Post: #101

For those who don't know it: Udemy has some good online courses, and they often have sales where you can buy them for 20$

Post: #102

I recommend this course to anybody whos interested how javascript works. It goes deep and you see hoe javascript is implemented etc. https://www.udemy.com/understand-javascript/

Post: #103

I have absolutely no idea about programming, but there's a possibility to finish my non-IT degree sooner by taking some introductory classes.
Now the problem is, the language they'll teach us is (oo)Rexx.
What the heck is Rexx, I asked myself, so I googled it but hardly found any information, and what I found wasn't very encouraging. It seems about as useful as learning Latin when you should learn English. No java, no python, but Rexx.
So I wanted to ask if anyone knows more about that, did I miss something?
Is it actually useful in the year 2016?
Could it somehow help me with my goal of becoming location independent some day?
Cause if it's basically useless, I wonder what's the point.

Post: #104

I know c++, php, processing, javascript and ruby and have been paid money from people and companies to make websites for them and I've also made scripts to be used on my own and other people's websites, and I made a command line battleships and tic tac toe game with algorithms. I taught myself. I went to WH Smith to look at a programming for kids magazine, and it was more complicated than anything I'm learning at uni. They gave a tutorial on how to make a game with a visual programming language so you click buttons instead of type things. Looking at it, that software is more complicated than making a platformer on flash and actionscript.

My brother followed a tutorial on how to code a calculator in visual basic, and you would not believe how bizarre the algorithm is to add and subtract two numbers. It made perfect sense, but it baffled our minds. I was in a lavarel chat room and I asked them why 0.3 + 0.2 = 0.6. They said that processors have problems dealing with small numbers, because numbers we use are decimal but numbers they use are decimal. For example, a third can be represented in binary as 1011 in 2's compliment, but as 0.3 in decimal. Decimals can't represent a third. The mismatch between binary and decimal is supposedly why computers can't deal with small numbers. Even the google calculator gets stuff wrong when you deal with really big and small numbers.

I asked them in the laravel chat why the computer doesn't move the decimal point to the right to make 3 and 2, add them together, and then move the decimal point to the left. That way it would get the right answer. They said that it was beyond the scope of a chat room to explain the answer and I would have to read books about how processors work, to get it. I then asked the same question on Stack Overflow and everyone thought I was trolling and nobody answered it.

I was pointed to this website. I still don't get it.

Post: #105

Floating point accuracy is a thing. I'm taking a class that explained it pretty well last month.

https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-...-6-00-1x-6

There are efficiency reasons why the floating point int conversion add isn't done. You can make your own function to do things that way if you really want to. There are workarounds for the inaccuracy that are well known. Most com sci books explain it pretty early. The class I linked does an excellent job of it.

I've never heard of Rexx either, its probably something made specifically for teaching programming. At the intro level you need all those basic concepts that you can carry with you to whatever language you like. You'll find our really quickly that the best folks in industry are all self taught, programming classes are full of these contrived simplified examples and generalize to the point of being meaningless. You have to make that leap from concepts to practice on your own, which means a lot of books, experimenting, and talking to other people.

Post: #106

(02-17-2016 09:24 AM)Belgrano Wrote:  I have absolutely no idea about programming, but there's a possibility to finish my non-IT degree sooner by taking some introductory classes.
Now the problem is, the language they'll teach us is (oo)Rexx.
What the heck is Rexx, I asked myself, so I googled it but hardly found any information, and what I found wasn't very encouraging. It seems about as useful as learning Latin when you should learn English. No java, no python, but Rexx.
So I wanted to ask if anyone knows more about that, did I miss something?
Is it actually useful in the year 2016?
Could it somehow help me with my goal of becoming location independent some day?
Cause if it's basically useless, I wonder what's the point.

I addressed that question here.

Post: #107

(02-17-2016 12:14 PM)tynamite Wrote:  My brother followed a tutorial on how to code a calculator in visual basic, and you would not believe how bizarre the algorithm is to add and subtract two numbers. It made perfect sense, but it baffled our minds. I was in a lavarel chat room and I asked them why 0.3 + 0.2 = 0.6. They said that processors have problems dealing with small numbers, because numbers we use are decimal but numbers they use are decimal. For example, a third can be represented in binary as 1011 in 2's compliment, but as 0.3 in decimal. Decimals can't represent a third. The mismatch between binary and decimal is supposedly why computers can't deal with small numbers. Even the google calculator gets stuff wrong when you deal with really big and small numbers.

