really helps in how I develop software.
So to contribute my two pennies towards answering your question. I think the best approach is to pick up well written books and sit down and begin learning about that library, API, SDK, whatever in a structured approach that offers real-world examples along with explanations as to how and why things are implemented as they are.
I don't know if I totally missed your question, but I don't think I did.
Cheers!
This was my first post on this site. Don't rip me too hard. (:
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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.