#computer programming colleges

[heretic-altias]

I don’t usually talk about coding on main, but I really think people would enjoy it more if they were taught what they could do as well as how to code. Like you can build anything. Anything at all you could possibly want. Programming can be a creative medium for the logically minded, and coding classes almost never actually embrace that.

I’ve built so many projects just from silly jokes. Made a whole joke text adventure game about being trapped in an elevator with some game characters. The discord bots I maintain to this day started as “haha what if [Game NPC] was in our server”. If an idea strikes me as fun I’ll code it, the same way an artist will draw a silly doodle or a writer will write a funny joke fic. It’s not just a get a job skill, you actively create things with code. So create! And have fun doing it!

I really think that’s the secret to truly enjoying programming. I love it, it’s a passion of mine. And it’s all because my first teacher set me free to create with it. He would let me expand on assignments however I wanted when I finished early and encouraged exploring what else I could do. If more people taught coding like that, I think there would be so many more who shared my passion for it.

[theonewhereistudy]

If all my pictures look the same, it is because my days aren't exciting; which is good. I like calm.

Today, I started reviewing a topic and realized I learned everything wrong and then spent the whole day trying to understand 0s and 1s

I hope you're getting to understand your classes, stranger.

[frank-olivier]

The story of BASIC’s development began in 1963, when Kemeny and Kurtz, both mathematics professors at Dartmouth, recognized the need for a programming language that could be used by non-technical students. At the time, most programming languages were complex and required a strong background in mathematics and computer science. Kemeny and Kurtz wanted to create a language that would allow students from all disciplines to use computers, regardless of their technical expertise.

The development of BASIC was a collaborative effort between Kemeny, Kurtz, and a team of students, including Mary Kenneth Keller, John McGeachie, and others. The team worked tirelessly to design a language that was easy to learn and use, with a syntax that was simple and intuitive. They drew inspiration from existing programming languages, such as ALGOL and FORTRAN, but also introduced many innovative features that would become hallmarks of the BASIC language.

One of the key innovations of BASIC was its use of simple, English-like commands. Unlike other programming languages, which required users to learn complex syntax and notation, BASIC used commands such as “PRINT” and “INPUT” that were easy to understand and remember. This made it possible for non-technical users to write programs and interact with the computer, without needing to have a deep understanding of computer science.

BASIC was first implemented on the Dartmouth Time-Sharing System, a pioneering computer system that allowed multiple users to interact with the computer simultaneously. The Time-Sharing System was a major innovation in itself, as it allowed users to share the computer’s resources and work on their own projects independently. With BASIC, users could write programs, run simulations, and analyze data, all from the comfort of their own terminals.

The impact of BASIC was immediate and profound. The language quickly gained popularity, not just at Dartmouth, but also at other universities and institutions around the world. It became the language of choice for many introductory programming courses, and its simplicity and ease of use made it an ideal language for beginners. As the personal computer revolution took hold in the 1970s and 1980s, BASIC became the language of choice for many hobbyists and enthusiasts, who used it to write games, utilities, and other applications.

Today, BASIC remains a popular language, with many variants and implementations available. While it may not be as widely used as it once was, its influence can still be seen in many modern programming languages, including Visual Basic, Python, and JavaScript. The development of BASIC was a major milestone in the history of computer science, as it democratized computing and made it accessible to a wider range of people.

The Birth of BASIC (Dartmouth College, August 2014)

Friday, April 25, 2025

[damien-09]

Can someone please tell me how to start learning code to prepare myself for going into computer science next semester? I don't know anything about coding or programming. Exact step by step instructions, please. Or is this a losing battle? Please LMK 🙏🙏

[twocatsinabasket]

Our dorm building flooded over break, so here’s our new giant posters (not pictured: 6 foot tall Baja Blast bottle, a bunch of KPop boys, just a chill guy, our baby bill cardboard cutout (who actually survived the flood!), and a few other pathetic anime men)

Our next projects include

•The lovely buddy daddies family

•The OHSHC cast

•Spock

•The cast of Gakuen Handsome

[moastudiess]

03.29.2025~ Some of it's pretty, some of it's ugly. Many a computer graphics lecture and algorithm's videos later I've learned to find peace in finishing my assignments early. Such is the conundrum of pushing off things till later, because the peace is something I've unfortunately learned to create for myself regardless of the presence of pressing matters

[randomuniversityquotes]

Programming Professor: "Ignore the warnings, it's not a problem."

