Beware the Bootcamps (and who succeeds in them) learn programming |
- Beware the Bootcamps (and who succeeds in them)
- Is there a word that describes a fear/phobia of regular expressions?
- If you're thinking about doing Lambda School don't do it.
- Python: This is the introductory program in the book and I'm already failing...
- Python Bouncing Ball Tutorial for Beginners
- There is a tedious software process in my job that is begging to be automated. I've got some questions about how to get started.
- [Passion Project] I'm looking to recreate something like the NBA Draft Lottery: a random selection drawn from a range of weighted probabilities
- Ideal Variable and Class names?
- What was it that helped you understand the fundamentals to create your most impressive personal project?
- [C++] Is there a reason why a function will have a parameter but not used in its body code?
- Good laptop/laptop specs for college? (CS major)
- Trying to reach that professional level
- I've been trying to learn how to program for years, but I seem to always hit a wall.
- MCSD:App Builder - Anyone else having issues with these exams?
- LPT: You can break your regular expression into multiple lines to make it more readable
- What does "this" mean in javaScript ?
- React documentation PDF
- [Python] A good source to learn about classes and other structural things
- does game development teach you good software development practice?
- Trying to open .jar in terminal - terminal replaces .jar with _jar?
- A promise to learn programming and to stick with it.
- Should I go to thailand to learn to code?
- Ho does HTML encoding work?
- Need help on a interview question.
| Beware the Bootcamps (and who succeeds in them) Posted: 12 Jun 2018 03:23 PM PDT So, I founded one of the first coding bootcamps in .NET and Java in the world back in 2013. Very selective, filtered for high aptitude, high drive, and high preparedness. Ran it for many years, > 90% placement rate, sold the business, and started work on my next venture earlier this year. Still in the education/training space, etc. Since the time I've left the industry and in particular in my new venture I've been encountering a lot of bootcamp grads. As the bootcamp thing became a fad, more and more players entered the market, throwing out their shingle, and seemingly not caring at all about quality materials, quality students, or any of that. I just need to rant for a minute that over the past few months I am absolutely disgusted by the lack of quality demonstrated by the grads I have been encountering. These people have been taken for a ride. I generally try to help people that come my way but there is literally nothing I can do for some of these people reaching out to me. 24 weeks and $12,000 in a 'web developer' camp and your best work example is a page that looks like 90s geocities website, uses no responsive techniques, no frameworks, no CSS3, HTML5, nada. Another who comes and visits for help, doesn't know what the command prompt is, sits there dumbfounded and doesn't even attempt to google it. Yet another who is utterly perplexed by a for loop. All of the "graduated" from camps (not my old one, thank God, or I'd really flip out). Long story short, please, PLEASE, be very very careful when evaluating your training options. There are so many providers out there just looking to take your money and take you for a ride. So let me do a PSA about self-selection that my team used with great results. HIGH DRIVE You are hungry, you have persistence and grit. You are not easily discouraged, you enjoy challenges, and even if you do get frustrated the reward of finally getting it is a high. It's a feeling you chase. Because of your drive you feel no shame whatsoever asking questions, seeking resources, you're coach-able and you do not get defensive about feedback. If I tell you to do 50 push-ups, you do 70. HIGH APTITUDE You are better than the average human at logic, organization, and abstract thinking. Go take some IQ tests, take some ACT or SAT math. You're comfortable with Algebra 2 concepts. You have strong pattern recognition skills, you may like games like sudoku, crossword puzzles, word searches. If you play video games like Zelda you can generally figure out gear puzzles and such most of the time without resorting to the internet for help. Etc. Etc. There's lots of indicators, but if you're not naturally curious, organized, and have trouble understanding how things work, not only is the field likely not a good fit for you, but a bootcamp will drown you. HIGH PREPAREDNESS Ok, so you have the drive, you have the aptitude, you also need to be prepared. This is where a lot of people who could learn to code professionally fall down. Much of these are basic computer skills. Like can you type? To this day I am still shocked at people who want to be in IT and can't type 40wpm. If you can't type 40wpm there is no way in hell you are going to keep up with an instructor or class and anyone assigned to work with you will suffer an aneurysm waiting for you to catch up. Other basics, do you understand how your computer works? Can you navigate the file system? Do you understand what a directory is? Can you install software? Do you know the common keyboard shortcuts for your file system (alt-tab, etc). Can you identify the parts that make up your computer and what they do? If you want to be a web developer, do you understand conceptually how the web works (Requests, Responses, etc?). Those basics I mention above, if you're missing most of them what it tells me is that YOU'RE NOT INTERESTED IN YOUR COMPUTER. If you're not interested in your computer, why are you trying to get a job in IT? Seriously, this field is about life-long learning and stuff is always changing. If you're not really interested in your computer just stop, go find something else to do, and please don't spend 5 figures attending a bootcamp, because they won't fix that and even if you