I asked them in the laravel chat why the computer doesn't move the decimal point to the right to make 3 and 2, add them together, and then move the decimal point to the left. That way it would get the right answer. They said that it was beyond the scope of a chat room to explain the answer and I would have to read books about how processors work, to get it. I then asked the same question on Stack Overflow and everyone thought I was trolling and nobody answered it.

I was pointed to this website. I still don't get it.

The algorithm to add and subtract two numbers in Visual Basic isn't complex. It should be trivially easy.

To implement a calculator, most of the code is dedicated to accumulating a number from a stream of character symbols. Also validating the input.

The question you asked about 0.2 + 0.3 = 0.6 makes no sense. It doesn't, and no one ever claimed it did.

Maybe in floating point, 0.2 + 0.3 = 0.5000000000000000000000004 or something similar. It seems you deliberately understood it wrong, hence why one forum thought you were trolling.

Post: #108

(01-31-2016 06:25 AM)Andy_B Wrote:  

(10-14-2013 02:31 PM)Edmund Dantes Wrote:  I finished the HTML & CSS section of codeacademy but I have no idea how to play with code. I wrote some of my own but I don't know how to view it. I looked up code viewing generators online but it was mediocre at best.

Do I need some kind of software?

And where do I go next?

You just save html and css files in a text document...

Download 'brackets'. It is easy to use and free.

Post: #109

(02-17-2016 07:10 PM)Atlantic Wrote:  

(01-31-2016 06:25 AM)Andy_B Wrote:  

(10-14-2013 02:31 PM)Edmund Dantes Wrote:  I finished the HTML & CSS section of codeacademy but I have no idea how to play with code. I wrote some of my own but I don't know how to view it. I looked up code viewing generators online but it was mediocre at best.

Do I need some kind of software?

And where do I go next?

You just save html and css files in a text document...

Download 'brackets'. It is easy to use and free.

If anyone is on Windows, I would recommend the free version Visual Studio. You can use it to build websites using html, css and javascript. It also comes with python.

It's my favorite editor.

Post: #110

Floating point numbers:

Post: #111

Can someone explain about the different fields of software engineering.
There are of course the Web development(front end and server) and mobile, I also read about embedded real time. What about the others?
Which developers get the highest salaries? Which field has more demand than supply?

Post: #112

You see a lot of online posting for web positions because we are on the actual web, that skews the trend a bit. Mobile is another trendy hipster category that will die in a spectacular bubble in a couple years once folks realize their bullshit shovelware isn't actually making any money.

The security, big data, and safety critical device control roles pay pretty well. The biggest money is probably in silicon valley if you get in on the ground floor of a startup that makes it big. The problem with that though is you are much more likely to get screwed over, laid off, and stuck trying to survive in the most expensive city in the country instead. I think the smart play is data-intense development in the financial sector.

Post: #113

"data-intense development in the financial sector"
Silver Tube: can you expand on what you mean by that? Startups leveraging diverse data sets? Algorithmic trading?

Post: #114

(03-02-2016 10:49 AM)Silver_Tube Wrote:  Mobile is another trendy hipster category that will die in a spectacular bubble in a couple years once folks realize their bullshit shovelware isn't actually making any money.

I think this is completely true of companies and developers making apps for some guy with an idea who's willing to pay to have it developed - and true of startup-y apps that want to be the next Uber or Facebook. But I work as an iOS developer at a large company where all of our mobile development is for software used internally within the company, there's actually a huge market for this and it's only going to get bigger.

Mobile is great if you're working on an established app or enterprise stuff, but yeah, don't expect much return beyond job experience with some startup that launches an app with no viable financial model.

Post: #115

I can second that mobile development or just custom business software development for internal applications at big companies is huge market and only getting bigger. Even very oldschool manufacturing companies can benefit from these kind of applications, they just don't know it. From experience it can be a snowball, you will do some small app for a big manufacturing company and they want more and more and more of these apps.

