----------------------------------- BlAcK TuRtLe Tue Jun 24, 2003 6:08 pm Do you use algorithms etc.? ----------------------------------- My comps teacher spent a whole month on algorithms etc. and kept saying how everyone needs them and they help clarify programs. I personally find they make me more confused. So I ask, what do you think? ----------------------------------- PaddyLong Tue Jun 24, 2003 6:13 pm ----------------------------------- for some things, I will sort of scribble out an algorithm so I know where I'm going with it and stuff... but for a lot of things the algorithm is in my head ----------------------------------- Catalyst Tue Jun 24, 2003 6:57 pm ----------------------------------- flow charts and things like that are pointless ----------------------------------- bugzpodder Tue Jun 24, 2003 8:35 pm ----------------------------------- depends on what kind of algorithms and for what purpose. algorithms are not all-purpose and in some situations, if you can apply an algorithm, by all means, do it (what do you have to lose?) ----------------------------------- Prince Tue Jun 24, 2003 9:29 pm ----------------------------------- i used to use flow charts and stuff last year wen i first started learnin the language cus our teacher wouldnt let us hand in programs without em... but after u get used to Turing flowcharts get pointless cus coding the program is so easy ----------------------------------- Homer_simpson Tue Jun 24, 2003 11:14 pm ----------------------------------- well... they are not entirely hopeless... you could use them in tutorial for something... but to maake your program....i just haven't seen anyone do that... :S ----------------------------------- kythoon Wed Jun 25, 2003 7:46 am ----------------------------------- i use them for rpg so i can plan out what is happening ----------------------------------- krishon Wed Jun 25, 2003 8:51 am ----------------------------------- well the only use i have is to password protect a txt file for my saved variables.otherwise i dun't use it ----------------------------------- Andy Wed Jun 25, 2003 11:24 am ----------------------------------- this is why i skipped gr 10 compsci, its stupid, they make u learn a whole bunch of crap that u'll never gonna use ----------------------------------- naoki Sat Jun 28, 2003 1:33 pm ----------------------------------- flowcharts are important for documentation u could be the best developer in the world but if someone who is a potential buyer sends his team to read over ur program, they might not have a clue from reading hard code. things like flowcharts help the computer illiterate and even programmers (i doubt u'd be able 2 grasp a whole program from reading the coding) understand ur program. it's the only way u can succeed if ur a struggling programmer ----------------------------------- krishon Sat Jun 28, 2003 6:08 pm ----------------------------------- wow homer nice sig :D ----------------------------------- naoki Sat Jun 28, 2003 11:15 pm ----------------------------------- homer's got the biggest message window on the whole forum i can barely scroll around the damn thing :o ----------------------------------- Asok Sun Jun 29, 2003 3:10 am ----------------------------------- flowcharts are for pansies. "I lack the basic memory to store information so I need to write everything down in a step by step manner so I can remind my moronic self what the hell I'm supposed to be doing." ----------------------------------- SilverSprite Sun Jun 29, 2003 11:56 am ----------------------------------- hehe pansies :D i'm sorry.. ask someone from massey ----------------------------------- Andy Sun Jun 29, 2003 1:34 pm ----------------------------------- silversprite, didn't u say that all year last year ----------------------------------- UBC_Wiskatos Mon Jun 30, 2003 10:34 pm ----------------------------------- Most of the time, I use proper UML diagrams for anything sizeable. For example, if I'm working on a 3D engine, I'll plan it out fully on paper, with every function, class, and method documented, including the variables it needs and the variables and types it returns. This saves me a lot of headache later, and makes the code easy. However, sometimes I don't. :) Oh well... However, for small projects its quite useless. As for algorithms, I don't understand the question. Do you mean algorithms planned out in pseudo-language? All the stuff you use to solve things in a program is an algorithm, so of course, you do use algorithms. ----------------------------------- Andy Tue Jul 01, 2003 7:20 am ----------------------------------- pseudo code is for lil girls, when i program i start at the middle and then work my way to the top and end. ----------------------------------- UBC_Wiskatos Tue Jul 01, 2003 11:21 am ----------------------------------- As long as you think John Carmack is a little girl, I'll just sit here and amuse myself. :P ----------------------------------- naoki Tue Jul 01, 2003 11:28 am ----------------------------------- carmack > romero but romero gets stevie case :evil: and daikatana :D ----------------------------------- BlAcK TuRtLe Wed Oct 08, 2003 7:36 pm ----------------------------------- I'm just gonna bump this to see if anyone new posts. ----------------------------------- Kingnoz Thu Oct 09, 2003 11:08 pm ----------------------------------- when it comes to algorithms, i don't use them...i just use my massive brain power to store all the things i need to do... naoki said: u could be the best developer in the world but if someone who is a potential buyer sends his team to read over ur program, they might not have a clue from reading hard code. this is the reason why most ppl use comment lines so u don't need those flow charts...i find comment lines are the best way of allowing ppl to know what ur code does ----------------------------------- rizzix Thu Oct 09, 2003 11:18 pm ----------------------------------- comments are ok. javadocs are better.. basically it's like a comment in ur code with special tags so when ur code file is parsed with the javadoc utility it creates a complete html documentation of your project. but that's not good enough. if you've tried oop and have created a mammoth size project (i mean really huge) those javadocs won't help you in picturing the complete model of the program. Comments won't help at all, neither will flowcharts. this is when UML comes into play. and wow it works. it's fun too. i mean if you know how to draw out those UML diagrams you can ease the coding of your project by using special utilities out there that let you automatically convert those diagrams to source code and visa-versa. ----------------------------------- BlAcK TuRtLe Fri Oct 10, 2003 5:37 pm ----------------------------------- hey but figuring out the prgram as youre going thru it is half the fun ----------------------------------- Tony Fri Oct 10, 2003 6:31 pm ----------------------------------- BlAcK TuRtLe - do you know Java? If you want, I can send you my case study I'm working with for my AP course. Its a fish simulation program... it actually gets preaty interesting once you understand enough of it. Too bad some of the code (GUI and graphics) is hidden :?