Front Office Football Central - View Single Post

Solecismic · 10-13-2021, 08:36 PM

I've been doing this (mostly in C++) for about 30 years now. New development often means searching online and looking through differing opinions and code segments. I am terrible at remembering syntax. If Visual Studio didn't have auto-complete and variable hints for functions, I'd spend half my time reading manuals.

Sometimes the language changes, like the vector stuff, because no one likes rigorous garbage collection and the ability to control array sizes dynamically opens up new avenues. But get the concepts down and you'll have the ability to evaluate the quality of what you find in searches.

I think a solid grounding in C++ gives you the ability to handle many of the modern scripting-type languages that seem to drive a lot of things these days. Many people are also using Go Language, which is essentially a large subset of C++ on the fly with less overhead and some nice shortcuts. I've started using it instead of perl for quick data-only analysis.

Don't be afraid to ask questions. There are a lot of programmers out there who think it's great fun to say, "only a moron would ask that, you should do this instead." And then they mention a function that barely tangentially relates to what you're trying to do. It's unfortunate there are a lot of those people out there, so you learn not to take it personally.

The best skill you can have with this is the ability to keep trying things out, not to be afraid to spend a couple of hours going down some road that might not lead anywhere. It happens all the time - even decades after getting to a decent level of proficiency.

I know what you mean about feeling fraudulent. There's no guarantee in programming that you will learn the concepts that will allow you to evaluate your own code. That just takes time. Like writing, only practice, in the end, will get you to the next level. If you have that curiosity, stick with it. Nothing's better, even decades later, than seeing a complex algorithm come to life properly.

10-13-2021, 08:36 PM	#7
Solecismic Solecismic Software Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Canton, OH	I've been doing this (mostly in C++) for about 30 years now. New development often means searching online and looking through differing opinions and code segments. I am terrible at remembering syntax. If Visual Studio didn't have auto-complete and variable hints for functions, I'd spend half my time reading manuals. Sometimes the language changes, like the vector stuff, because no one likes rigorous garbage collection and the ability to control array sizes dynamically opens up new avenues. But get the concepts down and you'll have the ability to evaluate the quality of what you find in searches. I think a solid grounding in C++ gives you the ability to handle many of the modern scripting-type languages that seem to drive a lot of things these days. Many people are also using Go Language, which is essentially a large subset of C++ on the fly with less overhead and some nice shortcuts. I've started using it instead of perl for quick data-only analysis. Don't be afraid to ask questions. There are a lot of programmers out there who think it's great fun to say, "only a moron would ask that, you should do this instead." And then they mention a function that barely tangentially relates to what you're trying to do. It's unfortunate there are a lot of those people out there, so you learn not to take it personally. The best skill you can have with this is the ability to keep trying things out, not to be afraid to spend a couple of hours going down some road that might not lead anywhere. It happens all the time - even decades after getting to a decent level of proficiency. I know what you mean about feeling fraudulent. There's no guarantee in programming that you will learn the concepts that will allow you to evaluate your own code. That just takes time. Like writing, only practice, in the end, will get you to the next level. If you have that curiosity, stick with it. Nothing's better, even decades later, than seeing a complex algorithm come to life properly.