luck your way into a job you won't survive the first round of layoffs in the next crash. Beyond that, have you started learning to code on your own? And no, I'm not talking about codecademy badges, because those are beyond worthless. I'm talking about installing an IDE and building some simple applications locally. Don't jump into HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Node, and god knows what else. Start in the console/terminal. Work with one language, ONE, no frameworks, basic code focusing on variables, conditionals, and loops. Build the guessing game, build tic tac toe, blackjack, whatever. Too many people get all excited about all the web things but it fragments your attention and learning. Anyways, rant off, I had to get that out of my system. I was insulated in my own program before, but now that I'm out with companies and having random people reach out to me because of my history in the space. Thanks for letting me vent. [link] [comments]  |
| Is there a word that describes a fear/phobia of regular expressions? Posted: 12 Jun 2018 05:16 AM PDT Is there a word that describes a fear/phobia of regular expressions? [link] [comments]  |
| If you're thinking about doing Lambda School don't do it. Posted: 12 Jun 2018 07:02 PM PDT Before you start reading this account is an obvious throwaway, and if you have any questions just PM me so I can send proof of conversations within the slack channel. I am a student from CS6 TL,DR: If you're smart enough to teach yourself topics you will succeed without Lambda, if you go to Lambda and learn the stuff at an equally fast rate you will also succeed except you will have to give up 17% of your earnings for 2 years. (If you earn over 50,000) So I've come to the end of my tenure in Lambda School and all I can say is just don't do it; Its not worth it. To summarize it all Lambda School is just one giant MOOC its 6 months that you yourself could have taken time off for judiciously to read over computer science material, the main allure of these programs is usually to get you in the door of hiring companies but even that is in flux and up in the air with a name like Lambda School. When I first joined, Lambda School touted acceptance rates of a little under 20% where they got that number I have no idea, I guess it was to appeal to those who want to feel exclusive, and I was a fool to have believed it. More evidence of overblown stats is shown in the size of the classes. My cohort was around 48 students and was left with around 40 which is still a pretty sizable amount. Future cohorts are averaging at around 50-60 students, good luck getting your question answered with everyone flooding the chat, another thing that I think is pretty disconcerting is that at least half of the cohort, or a little less, is not going to be at the level they should be but are still going to be going through the whole program in hopes of finding a job prospect. The instructors know the topics that they are covering but that doesn't immediately translate into teaching it to 40+ other students in a way that they would understand it. Some instructors like to pace themselves based on how fast they themselves learn but fail to comprehend that a lot of the content they are talking about is new to the people listening. There was one great instructor that used to teach at Lambda School that graduated from Stanford, but he is no longer teaching. Lambda School is also very well known for shilling posts speaking negatively of them, for example 2 months ago there was a post exactly like this one and within a day of it being posted one of the Lambda School higher ups tells people in the slack channel to write about their positive experience at Lambda School and the majority of the people writing about their experiences haven't even graduated. As you can see the slack environment in relation to Lambda School is very much like a cult, this is further reinforced by the fact that the person in charge of the announcements, Austen Allred, has only allowed himself to post on his own personalized channel called "#announcements" its very much like a personal twitter feed where he just spews rhetoric and the only thing people can do on this channel is just react with emojis. Some Lambda School Slack Channel classics are: "Again, I don't want to make promises I can't keep, but would be very appreciative if you could let me know how appealing those three options would be to you." "one of our investors also has a nonprofit foundation that helps people who are facing eviction because of life circumstances. I know we've had a couple of instances of that in the past, so they asked that I share it with all students in case anyone ever needs it. No guarantees, of course, as it's a separate entity, etc. but they do love Lambda. See attached PDF below." "We're going to start a new tradition. When you get a job offer, send me a picture of yourself holding the (printed out) job offer, and let me know if we have permission to share with the rest of the school/outside world. (We'll make sure we don't include any personal details, e.g. salary/benefits). If you've had one in the past, please do the same Don't quote me on this, but I believe we've had 5 job offers in the past week? Not all accepted, but really, really excited to see it all coming through as classes get bigger!" BONUS: "Our goal is 40 years from now to have thousands of Lambda School millionaires :)" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A lot is said but most of it is nothing but hype and at this point is both speculative and duplicitous. Lambda also has something called #trials but even that is failing as there aren't any hiring companies that are willing to take a bet on Lambda School graduates from Lambda Labs. Oh and you see all those hiring partners? Well only a handful of alumni have been able to be a part of those companies. The number that's been thrown around is 4 with 10 being the most since most companies are not giving Lambda priority. So yeah if you want to have a better chance of success I recommend App Academy or Hack Reactor. Schools that have a proven track record with companies; I've taken the fall so you don't have to. That being said its not all bad as I have connections that can get me hired in the industry, however the same cannot be said for a lot of people joining this program. [link] [comments]  |