I currently have a customer where I initially made development for 2 days to solve some small issue. But that app just kept growing, these people had no idea what was possible when using all kind of new mobile technology in their business field. That was over a year ago and there's still business/requests coming for new features/apps from that one customer.

I think when approaching these kind of old big manufacturing companies professionally and doing good sales job and really show them that you can make their operations more efficient its a huge market. Most of them don't have inhouse development at all, maybe only 1 or 2 guys who give basic helpdesk support for the users.

Post: #116

Do any of you guys have experience managing programmers? What are the best general practices?

Post: #117

Do you guys use node.js for testing your scripts within the console? I'm following a basic javascript course on Udemy, the instructors screencast is him using a mac, so he is using a terminal, I'm using sublime text but I'm new to this so can be bit of a mindfuck having to copy and paste your code from sublime text to the chrome devtools console.

Again, I'm very new to programming, I'm nearly on the algorithm section on freecodecamp but wanted to supplement the javascript modules with some more in depth know-how before I move on, sometimes FCC can just race through it, Plus those challenges are done on FCC's in-browser console, so your never actually testing your own code in an editor/developer tools console.

Which is the best solution for testing code that I'm writing or following along with from a course and then seeing direct results of my code? Node.js platform/ Adobe etc?

Cheers

Post: #118

Also check out this guy Chris Hawkes on Youtube. Lots of programming content, especially for beginners ,self taught guy and doesn't fall into the pure geek stereotype so he's easy to follow along with when explaining some concepts.

Post: #119

(03-10-2016 01:29 PM)alecks Wrote:  Do you guys use node.js for testing your scripts within the console? I'm following a basic javascript course on Udemy, the instructors screencast is him using a mac, so he is using a terminal, I'm using sublime text but I'm new to this so can be bit of a mindfuck having to copy and paste your code from sublime text to the chrome devtools console.

Again, I'm very new to programming, I'm nearly on the algorithm section on freecodecamp but wanted to supplement the javascript modules with some more in depth know-how before I move on, sometimes FCC can just race through it, Plus those challenges are done on FCC's in-browser console, so your never actually testing your own code in an editor/developer tools console.

Which is the best solution for testing code that I'm writing or following along with from a course and then seeing direct results of my code? Node.js platform/ Adobe etc?

Cheers

I don't use it myself, but check out repl.it. It supports a bunch of languages.

When I'm putting together an app (python in flask, lately) I write all my code in sublime and do my function testing in the python shell in the windows command prompt before testing in the browser. I'm pretty sure I could do the exact same thing with the node shell (and then AngularJS or another framework) but I hardly ever write javascript lately, so maybe there are pitfalls I don't know about.

I'm not sure I'm actually answering your question, but that's how I do my development. Nothing fancy.

Post: #120

(03-10-2016 01:29 PM)alecks Wrote:  Do you guys use node.js for testing your scripts within the console? I'm following a basic javascript course on Udemy, the instructors screencast is him using a mac, so he is using a terminal, I'm using sublime text but I'm new to this so can be bit of a mindfuck having to copy and paste your code from sublime text to the chrome devtools console.

Again, I'm very new to programming, I'm nearly on the algorithm section on freecodecamp but wanted to supplement the javascript modules with some more in depth know-how before I move on, sometimes FCC can just race through it, Plus those challenges are done on FCC's in-browser console, so your never actually testing your own code in an editor/developer tools console.

Which is the best solution for testing code that I'm writing or following along with from a course and then seeing direct results of my code? Node.js platform/ Adobe etc?

Cheers

Im not sure if its what you mean exactly but by testing the scripts you actually mean running them right? You can run them via node on windows also. Just download and install node https://nodejs.org/en/download/ and then use your windows CMD(similar to OSX terminal) to run the node script.

To do that open cmd(google how to do it) and then navigate to the folder your .js files are at. for example if they are at C:/nodeScripts then in CMD write: cd c:/ and press enter and then cd nodeScripts. then you can run theme like hes running on the video node myscripts.js

edit: if your serious about it, get yourself mac or ubuntu machine. Will be much easier and problem free in the future. Almost all webservers are Ubuntu based so doing your actual development in Unix based machine will save you from lots of trouble when deploying the apps. Or maybe its to early for that now but just think about it.