[galaxymagitech]

Okay. Putting this here because I can’t vent about it in person.

I’m working on a research project with 4 other people. One of them has dropped off the face of the earth. One of them never makes it to any meetings. One of them never makes it to any meetings, dropped off the face of the earth, popped up once, and then disappeared again—and I’m pretty sure she has a personal grudge against me. The other one is super busy. As am I.

We needed to have code to do some statistical tests. I offered to figure it out but they said they would do it and if they didn’t understand by googling they’d have ChatGPT explain it to them. Okay, I don’t get how ChatGPT would be any better than a statistics website, but what they do to learn statistics is their prerogative.

They ended up with a bunch of code, which…was written by ChatGPT. They seemed pretty confident in it, but I started using the code and it’s weird. It chose statistical tests that have nothing to do with what we’re doing, and the ones that are related have gotten odd and inconsistent results. It even attempted to plot something but the plot is completely messed up. I have no clue how this code works or what most of these tests are. The rest of the code (which may or may not have involved ChatGPT, I’m not sure) is at least verifiably correct because I understand what it’s doing. But for all I know the statistics code could be analyzing only the first 20 samples or using a skewed normal distribution or something.

At this point I ended up researching a bunch of tests myself and saying we’ll use these specific tests. At least we understand what the actual tests are now, so we know which parts are actually relavent and at least we’re not running random tests.

It feels ungrateful because they’ve contributed a lot to this project, probably more than I have. And I hadn’t written an alternative, which is on me. But the incomprehensible ChatGPT code running statistical tests neither of us have heard of really drives me up a wall.

Anyway. Moral of the story: don’t have ChatGPT write your code. Sometimes it can tell you what is wrong with your code (although it’s pretty bad at that too, and I’ve noticed that even trying it a couple times out of curiosity on a non-school project drastically decreased my debugging perseverance for some time). It can also be used to create example code for an unusual but verifiable task when you can’t find any on StackExchange. But using it to write stuff you don’t understand is a nightmare waiting to happen because you can’t verify what it’s doing. Which, yeah, is pretty predictable—shortcuts to avoid learning how to do the thing you’re trying to do are generally a bad idea. But in case anyone was wondering, telling ChatGPT to run some (unnamed) statistics tests is not a trustworthy way of evaluating your results.

[sirtbhopal]

Introduction of Python Programming by Prof .Yogesh Sahu

[seekerofrealitys-blog]

🎊🎊🥳🥳

End term practical marks has been declared......

It's so satisfying seeing my hard work paying off.

I didn't believe I will do so better in programming even tho it's my first time ever to learn programming.

I just want to dance today!!!!.

[loonastarlivht]

i love having to do c, c++, java, python and sql all at the same time, not confusing for my poor little brain at all !!

im good with python and c++, but being forced to learn c with fucking vim is a little torturous ( T∀T)

[maraschino-memos]

If my code gives me an error one more time bc of a missing semicolon I’m going to create malware and destroy the world istg

[cyberstudious]

what's it like studying CS?? im pretty confused if i should choose CS as my major xx

hi there!

first, two "misconceptions" or maybe somewhat surprising things that I think are worth mentioning:

there really isn't that much "math" in the calculus/arithmetic sense*. I mostly remember doing lots of proofs. don't let not being a math wiz stop you from majoring in CS if you like CS

you can get by with surprisingly little programming - yeah you'll have programming assignments, but a degree program will teach you the theory and concepts for the most part (this is where universities will differ on the scale of theory vs. practice, but you'll always get a mix of both and it's important to learn both!)

*: there are some sub-fields where you actually do a Lot of math - machine learning and graphics programming will have you doing a lot of linear algebra, and I'm sure that there are plenty more that I don't remember at the moment. the point is that 1) if you're a bit afraid of math that's fine, you can still thrive in a CS degree but 2) if you love math or are willing to be brave there are a lot of cool things you can do!

