Learn How To Program in 21 Days ??

[strongdrink]

LIES... even Einstein probably couldn't 'learn' in 21 days.. unless your IQ is 1000+, I highly doubt you will be able to do so x) I agree with all the others.. But, it also really depends on the person. Many university graduates are awful programmers... You just kind of have to be a 'born' programmer.

@quirkyusername nice link xD

But yeah, if I were to re-label all of those books, I would name them "Learn to program like crap in 21 days!".

[3hM2Nwbp]

When was that book published? IIRC I remember reading it back in the late 90s or early 2ks...but I'm not sure. All I can remember from it is "mammalTalk". Holy cow, that must have been around 10 years ago!

[CMinus]

@ strongdrink I agree with u it depends in the person but partially , Schools & Community have a great role to play
For Example In my country Our Beloved ministers of education developed a new computer subject to be taught at schools !!
So what we are taught is
1 - 3rd Prep : VB.net Only Basics (Variables , Loops , Conditional Structures and Timer Controller ) all of these to be taught In full year !! Wasting my Precious time !!
2- High School : Microsoft access & No more
Before that : they taught us about Microsoft Word & Excel !!
Although My teachers don't understand a word of above , This Subject directed me to study Programming on my own !
What Ever The Community here in Egypt think that Computer Science graduates are stupid because they didn't enter Engineering Faculty (Faculties depend on High School Degrees) , And They also think that they study How To Use MS Office !! Annoying Community ( at least most people think that )!!


More One thing Job opportunities for Programmers in Egypt are really rare !!
1 of 10 works in the field & others work in another field !!

About Me , I am thinking to invest 4 years in computer science faculty but my parents disapprove of the Idea !!

[Albatross]

@Grey Wolf: Hi, so I wrote this book called Learn C++ in 4,371 Days. Are you telling me it's a waste of money without even looking at what's inside it?

@strongdrink:
It's true, I guess. Programming ability does vary a lot between people, and it'd require someone smart who thinks in terms that translate to programming languages very easily to learn a programming language without any former experience in 21 days.

However, if you know one difficult language very well, the process becomes much easier. I learned Perl in about two weeks, but that was after years of C++.

-Albatross

[roberts]

For my own OT post, how can you possibly learn anything of value in 21 days for a discipline that takes many years to get comfortable with?

The basics you can learn in texts that move from beginner to intermediate. While no one book covers all the breadth of any discipline, 21 days books are kind of snake oil.

Oh well, back to solving the problem of complex volumetric geometry. Try learning that in 21 days.:)

[z05DSL3A]

Albatross wrote:

@Grey Wolf: Hi, so I wrote this book called Learn C++ in 4,371 Days. Are you telling me it's a waste of money without even looking at what's inside it?

Yes. If you want to mislead in the title of the book you are likely going to mislead in the contents. :0) and besides; once you drop one brick on your foot, you don't need to drop a different brick one your foot to know that it is going to hurt. i.e. past experience of this sort of book, in reading them and dealing with others who are reading them, makes me refrain from recommending them.

The whole premiss of this sort of book is wrong, They are not about giving you a good foundation, they are all about teaching you stuff to a timescale (which may or may not be an adequate time for the reader). I know, schools and colleges teach to a timescale, but judging from the comments in these forums, they also don't do a very good job of it either.

[strongdrink]

I like this article http://norvig.com/21-days.html titled "Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years" ^_^

EDIT

@Albatross yeah, and some people try learning for years and still not be able to write the fizz buzz test. I was reading one article saying how only 6/10 comp sci uni grads could pass fizz buzz... Where I work, they won't even interview the programmers until they pass it in 'solitary confinement' (aka a computer with no internet) :P

[roberts]

@strongdrink, I had to look up the fizzbuzz because I had never heard of it, and it seems easy. I'm kind of surprised that is such a discriminating test.

Since I'm thinking about it, two conditionals, that's all I think it would take.

[Gaminic]

Are you sure? Keep in mind that the current number has to be printed, unless Fizz/Buzz/Fizzbuzz. I'm not sure you can reach 4 states with just two conditionals (Obviously you can, but it's going to require extra variables, which goes beyond 'two conditionals [is] all it would take').

[z05DSL3A]

I'm thinking an array of char * (strings) , some basic maths (with two conditionals) and a printf in a for loop should do the trick.

[Albatross]

@Grey Wolf: 'Twas a joke. 4,731 days is approximately 12 years, which should be more than enough to establish a solid foundation for most people. I didn't actually write such a book. I... don't think it'd sell well.
EDIT: Oh, I see. Nevermind. :)

@Gaminic: I think it could be done using three ternary operators without any variables. That's the lowest I'm going to try and get it while I'm still not fully awake.

-Albatross

[BHX]

Any book that says 'Learn <language> in <#> minutes/hours/days" is full of it. I've wasted 14 years reading stupid books like that and I'm sorry to say that I'm still very much a beginner programmer. I know the basics that were taught in those books and now am in limbo because I don't know how or what to do in order to advance my knowledge because everything I code just stems from the basics those books taught.

I know the are full of it because I have a good size library of such books:
C++ for DUMMIES
Teach Yourself C++ in 10 minutes
Teach Yourself C++ in 24 hours
Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days

I do have some serious books though (sadly the damage done by reading the others and getting nowhere has made me not read these yet):
C++ Primer
C++ Complete Reference
C/C++ Programmer's Reference
Optimizing C++
Microsoft's Code Complete

Read this one, but only did the book example and none of the exercises though (bad idea on my part, but was eager to get to the new things I hadn't learned from the fake <#> days books.
C++ Programming From Problem Analysis to Program Design 3rd ed

[z05DSL3A]

Albatross, I could tell it was not serious, that is why my answer was also crossed out. ;0)

[strongdrink]

@roberts A lot of people just don't have problem solving skills. They know how to solve problems only if people tell them how to do so. Another test that I recommended my boss to use is the "tower of hanoi" puzzle. It has nothing to do with programming, but it is great for testing your problem solving skills.

[Gaminic]

@Albatross:

@Gaminic: I think it could be done using three ternary operators without any variables. That's the lowest I'm going to try and get it while I'm still not fully awake.

Any chance those ternary operators are nested?

[roberts]

@roberts A lot of people just don't have problem solving skills. They know how to solve problems only if people tell them how to do so. Another test that I recommended my boss to use is the "tower of hanoi" puzzle. It has nothing to do with programming, but it is great for testing your problem solving skills.

I love a good implementation of ToH. Bioware is pretty big on that puzzle for their games. They've had a rendition in both Knights of the Old Republic (hated that version, bad mechanics) and in Mass Effect (much better done).

I think, not quite sure, that Mass Effect was my first attempt at solving ToH though I've know about the puzzle long before.

Got it first time, though it took me some minutes to think it out.

[BHX]

@roberts A lot of people just don't have problem solving skills. They know how to solve problems only if people tell them how to do so. Another test that I recommended my boss to use is the "tower of hanoi" puzzle. It has nothing to do with programming, but it is great for testing your problem solving skills.

Actually that is a programming exercise. My C++ Programming From problem analysis to program design actually has a in chapter example showing how to make a program that shows how to move each ring.

[strongdrink]

@BHXSpecter No no, I meant that you don't need to write a program to solve it, yet it is still a good test for programmers to try.

[LB]

Grey Wolf wrote:

once you drop one brick on your foot, you don't need to drop a different brick one your foot to know that it is going to hurt.

Do not, like the cat, take more out of life than there is. The cat, having sat upon a hot stove, will never sit upon a hot stove ever again. Nor a cold stove.

(paraphrased from Mark Twain