| Python: This is the introductory program in the book and I'm already failing... Posted: 12 Jun 2018 06:58 PM PDT Hi everyone! I'm reading "Automate the Boring Stuff With Python." This is the first script they have you write and I'm copying it verbatim. For some reason I'm having issues with the line: myName = input() Can anyone tell me what I did wrong? [link] [comments]  |
| Python Bouncing Ball Tutorial for Beginners Posted: 12 Jun 2018 10:05 PM PDT Hi there. I've just uploaded a Python Bouncing Ball Tutorial for Beginners to my YouTube channel and thought I'd share it if anyone is interested. It works in Python 2.x and 3.x and uses the turtle module. It assumes a basic knowledge of Python, in particular loops, but is beginner friendly. I hope someone finds it useful. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 12 Jun 2018 08:35 PM PDT Number one, do I need the source code to automate things? I asked about getting the API from tech support and they made it sound like there might not be one. Number two, is this something that can be accomplished by learning python? Any books/tutorials I should seek out or avoid? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 12 Jun 2018 10:33 PM PDT Hello (hopefully) friendly people of r/learnprogramming! I will come out and apologize right away if this is not the right place to be posing this question, but after talking with my professor for about an hour, I figured that reddit was the next best place to go for help with my problem. I'm not a coder or a programmer by any means, but I'm hoping to find out how to best create a program or macro or anything like that to simulate the NBA draft lottery process. For those who aren't familiar with the NBA draft lottery, 14 teams are eligible to receive the #1 pick in the upcoming draft, with each team receiving increased odds depending on their performance in the previous season (worst team = best odds). I'm working on a proposal to change the lottery system, but it would be necessary for me to try and modify the existing odds, and that's what I'm trying to build. I first tried to put something together in Excel, only to be told that Excel isn't the right piece of software for my needs. Does anyone here have any idea how to create something that would fulfill my needs? Or, if not, which program would be best for me to try and get acclimated with that would eventually do what I need it to? I appreciate any and all responses, and once again, sincere apologies if this isn't the right place for this kind of question. [link] [comments]  |
| Ideal Variable and Class names? Posted: 12 Jun 2018 10:23 PM PDT How to think while programming in OOP paradigm to get best names which makes program easier to read for others? I senior told me to think every class as an real world object and function a process but i didn't got that completely , are there any guides or resources for such? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 12 Jun 2018 06:10 PM PDT Was it through various college courses, a MOOC, textbook, online tutorial? etc? [link] [comments]  |
| [C++] Is there a reason why a function will have a parameter but not used in its body code? Posted: 12 Jun 2018 08:35 PM PDT I am reading the book "Beginning C++ Through Game Programming" by Dawson for a nice refresher and I came across a function: In the main.cpp the only instance the code is used is: I do not see or understand why there needs to be the second parameter "char human" in the function humanMove(). It doesn't use it at all. I can only think of it as a way to prevent the function being used if the human piece has not been initialized. Is my train of thought correct? Oddly enough the book doesn't really go over it. [link] [comments]  |
| Good laptop/laptop specs for college? (CS major) Posted: 12 Jun 2018 08:26 PM PDT What's a good bang for your buck laptop/what specs should I look for in a laptop that I will use for school, which will be a computer science program? [link] [comments]  |
| Trying to reach that professional level Posted: 12 Jun 2018 11:28 PM PDT I'm a first year computer science student who truly began programming for the first time this year. I've only taken the intro java course in my university (was inundated by other engineering prerequisites to take any other CS classes). Ever since the semester has ended, I started to get a head start by teaching myself JS and learning some of the data structures and algorithms material for a course I'll be taking in the fall. I'm sure I'm headed in the right path. I've loved the progress I'm making, and I've been learning a lot and building more and more complicated projects, but I never really know when to expect myself to be as good as those in the industry. Despite being able to get projects done, I'm afraid I have to google almost half the time and/or take longer periods of time to finish projects than someone more experienced than me would. I guess what I'm looking for is advice on becoming a BETTER programmer. I eventually want to work as a developer by the time I graduate but have no clue how to start doing projects all by myself for once, or pick up challenging tasks that require me to think on a expert level. Sorry if I'm a bit unclear! Cheers! [link] [comments]  |
