Android "Backend" for Linux?

[ZXDunny]

I feel dreadfully sorry for anyone that isn't old enough to have learnt to code initially in BASIC. Rest assured, I am working to put that right, and with luck we'll only lose a couple of generations.

D.

I learned the basics of programming via Level I BASIC on my Tandy TRS-80 Model I.. Although how young I was the programs were just basically perverted / low brow Mad Libs..
Even though I was fairly good at quick basic back in the day, I didn't really start to feel like a programmer until at work I started doing server side web programming which then eventually led me to the compiled languages like C/C++ and Java..

Your path was made easier and more accessible because of BASIC. Kids now... they don't get BASIC to fool around in. They get stuff like Scratch. Or they get elitist wankers that bang on about how they should start in C, or something with proper object orientation...

No. They need to start in something that teaches logical program flow. And that's BASIC.

D.

 

[EssoAir]

Ah, Scratch! I took two classes on that in middle school. Lots of fun was had.

 

[TrashyMG]

^ ah kids these days, In middle school my teachers couldn't figure out how to turn on a computer let alone do anything with it..   Internet? what is that some kind of Tennis / Pong game?

 

[EssoAir]

^ ah kids these days, In middle school my teachers couldn't figure out how to turn on a computer let alone do anything with it..   Internet? what is that some kind of Tennis / Pong game?

Not much has changed, sadly. My school makes us use iOS!!!! We have to use fucking iPads! How am I supposed to get anything done? And we can't use any device other than an iPad on the school Wifi. I literally got suspended for 3 days for jail breaking my device. ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS USE A BLUETOOTH MOUSE. People will never learn...

 

[TrashyMG]

Well I got my brother suspended for a week by showing him an exploit in my high school's VM/CMS  system (Text based dumb terminal interface) which allowed me to get into the teacher's menu where they change grades and such.. I figured it out, but my brother was show boating it and got in caught.. 

Well it wasn't much of an exploit, but FYI if you're a teacher don't make your password be the same thing as your vanity licence plate.

Hmm that was over 20 years ago.. 

 

[dreamer]

I feel dreadfully sorry for anyone that isn't old enough to have learnt to code initially in BASIC.

Heh, I got a $many-hand MSX when I was 10 or something. Unfortunately it didn't come with a tape-deck, so whenever I'd try typing-out programs from the manual the thing would have no memory of them after reboot (or power failure).
You can imagine that after a dozen times of this I got discouraged to even look at the thing.

(I knew that these tape-decks existed, from the manual, but I had absolutely no way of getting one at the time)

It took at least 10 years before I got some actual programming experience (except for some poking at HTML in highschool class, which was pathetic, and tweaking some weird freeware windows tool that you could 'program' by editting a text-file with config).

Looking back I wish I found out about things like Linux and the Shell way earlier in life.

Now there is so much choice, but it is always good to start with the basics. BASIC would be a good start to get some simple procedural stuff in your head. After that you can move on to more high-level things and figure out more algorythmic thinking.

Like said before: once you know one language it's fairly easy to move on to another one. The power is in sticking with something and really get to know it, before moving on to the next thing.

Personally I would recommend Python because it forces you to write clean and readable code and can be used for many many things.

The learning curve is also relatively good and there are many many tutorials out there.

Maybe this is something for you: https://www.coursera.org/course/interactivepython

 

[skeezix]

My advice for nobs has always been the same ..

i) Anyone can struggle along and do a job, even do well at it

ii) Those who live and breath it, however, will always excel... effortlessly.

iii) Your pay is not related to either of these things But hopefully.. those with passion, it shows, and they stay employed, and get paid well.. but bloody minded hard work can pay off as well, or dumb luck

Anyway -- if you want to be a coder.. 'fucking code'. Do it now, do it slowly, fuck it all up

No one, not ever, starts great at something. It is often said that to get good at _anything_, you need about 10,000 hours at it; those magicians that lfip cards around like nothing.. they didn't just statr doing that last week; theyu'll have practiced it for 15 years or more to be that good You can start a punk band and not even know how to pay your guitar, but to be a respected guitarist.. yep, you're in it for at least 10 years..

Its called the Scientific Method. You start, you screw up; you can either give up and go home, or you can man up and learn sometyhing,a nd try again; you iterate, loop over and over.. you keep at it, learning each time.

You don't give up.

You immerse yourself, you live and breath your pansions, and if you can cut it, you'll grow like mad, learn lots. If you give up... maybe you weren't meant to go that way (or maybe your'e a quitter, anyway.. don't let me get too philosophical, I don't sleep much

---> messaghe: go do it. You'll find out if you're cut out for this soon enough. I dont' mean a tutorial or two.. I mean, dream up a simple project, and do it. Screw it up bad, who cares; the important thing is you get your brain working in that direction.

Programming is several things... _Coding_ is putting logic to statements, but the real programming is bnreaking down a problem into logical bits, and designing solutions. Thats the hard part. Coding is 'easy', and takes a few years to get any good at.. but its needed, your first step, gets you useful, gets you paid; once you learn how to use your hammers and wrenches, your brain will start to figure out why you're using them, and when to use them.

jeff

 

[vinipsmaker]

I feel dreadfully sorry for anyone that isn't old enough to have learnt to code initially in BASIC. Rest assured, I am working to put that right, and with luck we'll only lose a couple of generations.