Post: #121

(03-10-2016 01:29 PM)alecks Wrote:  Do you guys use node.js for testing your scripts within the console? I'm following a basic javascript course on Udemy, the instructors screencast is him using a mac, so he is using a terminal, I'm using sublime text but I'm new to this so can be bit of a mindfuck having to copy and paste your code from sublime text to the chrome devtools console.

Again, I'm very new to programming, I'm nearly on the algorithm section on freecodecamp but wanted to supplement the javascript modules with some more in depth know-how before I move on, sometimes FCC can just race through it, Plus those challenges are done on FCC's in-browser console, so your never actually testing your own code in an editor/developer tools console.

Which is the best solution for testing code that I'm writing or following along with from a course and then seeing direct results of my code? Node.js platform/ Adobe etc?

Cheers

If you're on Windows just use VirtualBox to load Ubuntu or whatever Linux distro interests you then use the terminal.

Post: #122

(03-10-2016 05:41 AM)storm Wrote:  Do any of you guys have experience managing programmers? What are the best general practices?

Most programmers you will encounter will fall into the SJW category so all the advice regarding herding that type of crowd will directly apply. Here's a few pointers:

- Make sure one of them is not significantly more skilled than the others. Even though they won't admit it, they will secretly get jealous. One of them being significantly worse than the others won't affect much except he'll constantly nag other developers about his shit not working.
- They'll all have strong opinions on how stuff needs to be done, and they're SJWs so they won't directly come forward with their opinions instead they'll go with a passive aggressive nag-until-you-snag strategy. It will be your job to work this shit storm into synergy in order to avoid tearing the project apart.
- You can always talk with them on their favorite subject: themselves.
- Hold stand up meetings every morning to make sure everyone's got their shit on lockdown.
- Cultural fit is important.
- If you're going to hire a woman, make sure she's ugly, otherwise they'll hit on her, get shut down, then spend too much time crying, getting angry, listening to emo music and jerking their cocks.

They say "managing programmers is like herding cats" and this is completely true. Here's a relevant book:

http://www.amazon.com/Herding-Cats-Prime...1590590171

Godspeed.

Post: #123

(03-10-2016 01:29 PM)alecks Wrote:  Do you guys use node.js for testing your scripts within the console? I'm following a basic javascript course on Udemy, the instructors screencast is him using a mac, so he is using a terminal, I'm using sublime text but I'm new to this so can be bit of a mindfuck having to copy and paste your code from sublime text to the chrome devtools console.

Again, I'm very new to programming, I'm nearly on the algorithm section on freecodecamp but wanted to supplement the javascript modules with some more in depth know-how before I move on, sometimes FCC can just race through it, Plus those challenges are done on FCC's in-browser console, so your never actually testing your own code in an editor/developer tools console.

Which is the best solution for testing code that I'm writing or following along with from a course and then seeing direct results of my code? Node.js platform/ Adobe etc?

Cheers

You can test all your JS directly on https://jsbin.com/ . Fill your HTML, CSS and JS in the appropriate tabs on the left and see the output directly on the right.

I don't know what the course is doing with Node.js but Node.js is not a JS testing tool, it's rather a very powerful JS runtime intended for developing server-side JavaScript applications, so that frontend developers that don't know other languages can pass as full-stack by coding their own backend services.

If it's not plain Javascript but indeed a Node.js course that you're following, create yourself a free account on Cloud9 (https://c9.io/) and code there. It's a full fledged Ubuntu-based IDE that runs directly in your web browser. I use it for all my Node.js shit and it's amazing.

Post: #124

A semi noob here, I've just gone through the angular 2.0 hero tutorial and I fail to wrap my head around the 'promise' concept. Learning this angular stuff is killing a decent amount of my brain cells.

Post: #125

(03-13-2016 04:04 PM)bleaknight Wrote:  A semi noob here, I've just gone through the angular 2.0 hero tutorial and I fail to wrap my head around the 'promise' concept. Learning this angular stuff is killing a decent amount of my brain cells.

I don't use AngularJS but I understand what a promise is after reading this article. There's good stuff in the comments too.