I think the best way to get a good sense of what a major is like is to check out a sample degree plan from a university you're considering! here are some of the basic kinds of classes you'd be taking:

basic programming courses: you'll knock these out in your first year - once you know how to code and you have an in-depth understanding of the concepts, you now have a mental framework for the rest of your degree. and also once you learn one programming language, it's pretty easy to pick up another one, and you'll probably work in a handful of different languages throughout your degree.

discrete math/math for computer science courses: more courses that you'll take early on - this is mostly logic and learning to write proofs, and towards the end it just kind of becomes a bunch of semi-related math concepts that are useful in computing & problem solving. oh also I had to take a stats for CS course & a linear algebra course. oh and also calculus but that was mostly a university core requirement thing, I literally never really used it in my CS classes lol

data structures & algorithms: these are the big boys. stacks, queues, linked lists, trees, graphs, sorting algorithms, more complicated algorithms… if you're interviewing for a programming job, they will ask you data structures & algorithms questions. also this is where you learn to write smart, efficient code and solve problems. also this is where you learn which problems are proven to be unsolvable (or at least unsolvable in a reasonable amount of time) so you don't waste your time lol

courses on specific topics: operating systems, Linux/UNIX, circuits, databases, compilers, software engineering/design patterns, automata theory… some of these will be required, and then you'll get to pick some depending on what your interests are! I took cybersecurity-related courses but there really are so many different options!

In general I think CS is a really cool major that you can do a lot with. I realize this was pretty vague, so if you have any more questions feel free to send them my way! also I'm happy to talk more about specific classes/topics or if you just want an answer to "wtf is automata theory" lol

[codingcorgi]

Days 110 to 118 of coding everyday for a year and I've gotten so much done!

I finish both of my finals the C++ and the C#. The C++ final is an adventure game and it wasn't too challenging to make honestly I had fun with it. The C# project was also fun because I got to play with microcharts when creating the statistics page to display collected data! I plan to make the C++ game more fun honestly because I can't just let it die from here. I am going to make the Android and iOS build better on the C# project. I'm really proud of myself today :)

My next adventures will be brushing up on JavaScript since I'm severely out of practice and using what I know to make my portfolio website using Blazor!

[pi-cloud]

The biggest thing programming taught me is "if it runs, it runs." Sure, you can optimize your code and make it better structured, but the most important thing is that it runs and passes test cases.

[orcelito]

Had a moment of listening to music I liked back when I was a teenager (& still like) and having a whole. Realization . That I like myself as I am now sooooo much better than I like teenage me. And I started thinking about Why.

There's a lot to it I'm pretty sure, & most of it centers around the fact that I just... didn't really know who I was as a person. I didn't really have hobbies outside of what I did in school (aka orchestra) and like. Video games + anime. I did creative writing in middle school, but dropped off in high school for... some reason? I still made original characters and played around with them a lot, but it was mostly just in drawing and thinking about them. I never actually *wrote*, and I in fact didn't get back into creative writing at all until I was 23 years old. I was someone who had spent so long hiding behind others and just doing what I was told that I just... didn't have any real direction. I didn't know what I even *wanted*. I thought I knew, but in hindsight, I can confidently say that I didn't. I was just an insecure teen drifting through life and not thinking about things beyond what was immediately in front of me. Which is pretty standard for teenagers I guess, but not all of them. Not at all.

Compared to now, where I have Many hobbies, most notably being writing. As I am now, I am just Intrinsically a writer. And it's weird to remember that I wasn't even really *writing* before 5 years ago (besides text rps, which did a lot for developing my writing skill! But still aren't a replacement for writing individually). As a teen, I wasnt into dnd, I was incredibly out of shape, & I was a lot less aggressive and focused. I was the type to avoid sports!!! I hated them!!!! But as I am now, I Love biking and can easily bike for an hour+ no problem (I remember being a teen and trying to go on just 10 minute bike rides in the summer and just *dying* from it), & I love working out. I wanna be strong!!! I LOVE being strong!!! And I was an absolute mess with things like public speaking & working in groups, vs now where I can do an impromptu presentation no problem & I'm often the unofficial leader in group projects bc im typically the one who does the organizing and allotments of work. A side effect of working as a supervisor and then assistant manager for so long. I have a lot more confidence in my perceptions and judgements, & I have the self-assurance to assert these things. And this is only really the tip of the iceberg with all the differences.

I just feel like an entirely different person, almost. The cores are the same, or at least damn near similar, with the things I want out of life & the sorts of things I enjoy, but it's like. The difference between finding a random rock off the side of the road & then that rock when it's been sanded and carved and decorated to be something individual and unique. You look at them side by side and it's something dull vs something shiny and intricate. The origins can't be ignored and dismissed, & I certainly would never resent younger me for just doing the best with what I knew at the time. But it's just astounding how much difference time and experience will have for growing and developing as a person. Things I consider integral to my personhood weren't even thoughts in my mind back then. We are almost entirely different people.