What Next??
 

Hey guys, my name is Sean. I'm currently half way through my first year of a software engineering degree. In the first semester, the programming modules focused completely on the use of C. I'm now pretty confident with the language in general, we finishd up at arrays and structures etc so im now at a point where its more problem solving than the actual code itself. However, I'm not sure what to move onto next as the new programming modules are on java, which i'm very keen to learn but I want to keep going with C or a variant in my own time.

As much as its good practise im pretty tired of writing 'mess about' programs because I'm not learning anything new, but simply consolidating what I already know.

So basically, I want to move onto the next step with the language, any ideas on what I should be doing? I have started to look into C++ and its basic ideas, should i continue down that road? or is there some resource i could use to create larger, more complex programs in C?

Thanks for your time and thanks for having me on the forums!!

Re: What Next??
 

Pointers. Today at lunch, a couple of my co-workers were discussing the value of knowing how pointers work, and how relatively few recent grads seem to understand them well. It's also handy to know how the language translates to the hardware, which is fairly easy with C.

Re: What Next??
 

It depends on what your goals are. What are you keen on making? In what ways do you feel like challenging yourself?

Jimbo, I can't see how a grad could possibly not understand pointers well? Even in the grade 12 computer science course at my school, you have to have an understanding of pointers in C to pass the tests.... Maybe times are changing, and the grads from their days were differently educated.

Re: What Next??
 

haha. I was just laughing as i read that, we did pointers but I have to admit that its something i learnt just enough to pass the exams and didnt really go into any detail. Thanks very much for the advice.

Re: What Next??
 

Hey sane, on a long term scale i would like to end up programming multimedia of some sort, preferably of the video game variety(a guy can dream lol). From what I've read, C++ is a popular language for this, which is fine because I want to learn it anyway. However, It's the steps required to being competant enough to program at that level, I can't just wake up tomorrow and start coding for some blockbuster videogame.

Re: What Next??
 

For games I would start studying and learning DirectX gameing engine. You can download it free from Microsoft site along with lots of examples. You should be prepared for some rather heavy-duty c++ code.

Re: What Next??
 

Thanks Ancient Dragon, I'm perfectly willing to do the work, I'm very into programming and have been enjoying every bit of it. Bit of a side question but, when developers are making games using the development kit for say sonys playstation, do they still program in C++ or other standard languages? and then use the particular sony compiler or how does it work? Thanks again for all your help.

Re: What Next??
 

Actually, I quite agreed with them. Of course, it varies by school, but a lot of schools seem to be tending towards using high level languages like Java or C# for a lot of their instruction. I know my school was like that (although we did have some stuff in C, but a lot was Java), and one of the guys in the conversation even has his OS class in Java (and that was several years ago). From the point of view of a professor who has to get through some amount of "computer science" material in a term, having to review how C(++) works can be costly in terms of time.

Re: What Next??
 

That's so strange. I guess it goes to show that education is more about what you can get out of it yourself than the implications of a flashy piece of paper congratulating you for a four year committment. If a noticeable amount of people don't have a firm grasp of pointers after being in post-secondary computer science for 4 years, then my faith in the general competance of University graduates is failing.

Re: What Next??
 

I went to ITT, knock it if you want to, but they covered the spectrum in programming. They start you out in VB, then move into C++ and finally Java. We were lucky because our C++ teacher knew C and was learning C++, so he taught us a bit of both as we went. And this was for an associates degree. We covered pointers, data structures, some scripting and GUI applications. I'm sure there's a lot more to learn, but I feel they have a good base in programming.