Computer Programming - Seneca Polytechnic College•3y ago

Where to Start

I was advised by one of the alumni to get familiar with C and JS before my program starts (BSD), but I don't know what the perfect place to start is. (I pretty have much no prior coding experience)

I tried to find an answer to this online and majority of the people advised that python is the best language to learn for someone who has never coded before. I watched a couple of hours of a 12 hour long python course for beginners on YouTube before I started having second thoughts regarding whether it was the right choice.

Meanwhile, I was told that it would be hard for me to understand "C" if I started of with Python. So, I ditched learning python and started learning C from a course that someone suggested but it was highly mathematics oriented. I had a hard time understanding it because mathematics is not really my forte. I'm not sure if I should work on my math knowledge or I should find a different C course. I just wanna be prepared for college so it's easy for me later on. What should I do now?

CaramelCorn•7/22/23, 5:09 PM

Harvard's EDX CS50 is the best intro course for C that I've seen

CCaramelCorn Harvard's EDX CS50 is the best intro course for C that I've seen

RustOP•7/22/23, 5:21 PM

I kinda "speedrunned" high school maths so I think I'll have a hard time understanding the lectures and solving the assigned problem sets.

Eakam•7/22/23, 6:02 PM

The first few weeks don't have much maths from what I remember

Eakam•7/22/23, 6:03 PM

And if it does have some maths, I think it would be a good idea to get familiar with it again

Eakam•7/22/23, 6:03 PM

It does help, even if a little

EEakam And if it does have some maths, I think it would be a good idea to get familiar ...

RustOP•7/22/23, 6:28 PM

how do I do that tho??

CaramelCorn•7/22/23, 6:30 PM

khan academy is good ngl

CaramelCorn•7/22/23, 6:30 PM

it was better than most of my math teachers in hs and profs in uni

RustOP•7/22/23, 6:30 PM

I'm not familiar with the education system in the US. I think they've named certain courses such as calculus-1, alegebra-1 etc for high school students. So, what courses would I have to complete to say that I have the mathematical maturity of a high school student?

Eakam•7/22/23, 6:30 PM

That ^, and there are resources online
As with anything though, you have to actually practice solving stuff using a tablet/paper

CaramelCorn•7/22/23, 6:31 PM

I mean for sure you need pre-calc and calc, and algebra, idk which US courses tho specifically

Eakam•7/22/23, 6:31 PM

IMO it is probably better to get started with CS50 and when you get stuck on the maths, learn that thing

EEakam IMO it is probably better to get started with CS50 and when you get stuck on the...

RustOP•7/22/23, 6:33 PM

it really gets frustrating that way, and I keep feeling stuck because of my math knowledge. That's the reason why I wanna finish the math courses first

CCaramelCorn I mean for sure you need pre-calc and calc, and algebra, idk which US courses th...

RustOP•7/22/23, 6:34 PM

what do I need to right on khan academy to find a course that covers all these topics?

Eakam•7/22/23, 6:34 PM

Yea, it is not easy but from my experience, that feeling of being stuck is most of programming lol

Eakam•7/22/23, 6:34 PM

Khan academy had courses divided by classes/grades a while back if that helps

EEakam Yea, it is not easy but from my experience, that feeling of being stuck is most ...

RustOP•7/22/23, 6:35 PM

but experiencing that feeling before actually learning to code is even more exasperating

EEakam Khan academy had courses divided by classes/grades a while back if that helps

RustOP•7/22/23, 6:36 PM

my question is which classes exactly do I need to attend tho

Eakam•7/22/23, 6:37 PM

Very generic classification, you don't really need all of it for starting to learn programming but, this is a classification on there:

RustOP•7/22/23, 6:37 PM

most of the people I ask this question to say, "You just need to know calculus, algebra etc" what exactly tho??

EEakam Very generic classification, you don't really need all of it for starting to lea...

RustOP•7/22/23, 6:37 PM

what would you suggest for me to watch??