| I've been trying to learn how to program for years, but I seem to always hit a wall. Posted: 12 Jun 2018 05:56 AM PDT This will be a pretty long post, but I just really need some insight as to whether I am wasting my time trying to learn to code or not. Some background: I've been part of a tech startup for many years. I was the first person the founder called up and asked to join. I was brought on board because I was basically the only person the founder knew who knew what an income statement and balance sheet were. So I joined to head up operations and finance. During the early years of the company when everyone had to have multiple duties, I taught myself HTML and CSS in order to do some help with some of the front end development. I tried learning Javascript, but it always eluded me, especially when it came to venturing into arrays/methods/really anything beyond a simple if/else/else if function. But I was really good at CSS, and could very nicely lay out a responsive site. After a while, the company grew to the point where I dropped working on the site at all and moved to just my operations/financial duties. Fast forward a few years, and I've left the company due to some unforeseen circumstances. In the last few months I've been trying to learn programming/web development in order maybe try to get a Jr Web Dev job somewhere. But I'm finding once again that I'm beating my head against a wall trying to learn what seem like pretty basic concepts. I've done the Hartl Rails tutorial several times over the years, which I liked, but if I went to try to development my own project in Rails, I was basically lost unless I went back and followed the tutorial again. I could basically make a bunch of nicely styled static pages, but when it came to actually doing anything interactive, I was lost when trying to do it on my own. Basically, unless I could find a very descriptive explanation of how to do something with specific code examples, I couldn't figure out how to do anything. So I abandoned Rails for a bit to try to just learn vanilla Javascript and hopefully be able to understand basic programming concepts. I've been doing this course on Udemy, but once again, about the time I get to arrays/methods/doing anything more than a simple if/else/else if, I'm just stuck. To make matters worse, yesterday I tried to prove to myself that I could actually write something basic in JavaScript, a simple html/js page with an input form and submit button where a person could enter their name, hit submit, and then the page would spit out "Hi <name>!", and I while I could set up the html, I was lost once again trying to write the JS for it. And it has had me down and depressed, because I have a lot of ideas that I would love to be able to create working concepts for, but it just doesn't seem like something I have the capability of learning how to do it. So, am I beating my head against a wall trying to learn this stuff for no good reason? Or should I stick it out, and hope that one day everything will just click? I'm seriously lost as to what to do. [link] [comments]  |
| MCSD:App Builder - Anyone else having issues with these exams? Posted: 12 Jun 2018 10:31 PM PDT Currently trying to earn my MCSD: App Builder certificate for my job, but it seems like a few months ago Microsoft completely changed up all the curriculums for the mandatory 70-486 course and 70-487 to all the new .Net core stuff. Which would be the fine, except for the fact that 6 months later I am not seeing heads nor tails of any kind of formal studying material for the tests. I have the slightly older textbooks for the two courses and tried studying them, but after taking the exams it was very clear a large amount of the exam wasn't covered by the textbook anymore. Any studying sites I look into are either:
The one site we were using, everytime we contact them monthly, informs us the test should be updated next month. Well thats been the word from them for 6 months in a row now... So, has anyone found any other avenues to study for this test or am I just screwed until someone puts a new textbook out? [link] [comments]  |
| LPT: You can break your regular expression into multiple lines to make it more readable Posted: 12 Jun 2018 10:22 PM PDT Inspired by this post, I remembered this tip from my teacher. If you want to be able to read your (complex) regular expression, you can break it down and comment every part of it. Simple example. [link] [comments]  |
| What does "this" mean in javaScript ? Posted: 12 Jun 2018 09:51 PM PDT Even from researching on google I am still confused what "this" means, especially in javaScript. I know java and I know "this" in java is usually used for creating constructors or functions that uses the same name as the parameter. I know what the application for this in javaScript when building a constructor as well: However, I am confused on most of "this" 's applications in javaScript (and other OOP languages). For example, this is a challenge on freeCodeCamp.com and this is a solution for a challenge which required us to make our own Array.prototype.map() function: Can anyone explain to me in simplest terms when to use "this" besides building constructors (especially in javaScript)? Can anyone explain the use of "this" in the above solution? I am not understanding why "this" is used here (no pun intended). I am looking for a way to know when to use "this" (no pun intended again). Thanks for the help! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 12 Jun 2018 09:40 PM PDT Does any know where I can download the React documentation as a PDF ? [link] [comments]  |
| [Python] A good source to learn about classes and other structural things Posted: 12 Jun 2018 03:28 PM PDT I'm a mathematician. I've never had to write more than a few methods. But I've written a lot, and I'm genuinely quick and clever when writing some complicated system of loops. But now I'm a project manager and need software by the end of the summer. When I'm working at the details, I'm fine. But I have a CS undergrad who is converting all of my "big picture" ideas into code, and without him this project would be kaput. But I can't understand what these things he has written actually mean.
