Why Johnny Can't Code...

rayb · Hot Air Balloon

Why Johnny Can't Code...

Cat Herder · Understander of unimportant things

Dang... I can't even program, and I work for a major international IT firm...

I thought that by getting a job with them, they would provide training in it, as I am non-technical and had only a cursory exposure to it in some classes in both undergrad and grad school. My employer had a reputation for hiring anyone with aptitude and turning them into programmers and systems engineers through extensive and top-notch internal training at a world class level.

Turns out I was wrong, and those days are now gone. The company basically gutted it's internal training program and found it easier to hire people in and outside the country who had the skill sets rather than to train and re-skill it's existing work force within a year of my accepting employment with them. I became good friends with a fellow who was hired about a month before me and we both were going through the same professional development program. He actually ended up getting the programming language training, but then was part of a corporate mandated "productivity improvement" that put him on the list of pink slips about 5 or 6 years ago. I started the programming training program a month or so after he got back from it, but had to drop out a week into it due to a injury that put me on FMLA. I was spared the "productivity", and have been able to be relatively safe from them ever since by moving over to a functional leadership support role. But, I have never had any training in tools or skill sets that would be beneficial to me or something I could sell myself to another potential employer with from my employer.

salesortonscom · Wise and Revered Master

Why teach your kid to program when you can hire a guy from India to do it for less money!

arbilad · Head Chef

I'd like to teach my kids to code. But I'll probably begin with a scripting language, like Perl or Applescript. A scripting language gives you results more easily. It's not like when I learned to program in Basic on an Apple II. Nowadays with a real programming language you need a lot of programming just for a basic application (windows, menus, etc.) With a scripting language, the efforts could give almost immediate gratification.
Too bad there's nothing like that turtle programming language anymore (I forget what it's called)

arbilad · Head Chef

Here's another option for teaching programming:

Lego Mindstorms

Pt314 · Senior Member

arbilad wrote:

Too bad there's nothing like that turtle programming language anymore (I forget what it's called)

I think that was called LOGO. It was one of the languages my dad taught me when I was a kid (on our Atari ST computer) He then taught me BASIC, and then C, and then C++. I have mostly been teaching myself C++ lately though.

rayb · Hot Air Balloon

Let me know how that "teaching myself C++" is going... as an old C programmer, I find that it's mostly a big bother to learn object model paradigms... sigh...

--Ray

Pt314 · Senior Member

Well, for the past year or so I have been working on Windows and DirectX programming, I am pretty frustrated at the moment, and think I am just going to use a friends directX engine. Although at the moment I probably should concentrate on school anyway.

rayb · Hot Air Balloon

So whatchya programming? Direct X? That sounds like game programming to me!

--Ray

Pt314 · Senior Member

Yep, game design/programming is one of my hobbies. I worked quite a bit on this 2d platform game called Teddy's World, I did almost all of it myself. Its kind of stuck right now, with the code needing a major cleanup before I should pursue it further.

arbilad · Head Chef

I just rediscovered the joys of scripting, after looking for something I could teach my son. Most of you are Windows heathens and thus probably haven't heard of HyperCard, but it was a natural language scripting program that used the concepts of "cards" and "stacks" for organizing. It inspired the concept of the wiki (now used in the wikipedia), was the program used to make the first version of Myth, etc.
Even though HyperCard suffered a slow, miserable death at the hands of its creator, Apple, there is a modern day equivalent, SuperCard. The other day I started programming a math worksheet generator. It's tons of fun! I keep trying to steal time on the family mac from my wife. Normally I'm relegated to using the PC in our house (yuck! BTW, before you accuse me of just not being too familiar with it, I have extensive experience using and troubleshooting PCs).
Anyway, I'm thinking of scripting various programs for use in homeschool environments. Maybe I could even make a little extra dough with it.

rayb · Hot Air Balloon

PT: I used to be absolutely nutz about programming, designing, doing gfx for games... I still hang with developers... and have some solid friends still in the industry... but I've pretty much put that dream on the shelf. :)

I do have a superhero puzzle/action game design that I'd love to see put into a game... then again who doesn't!?

--Ray