CaramelCorn•7/22/23, 6:38 PM

you can ignore geometry and trigonometry, stats don't really come into it

Eakam•7/22/23, 6:38 PM

Probably what calculus is, and why do we need it. I haven't used it in programming yet but if you want to learn it you can

Eakam•7/22/23, 6:38 PM

It varries a lot depending on what you are doing ngl

CaramelCorn•7/22/23, 6:38 PM

it's mainly algebra

Eakam•7/22/23, 6:38 PM

For me, most usage has been adding stuff, equations, division and stuff

Eakam•7/22/23, 6:38 PM

Computers do the operations, you need to know how to form the equation

CCaramelCorn it's mainly algebra

RustOP•7/22/23, 6:38 PM

does it require the knowledge of graphs and stuff? I'm really bad at graphs

CaramelCorn•7/22/23, 6:39 PM

yeah calculus and other stuff does become more useful the more advanced you get in computer science, but you won't get into that in this program

RRust does it require the knowledge of graphs and stuff? I'm really bad at graphs

CaramelCorn•7/22/23, 6:39 PM

not really no

CaramelCorn•7/22/23, 6:39 PM

that's more calc, trig, geometry that have to do with graphs

CaramelCorn•7/22/23, 6:39 PM

and functions

EEakam It varries a lot depending on what you are doing ngl

RustOP•7/22/23, 6:40 PM

yeah, I get it. I won't be needing most of this either but because of this I struggle while attending courses I like cs50

EEakam Very generic classification, you don't really need all of it for starting to lea...

RustOP•7/22/23, 6:41 PM

which courses would yall suggest me to watch out of these?? (to get through courses like cs50)

Eakam•7/22/23, 6:42 PM

Algebra I guess, I only did upto week 3 of cs50 though

CaramelCorn•7/22/23, 6:43 PM

most of what I used when doing courses like cs50 was algebra and some functions

EEakam Algebra I guess, I only did upto week 3 of cs50 though

RustOP•7/22/23, 6:43 PM

seriously, that's it??? it's kinda hard to believe that I won't be needing calculus or trigonometry

Eakam•7/22/23, 6:44 PM

Not sure why you would need it for BSD, I never used anything past basic maths in CPA

CaramelCorn•7/22/23, 6:44 PM

they really don't factor into programming much at a basic level, unless there are specific trig / calc problems that you're solving via code

EEakam Not sure why you would need it for BSD, I never used anything past basic maths i...

CaramelCorn•7/22/23, 6:44 PM

yeah BSD has a bit more math, but not much

RustOP•7/22/23, 6:45 PM

I was watching an online introduction to C programming course recently and it had examples of arithmetic/geometric progressions and factorials (which I'm not really good at) in the first lecture itself

Eakam•7/22/23, 6:45 PM

Oh, which one?

CaramelCorn•7/22/23, 6:46 PM

oh hahaha yeah, they do that because most people learning programming are math majors, I had a similar introduction

CaramelCorn•7/22/23, 6:46 PM

those aren't core to programming, they're just good sample problems to solve via code that the students would already be familiar with solving on paper

EEakam Not sure why you would need it for BSD, I never used anything past basic maths i...

RustOP•7/22/23, 6:47 PM

idk lol, I've read this at a lot of places that the difference between an average programmer and a good programmer is their mathematical skills which indirectly contribute to their analytical thinking

EEakam Oh, which one?

RustOP•7/22/23, 6:47 PM

nptel, introduction to c programming

RRust idk lol, I've read this at a lot of places that the difference between an averag...

CaramelCorn•7/22/23, 6:48 PM

that can be the case, computer science is a mathematics degree at its heart, but that only really matters in high performance programming gigs like Google and game engine design

CaramelCorn•7/22/23, 6:49 PM

more programs are being developed like BSD and CPA that ignore the math in favour of prioritizing actual familiarity with programming

CaramelCorn•7/22/23, 6:49 PM

math does improve problem solving skills to a degree but it's not the end of the world if you're bad at math yk

RustOP•7/22/23, 6:50 PM

but the thing is I wanted to be prepared for college in the meantime, and most of the online courses required high school maths

Where to Start

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