D.

My first programming language was C and the first language indeed has a impact on your mind. Today I'm very concerned to make programs that run faster.

Web developers may care more about security, usability, ...

Some scientists may care more about precision of the computing or be also concerned about the speed.

Anyway, what I think is: The world need us all, but nobody need BASIC.

 

[ekianjo]

No one, not ever, starts great at something. It is often said that to get good at _anything_, you need about 10,000 hours at it; those magicians that lfip cards around like nothing.. they didn't just statr doing that last week; theyu'll have practiced it for 15 years or more to be that good You can start a punk band and not even know how to pay your guitar, but to be a respected guitarist.. yep, you're in it for at least 10 years..

That 10 000 hours rule is bullshit. I have one great example and proof for that.

Politicians. 

They do that all their life and they still do a crappy job of managing things. 

Teachers, too. I have seen tons of poor teachers who have been doing that for more than 10 000 hours, and still poor at it.

Spending time does not mean you get any better. Spending time AND IMPROVING yourself is what you need to make these 10 000 hours count. 

 

[EssoAir]

Lol, teachers. I still have to deal with them... I really hate high school. Thank gawd I only have one more year left.

 

[skeezix]

School is something you have to do; what you make of it .. is up to you. Your time is there.. try to do something useful with it (despite the intentions of the system .. there are some resources there, you can use or abuse

jeff

 

[EssoAir]

I am not exactly a social butterfly. I have my friends, and I don't really care to talk to anyone else (people can be quite annoying). I just try and get through and make it take as little time as possible. Now, college on the other hand, will be fucking amazing. Smart people EVERYWHERE! Plus, the benefits of being a legal adult.

 

[Asiyura]

LOL, college/university is exactly the same as the other schools : dumb students, bored/incompetent teachers, with some exceptions that can help to keep going.


A friend of mine had the same hopes for professional universe as your hopes for college : mature and competent people working together.


One year later working in a company later, she understood that her co-worker were in majority wankers that used the work done by others to get promoted.


That her chief didn't care a second about his subordinates, he just wanted them more productive to have a better salary, …


You know, people you find working in companies are the same that were studying in college/university and those are the same that were studying in high schools, etc.

 

[Exophase]

That 10 000 hours rule is bullshit. I have one great example and proof for that.

Politicians. 

They do that all their life and they still do a crappy job of managing things. 

Teachers, too. I have seen tons of poor teachers who have been doing that for more than 10 000 hours, and still poor at it.

Spending time does not mean you get any better. Spending time AND IMPROVING yourself is what you need to make these 10 000 hours count.

I'm pretty sure that applying the saying to mean that anyone who spends 10000 hours at something will be good at it is a pretty basic logical fallacy

 

[pmprog]

It's not the amount of hours, it's how you use them

 

[Binky]

+1 for python here.

Advantages:

• no compulsory clutter for a minimal program
• extremely flexible
• Encourages good practices (indent carefully, avoid globals)
• Is a 'real' and useful language

My first programming language was logo (or a variation thereapon). Since then I've used;

• Computer-readable flowcharts (impossible to keep track of large (or even medium-sized programs)
• click&drag things for programming lego (yuk),
• Copy&paste javascript (hey, I 'wrote' a useless webpage)
• Arduino-C (a little unwieldy, but very powerful),
• PICAXE basic (yuk - subroutines rather than functions, entirely manual memory allocation, disjointed mix of high- and low-level stuff),
• HP basic (YUK. YUK!, Argle!),
• python (fast to work with, but overly clever at times)

I'm among the youngest here (full-time education and whatnot), and not really a programmer, but I certainly agree that its worth picking a simple project and getting started. Even if its a mess. Even if you have to resort to google every ten seconds.

All school (probably quite a posh school by most people's standards) taught me regarding programming is how bad most people (including teachers) are at it.

 

[ZXDunny]

I feel dreadfully sorry for anyone that isn't old enough to have learnt to code initially in BASIC. Rest assured, I am working to put that right, and with luck we'll only lose a couple of generations.

D.

 My first programming language was C and the first language indeed has a impact on your mind. Today I'm very concerned to make programs that run faster.

That's because you were damaged by C to start with, and now you have an obsession about faster code, but don't have the skills to realise it.

Anyway, what I think is: The world need us all, but nobody need BASIC.

And you're wrong about that.

D.

 

[Asiyura]

All school (probably quite a posh school by most people's standards) taught me regarding programming is how bad most people (including teachers) are at it.

If teachers were good programmers, they would rather be well paid in a company than badly paid as a teacher

 

[Exophase]

That's because you were damaged by C to start with, and now you have an obsession about faster code, but don't have the skills to realise it.

lolwut

My first real programming language, at least one I got any real work done in, was C. I did some miniscule toy programs in QBASIC but nothing that meant anything. I don't think I was damaged by C but I'd be up for arguments to the contrary..

 

[EssoAir]

I havent founf a good BASIC tutorial yet. They all seem to act like I should know everything alreadym Anyone got some links?


Also, whats the difference between BASIC, QBASIC, VISUAL BASIC, LIBERTY BASIC, etc?