Go to Post Being rude is easy. Being a compassionate human being takes work. - Joe Johnson [more]
Home
Go Back   Chief Delphi > Technical > Programming
CD-Media   CD-Spy  
portal register members calendar search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read FAQ rules

 
Closed Thread
Thread Tools Rate Thread Display Modes
  #1   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 25-02-2014, 22:32
fermat fermat is offline
Registered User
FRC #2833
 
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Texas
Posts: 2
fermat is an unknown quantity at this point
Rookie Programmer Seeking Advice

Good evening everyone!

I am a programmer from Team 2833, the Roboscorpions, and this is my first time posting here on ChiefDelphi. I have been involved with my team for only two years and have done the best I can to help my team. Despite this being my final year as a programmer for the team, I am seeking advice on how to become a better programmer because I wish to help those who will remain in the team. Could anyone help?

Our team will be in the Alamo Regional this week and I would really appreciate communicating with any veteran programmers who will be there.

Thank you ahead of time!
  #2   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 25-02-2014, 22:44
aryker's Avatar
aryker aryker is offline
Registered User
FRC #0868 (TechHOUNDS)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Rookie Year: 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 80
aryker will become famous soon enougharyker will become famous soon enough
Re: Rookie Programmer Seeking Advice

If you can, try to program some every day. You don't have to come up with a big project or anything, small problems like the ones here will work. Most importantly, don't stop learning new stuff! Try a new language, or learn to use a new library every once in a while. You'll find yourself knowing the answers to more and more questions people ask. Good luck!
  #3   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 25-02-2014, 23:15
Lemon's Avatar
Lemon Lemon is offline
Builder of Robots
AKA: Andrey (Gooby)
FRC #2383 (Ninjineers)
Team Role: Electrical
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Rookie Year: 2011
Location: Ft.Lauderdale, FL
Posts: 25
Lemon is an unknown quantity at this point
Re: Rookie Programmer Seeking Advice

One way that I would suggest is just, in your free time, come up with some arbitrary tasks for your robot to do, or some different combinations of tasks, and just program those tasks. In my opinion, the only true way to get better at programming is constant practice and repetition. Also if you come up with a task that you are unsure how to program, explore that, the internet is your friend.

Another way to improve your programming is to find code from other teams or sources, and just go through it. Try to understand what occurs and what code causes that particular function to occur. Really there are many ways to get better at programming, so these are just my ideas.
  #4   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 26-02-2014, 02:14
SoftwareBug2.0's Avatar
SoftwareBug2.0 SoftwareBug2.0 is offline
Registered User
AKA: Eric
FRC #1425 (Error Code Xero)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Rookie Year: 2004
Location: Tigard, Oregon
Posts: 487
SoftwareBug2.0 has a brilliant futureSoftwareBug2.0 has a brilliant futureSoftwareBug2.0 has a brilliant futureSoftwareBug2.0 has a brilliant futureSoftwareBug2.0 has a brilliant futureSoftwareBug2.0 has a brilliant futureSoftwareBug2.0 has a brilliant futureSoftwareBug2.0 has a brilliant futureSoftwareBug2.0 has a brilliant futureSoftwareBug2.0 has a brilliant futureSoftwareBug2.0 has a brilliant future
Re: Rookie Programmer Seeking Advice

I'm not sure exactly what your goals are but if you like math at all I would recommend getting an algorithms textbook and coding up some of the classic data structures.

Also, if you decide that you want to try to learn more programming languages consider ones that aren't like each other. For example, if you already know Python then learning Ruby and Perl won't teach you anything. And if you already know C# then learning Java won't teach you anything. But if you only know Java or C++ then learning assembly or Ocaml would be very useful.

Last edited by SoftwareBug2.0 : 26-02-2014 at 02:15. Reason: Forgot a word
  #5   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 26-02-2014, 19:03
nyaculak nyaculak is offline
Registered User
FRC #0053 (Area 53)
Team Role: Programmer
 
Join Date: Oct 2011
Rookie Year: 2011
Location: Maryland
Posts: 28
nyaculak will become famous soon enough
Re: Rookie Programmer Seeking Advice

Programming is something that you learn by doing. Don't just sit back and read a textbook about programming, do it! The best advice I can give is to come up with an idea for a project and then to actually implement it.

When I first started programming, I wanted to make an arcade-style video game. I implemented it in Python with the Pygame library. Later, when I joined my robotics team, I learned Java so I could program the robots. I made a calculator GUI as my intro to Java project. I'm currently learning to program in c, so, as suggested earlier in this thread, I started working on Project Euler. These problems are getting very hard to solve, and in particular coding the solutions in c makes them even harder at times.

You didn't really mention how much programming experience you have, but I think it may be better to get really good at one specific (c-lineage) language at first. Most programming languages are more or less the same, especially between c/c++, objective-c, java, and c#.

At some point in the future I really want to get into functional programming (like scheme/lisp, haskell, etc.).
__________________
2013 MUC DC 3rd Place, FRC DC Regional, FRC Chesapeake Regional
2012 FRC DC Regional, FRC Chesapeake Regional
ERHS Robotics Club
- FRC Team 53 "Area 53"
www.erhsroboticsclub.org
  #6   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 26-02-2014, 21:04
Ginto8's Avatar
Ginto8 Ginto8 is offline
Programming Lead
AKA: Joe Doyle
FRC #2729 (Storm)
Team Role: Programmer
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Rookie Year: 2010
Location: Marlton, NJ
Posts: 174
Ginto8 is a glorious beacon of lightGinto8 is a glorious beacon of lightGinto8 is a glorious beacon of lightGinto8 is a glorious beacon of lightGinto8 is a glorious beacon of light
Re: Rookie Programmer Seeking Advice

Quote:
Originally Posted by nyaculak View Post
At some point in the future I really want to get into functional programming (like scheme/lisp, haskell, etc.).
Haskell is a really good choice as a functional language to learn. Its appeal goes beyond simply being functional -- it has one of the most well-developed and flexible type systems I've ever seen, and lazy evaluation is really interesting (if weird). It lets you do crazy things like infinite lists, or even crazier things like self-referencing expressions with implied recursion:
Code:
-- An infinite list of fibonacci numbers
let fibs = 0 : scanl (+) 1 fibs
__________________
I code stuff.

Last edited by Ginto8 : 26-02-2014 at 21:30.
Closed Thread


Thread Tools
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 02:44.

The Chief Delphi Forums are sponsored by Innovation First International, Inc.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2017, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright © Chief Delphi