Computer Science Canada

What can programming skills be used for?

Author:  quantamfl [ Fri Jan 21, 2011 11:18 am ]
Post subject:  What can programming skills be used for?

Hi,

I was just wondering how programming is related to real-world applications?

Victor

Author:  Tony [ Fri Jan 21, 2011 11:40 am ]
Post subject:  RE:What can programming skills be used for?

Software. All of it.

Author:  Insectoid [ Fri Jan 21, 2011 11:50 am ]
Post subject:  RE:What can programming skills be used for?

The browser you used to post this was created via programming. The operating system your browser was running on was created via programming. The processor your computer runs on was designed with software that was programmed which in turn ran on an operating system.

You think Pixar's animations are done painstakingly by hand in photoshop? No, they use 3D graphics and physics engines, programmed by programmers, to do most of the work for them.

Your cell phone doesn't just magically work, it runs an OS that is really just a program. All those apps on the iPhone and android app stores are programs.

There are more real-world applications to programming than most of the things you learn in school.

Author:  DtY [ Fri Jan 21, 2011 9:00 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: RE:What can programming skills be used for?

Insectoid @ Fri Jan 21, 2011 11:50 am wrote:
You think Pixar's animations are done painstakingly by hand in photoshop?
And even if they did, still some highly advanced software.

e; But if you mean outside of getting a job in software development; pretty much anything you'll be doing ever will be done on a computer. If you know how computers work, you'll be able to do it so much more efficiently. Learning how to program is the most direct way (when you learn how to program you'll get a better understanding of how computers work, and how your operating system works). And on top of that understanding, a lot of menial tasks on computers can be automated, if you know how to program.

Author:  btiffin [ Mon Jan 24, 2011 10:21 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:What can programming skills be used for?

What can programming skills be used for?

Comedy;

Quote:

A programmer is asked by his wife, "Honey, we need milk. And if they have eggs, get a dozen."

He comes back 20 minutes later and plops twelve bags of milk on the table.

She looks at him curiously, "Honey, why did you do that?"

He flatly replies. "They had eggs."


From that I mean, a good understanding of the logic of programming can help you avoid some of life's more embarrassing moments by noticing some of the subtle ambiguities of human communication and asking up front for clarification.

Cheers

Author:  unoho [ Mon Jan 24, 2011 11:50 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:What can programming skills be used for?

@btiffin,, tht was an awesome joke my friend..lol

but ya,, i had to find the roots of a polynomial in one of my calculus class.. so i just made a program that does it automatically and handed it in..got perfect for tht..main point, most of the world runs on programming..the stuff tht they teach u in gr. 9 or 10 (such as hello world programing, counting change) might not seem too much but if everything small adds up, it could make a huge impact in real life

Author:  mirhagk [ Thu Jan 27, 2011 9:05 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:What can programming skills be used for?

Programming relates to alot more than the computer, or anything to do with the computer. Programming IS problem solving. You come up with ideas, put them into practice, see what went wrong, usually use something to look at exactly where the problem is, then refine your solution and try again.

There is almost no aspect of life that does not relate in some way to programming, the tools you learn from programming will help you everywhere.

Author:  Tony [ Thu Jan 27, 2011 9:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: RE:What can programming skills be used for?

mirhagk @ Thu Jan 27, 2011 9:05 pm wrote:
You come up with ideas, put them into practice, see what went wrong, usually use something to look at exactly where the problem is, then refine your solution and try again.

Putting Science back into Computer Science Very Happy

Author:  DtY [ Thu Jan 27, 2011 11:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: RE:What can programming skills be used for?

btiffin @ Mon Jan 24, 2011 10:21 pm wrote:
From that I mean, a good understanding of the logic of programming can help you avoid some of life's more embarrassing moments by noticing some of the subtle ambiguities of human communication and asking up front for clarification.

Cheers
He should have bought thirteen, he bought the first one before checking if the store had eggs, and then he should have bought a dozen more.

(sorry)

But yeah, geeks tend to think about human interaction differently, it's interesting. On the other hand, it might bother you when you realize that people tend to not just ask what they want to. For example, my dad tends to phrase requests like "would you like to mow the lawn?", to which I reply no (and then he asks me to mow the lawn and I do it). It's also the premise for a pre-monty python sketch involving most of the pythons: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPqWCWLVEXk

But I'm not sure if this still has anything to do with programming, so I'll leave you with another programming joke:

A man is sitting on a bus smoking a cigarette, filling the bus up with smoke. This is really starting to irritate a woman who is on the bus with her young child, she says to the man "that's disgusting, don't you read the warnings on the box?" The man replies "I'm a programmer, I know warnings are harmless."


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