Programming etc.

[Xandria]

Programming is just plain awesome, especially if you\'re born a good programmer (like me).  My answers:

1) Heck yeah!
2) Yup
3) Both
4) No (unless you\'re talking about writing a 3d engine or something)
5) Not exactly sure what you mean
6) I\'d love a real job as a programmer
7) This is what C/C++ programming is all about!
Oh yeah!
9) Win32, maybe Linux if I figure out how
10) Engineer; always have been a creator, always will be

[shadowmancer]

Hacking isn\'t as cool as everyone thinks it is. I got busted for that. Lots of trouble. You don\'t want to get caught. And a hacking guru isn\'t all-powerful; the FBI is. Nothing is untracable. However, plenty of people don\'t get caught, and hacking is fun. So, basically, don\'t do anything stupid, and nothing stupid will happen.
Yes, I made sense; If it doesn\'t seem that way, it\'s your fault.

[Davis]

Ooh look so other people are on.
I\'m gonna stop now. 2:04.

[Xandria]

Hacking doesn\'t always have to mean something that is illegal.  I\'ve heard a lot of references to things called hacking that are perfectly ok.  Usually things that have to do with modifiying your OS in a way you\'re not supposed to (my friend called it \"Hack your Mac\").  It\'s not really illegal, it\'s just fun to make your OS do cool things  

[Auran]

Ever heard of FEM? Thats one example system modelling. Well \'System modelling\', for the uninitiated, is about creating mathematical models to simulate real phenomenon as closely as possible eg- modelling fluid flow, metal deformation under different states of stress, Kinematic chains etc. It is one of the most interesting applications of the Computer and one that is extensively used in scientific research, product design and things like that. Its one of the most rewarding things one can do as an engineer. These things really add to one\'s resume.

Hacking is good upto the extent that it is a fun way of clearing up one\'s fundamentals. But beyond that its plain boring. More often than not its a kid showing off or some frustrated loser trying to make others as miserable as he is. But surely its an easy way of impressing ppl.

Professional programmers are required to do a lot of mundane programming. Only 15% of all the assignments are really interesting. But if you really want a programming job it pays to know things like Dbase, SQL, networking and other boring stuff like that. It will also help if you do relevant projects.

As to the OS try programming on the Windows 2000 platform. That is what most companies are using right now. Very select and extremely hardcore companies use Unix.

And lastly C/C++ are not meant for giving you control of the m/c. Though it is an excellent language, if you really want to take control you\'ll need to learn Assembly both real and protected mode.

Any queries? just ask.

Always glad to help out programming students.

Auran

[zabeal]

Wow, from reading the guild forum, I\'d never think I\'d say this, but auran is absolutely right. You have to get your priorities in order before yu start learning, or you\'ll learn the wrong stuff. No point playing around with blender if you just want to work on networking.

All I can add to this discusion is point out that java is my personal favorate, not because of the normal reasons(cross-platform, very similar to C++, faster than scripted languages, i8n, etc), but because Sun\'s own tutorial is very good, and teaches you enuf to make a multi-threaded network program in just a few lesons. Doing that in C++ would take a fairly long time.
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/index.html

[Xandria]

Originally posted by Auran
Ever heard of FEM? Thats one example system modelling. Well \'System modelling\', for the uninitiated, is about creating mathematical models to simulate real phenomenon as closely as possible eg- modelling fluid flow, metal deformation under different states of stress, Kinematic chains etc.

Now THAT...sounds really friggin cool!     Have you got into chaos theory much?  Now that\'s what I would love to do!

Originally posted by Auran
Professional programmers are required to do a lot of mundane programming. Only 15% of all the assignments are really interesting.

An unfortunate reality of programming.     Still, I like solving puzzles.

Originally posted by Auran
As to the OS try programming on the Windows 2000 platform. That is what most companies are using right now. Very select and extremely hardcore companies use Unix.