The problem I seem to have is one of lingo. I googled some things about init and the pages I found kept assuming that I knew what they meant by "module" or "constructor". So: where is a good source to learn about thinking of the overall structure of a program like I'm a total beginner at that stuff, without having to wade through "Hello World" too. [link] [comments]  |
| does game development teach you good software development practice? Posted: 12 Jun 2018 03:27 PM PDT I'm entering my 2nd year at my university and I plan on majoring in CS. I'm very interested in game development and would like to spend the summer learning C# and Unity. I'm already familiar with C++ and Java from HS and 1st of college. My question is, ultimately, I want a to a generic Software Engineer/Developer and not specifically in game dev. However, game development seems to be the only think that keeps me interested enough to work on a personal project. So, do you guys think a personal project creating a simple game will help me develop good software development practice or is game dev too specific and doesn't have much transferable skillset besides learning the language. [link] [comments]  |
| Trying to open .jar in terminal - terminal replaces .jar with _jar? Posted: 12 Jun 2018 09:22 PM PDT Sorry in advance for the confusing title. I'm trying to run a jar I exported in terminal. When I navigate to the directory containing the .jar, terminal lists the file as "foo_jar" instead of "foo.jar". When running "java -jar foo.jar", I get an error saying it can't find the file. Running "java -jar foo_jar" results in an error saying it's a corrupt or invalid jar. I went through the steps posted in many places online to build a jar in IntelliJ, so I'm confused as to why I can't open it. The manifest and main file are correctly located in IntelliJ > File > Project Structure. [link] [comments]  |
| A promise to learn programming and to stick with it. Posted: 12 Jun 2018 05:30 PM PDT I've been somewhat programming in c++ for a little less than a year now. I don't do it everyday and I'm not making much progress. Why am I not making much progress? Because I'm a lazy ass. That changes today though. I'm making a promise to myself to try and program in c++ everyday from now on. I'm so tired of telling myself "man it sure would be cool to be a software developer." Where am I getting by just saying that? Absolutely no where! I'm tired of observing myself and realizing how little skill I have that's actually useful in the real world. Why do I keep going away from programming? Because I love playing video games and I hate disciplining myself. I don't have any self control. But that changes today. I've gotten to the point that i'm absolutely pissed at myself for not disciplining me. It's time to show myself and the people around me what I really love and what I can do. I will post my progress as I go along. [link] [comments]  |
| Should I go to thailand to learn to code? Posted: 12 Jun 2018 04:48 AM PDT I just did a coding bootcamp but feel I am still really unprepared for employment. Since it's so cheap to live I was thinking of going to Chiang Mai and to not come back until I'm a decent coder. Does anyone know if there's a good network there of coders? Any good study plan suggestions? If this is a dumb idea let me know! Thanks. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 12 Jun 2018 08:17 PM PDT So on W3schools there's tutorial on how to change the URL sing HTML, but it only gives common schemes, and not where and how to use it. Do i have to put it in my head or something, or how does it work?
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| Need help on a interview question. Posted: 12 Jun 2018 08:14 PM PDT A train has wagonCount wagons indexed as 0, 1,...,wagonCount -1.Each wagon needs to be filled in the constructor of the Train using fillWagon function, which accepts the wagon's index and returns the wagon's cargo. The code below works, but the server has enough memory only for a small train. Refactor the code so that the server has enough memory even for a large train. import java.util.Hashtable; import java.util.function.Function; public class Train { private Hashtable<Integer, Integer> wagons; public Train(int wagonCount, Function<Integer, Integer> fillWagon) { this.wagons = new Hashtable<Integer, Integer>(); for (int i = 0; i < wagonCount; i++) { this.wagons.put(i, fillWagon.apply(i)); } } public int peekWagon(int wagonIndex) { return this.wagons.get(wagonIndex); } public static void main(String[] args) { Train train = new Train(10, wagonIndex -> wagonIndex); for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) { System.out.println("Wagon: " + i + ", cargo: " + train.peekWagon(i)); } } } [link] [comments]  |
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