College Programming Perspectives of First Year Students

Fresh out from high school, most high school graduates choose courses which they like, courses which are recommended by their friends/parents & courses which are in trend or in-demand today. Included in the list of in-demand courses are BSIT & BSCS. Now here starts a not-so-harsh-but-arduous journey in a world where your mind gets twisted and flushed out (not in the literal meaning though).

Most first year students, as they enroll as a BSIT or BSCS student, tend to have a mindset where they would conceptualize that their chosen course is easy and can be finished without having to exert extra effort (copy-paste style is most likely present in this mindset). Truth is, at first, programming for me was "hard". You'll be given problems to solve which you can't even understand how to program, you'll do copy-pasting codes like it was a normal thing to do like eating, and then it comes to the point where you'll be dependent on the copy-pasting codes method and that's a BIG NO-NO to PROGRAMMERS! 

In my own experience, I've been through those hardships. There was this one instance where I didn't understand a thing on how a FOR LOOP works (in C). What I did was ask someone to teach me and it took me about an hour and a half to understand how it works. Compared to some of my classmates during that time, all they did was do the copy-pasting codes method, play games during their free time, and waste their precious "free" time just to do those unproductive things. In my own opinion (don't crucify me), it's OK to copy-paste codes as long as you'll do an effort in understanding what and how your copied code works. You need to analyze every bit of the code and write it on your own without copying it. As long as you understand how the codes worked, it is OK for me to copy paste codes as long as it's not always your answer to your programming problems. Some students will say, "programming is so hard, I want to shift course". Those students are not dedicated. Dedication plays a major role in the output of what you are doing. Having the right dedication plus the undying hard work will give you good results in your Programming class. Always read books and don't waste time, you could solve a problem instead of playing computer games. Time is GOLD, and that's true. It will be too late to cry seeing your grade get red marks because you failed in your Programming subject. 

Around the end of a student's first year college life, they'd realized that College Programming shouldn't be underestimated. As I asked first year students about their own experience in College Programming, they said that it "was" hard, but not that "super hard" where you'll be nose bleeding in that instance. Dedication and Hard Work is the key to success, those are the keywords. Along with  humility, it isn't impossible to pass the "first" step in reaching the next level. Research, research, and research, that's the BEST way to improve your skill, and someday, you'll reach your goal achieve success.

Why Hello World?

If you are starting yet to study programming or a specific programming language, you may notice that the first thing that your teacher/instructor would assign you to do is to create a program that displays the text “Hello World”. Has it come to your thought to ask why not just a simple “Hi” or “Hello” or “Good day!”? Probably yes, as during my time, I wondered a lot too.

Technically, the Hello World program has been traditionally used in learning basic programming. This was influenced by an example program in the seminal book “The C Programming Language” in which the example program prints “hello world”. Inherited from 1974, Bell Laboratories internal memorandum by Brian Kernighan, Programming in C: A Tutorial contained the first known version. (Wikipedia)

But still, why “Hello World”? Well, personally, I interpret it this way. Basically, programming depicts the reality. It has its own objects, behavior, methods just like a real world just in the weirdest way that only programmers understand. Yes, that’s why you may observe programmers do have their own world when they are in front of their PC -a complex world where only people like them could penetrate. They have their own language and wonderfully used it to communicate with the machine. If you are not a programmer then you can never understand.

Being a newbie in the world of programming, it is expected that you will be part of this complex technical world. And while you are starting to learn, it is like you are being made ready to be part of it. Like a newly born baby, you are welcomed in the world that you’re soon to explore with.

Hello World!

Welcome to the world of programming.

And so the next question..

Are you going to quit? Or

Are you going to survive?

F12 in College Programming

Are you having difficulty in your programming subjects? Been streaming the entire google or bing or yahoo to search for an answer of the programming assignment or project that your teacher has given to you and yet the exact answer is nowhere to be found?

Does it cause you headache? Feelin’ like giving up?

BEEN THERE! DONE THAT.

Truly, programming is a challenging thing to do. It never fails you to feel good once you create the program successfully. That’s if you make it right. Otherwise, it could be the most annoying subject you could ever have. The feeling when you have the idea how to solve the problem, when you have it everything in your head but you could not put it into code? Possibly, you may have the idea how to solve the problem, everything’s on your head, but no matter how you change, interchange or revise the code, still it only gives you error. And you end up wondering why. Why?

Programming, like anything else, it requires practice. Along with it is the familiarization of the programming language you are using. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you do have to memorize the codes all the way from top to bottom but at least you have to “familiarize” in the real sense of the word. You have to know how each line is used.

Yes, I know you have heard it already from your teachers perhaps over and over again. The words “practice” and “familiarize” the program. What an excuse, right? How are you going to practice when there is nothing to practice with, right? There are many codes in the internet, you may find, but seldom of them only fits to your level. I mean, you cannot really relate the entire given example programs in the Internet, can you? Some are too broad and some are too narrow.

This is the very reason why this blog is created – to help college students(IT/CS majors), in their programming subjects. We will be posting sample program codes here which may be near to the particular problems given to a college student. The codes are personally created by group of individuals who have adequate knowledge in programming. This will be a simple guide for you to enhance your skills in solving problems, improve your solving techniques and create your own program in the future.

What is Programming?

Programming is instructing a computer to do something for you with the help of a programming language.

Roles of Programming Language:

1. Technical: It is a means for instructing a Computer to perform Tasks
2. Conceptual: It is a framework within which we organize our ideas about things and processes.

Top 5 Programming Languages that keeps you employed

     Java and Microsoft's .NET rules in the enterprise. However, Java remains number 1 language in terms of number of developers. There are 9 million Java developers in the world according to Evans Data. It simply means that there is a lot of Java applications that needs to be supported, updated and maintained. Java is the language of the Android mobile operating system.

     C# is a multi-paradigm programming language encompassing imperative, functional, generic, object-oriented and component-oriented programming disciplines. Microsoft developed C# within its .NET initiative and the language was later approved as a standard by Ecma and ISO. C# also is slated by Microsoft to become the primary development language for Windows Phone 7. Like Java, C# is big in the enterprise. However there are considerable fewer C# developers than there are Java Developers. But the importance of C# as part of the Microsoft .NET strategy and its support through the Visual Studio tools suite make C# a formidable contender in the programming language race. 

     These languages are not the same, though C++ builds on C and began as an extension of the C language. C++ is widely used in the software industry. Some of its important application domains include systems software, application software, device drivers, embedded software, high-performance server and client applications, and entertainment software such as video games. 

     JavaScript is Web's language. It enables all of the popular Web browsers and that says it all.

     This programming language was designed to be easily learned and used by beginner programmers. The language not only allows programmers to create simple GUI applications, but it can also be used to develop complex applications.There are a lot of VB Code out there to ignore this language in any list of top programming languages.