Unix seems to be loosing ground to Linux, since a lot of Unix programs can just be recompiled for use on their new (and free) counterparts.  Linux programming seems to be pretty cool, with open-source a great thing to look forward to for retirement  

Originally posted by Auran
And lastly C/C++ are not meant for giving you control of the m/c. Though it is an excellent language, if you really want to take control you\'ll need to learn Assembly both real and protected mode.

Lol, assembly is SO hardcore! Even still, my C/C++ instructor informed us that probably the very best assembly programmer in the world going up against the best C++ programmer in the world would probably write the exact same program that would run at most 3% faster.  Obviously writing an entire OS in assembly to gain 3% performance is absolutely ludicrous.  Knowing assembly and being able to tweak your C++ code at key areas is a good skill as well.  But still, for things like video card drivers, 3% is a big deal, and not a large bulk of code to write in assembly (is my guess anyway).

Originally posted by Auran
Always glad to help out programming students.

Thanks  

[Auran]

heh! Thats what instructors are supposed to say! they never tell you the good stuff. Assembly isnt really hard once you get to know it and the things you can do with it beat anything C/C++ could do anyday;). I mean wouldn\'t it be cool if you wrote a ring-3 program and got it the priviledges of a ring-0 program at runtime . Such undocumented calls are something no instrustor would ever tell you .  Of course I would never advise doing bulk programming with it, that would be plain stupid.


Ok by unix i meant it and its derivatives:P.


The Chaos theory-

No I havent had an encounter with that yet. I am more of a Fuzzy logic/ Neural networks person .

[Xandria]

Originally posted by Auran
The Chaos theory-

No I havent had an encounter with that yet. I am more of a Fuzzy logic/ Neural networks person .

Fuzzy logic?  Neural networks? Sounds cool!  


Chaos theory is cool; it basically has to do with \"simplicity in chaos,\" that a simple equation can represent a complex pattern (fractals).  It also involves things like \"unpredictability\" and \"sensitivity to initial conditions\" (even though an accurate weather model was created by Edward Lorenz, long-term forecasting is still an impossibility).

If you want a humourous, but accurate, explanation of chaos, go watch \"Jurassic Park\" and pay attention to Malcolm, because he is a \"chaotician\" and he explains chaos theory.

Or if you want a more in-depth explanation, you can read James Gleick\'s \"Chaos: Making a New Science.\"  I found it very interesting to read both the first time when I was too young to understand it   and the second time after I took calculus and could understand most of it.

[Altharion]

http://www.cprogramming.com
http://www.cplusplus.com

[Auran]

My! You really do have an interest in these things dont you Xandria!! I like that:). How old are you? If you have gone through Chaos theory at a young age that is really an accomplishment:). I\'ll see if I can locate the books you mention.

[Xandria]

I\'m 18, though I don\'t consider myself an expert  

It\'s something I would like to study further, if I can find the time.  I have several books on practical applications of fractal theory in programming.  One of explains things like using fractals to enhance draw distance in a 3d environment; with the correct setup, a field of grass from 1000m away looks like a large green carpet, at 1m away will draw individual blades of grass, everything in between looks smooth, and the result is a realistic looking landscape with a relatively low number of polygons.  Another topic was compressing images using fractal algorithms.  This worked (from what I remember when I was skimming the book) by turning the image into a set of fractal patterns; analagous to turning a bitmap of a schematic into a vector graphic.  In any case, the image could then be represented by this set of fractal equations.  Although you loose some image quality (like any lossy compression), fractals are infinitely detials by nature, so you could zoom into the image and still maintain sharp borders between colors (whereas most images you would experience pixelation).

So, pretty cool stuff.  I just gotta figure out how I can combine it with programming, then figure out how to do something useful with it  

[Auran]

Well something that I learnt some time ago about graphics is that if you love the math involved you\'ll have to forget using them since they\'ll have too complex representations to be of any use and if you want to use then the things will have to have no more complex math than NURBS.

By the way since you seem interested why dont you subscribe to the Computer Graphics journal published (i think) by IEEE. If you want I can give you the details of how to apply.

[Xandria]

Computer graphics isn\'t really my field; I just write programs, and let someone else draw the pretty pictures