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Colleges, Languages, etc

Name: Anonymous 2007-08-05 6:05 ID:xmpmfUp2

Okay, so I'm about to be a senior in high school, and I've decided that I want to go to college/university/whatever for computer science/programming. Problem is, though, I have absolutely no clue where I wanna go, nor do I know which colleges would be particularly good. What does Anon recommend for a college? I'd like to go to a really good one, and I feel that if I really bust my ass and try hard, I can make it into one.'

In the mean time, I've been trying to learn some C++ by myself, and I'll be in an AP class learning Java so I can take the AP AB Computer Science test. I've downloaded some books, found some sites, etc. to help me learn, so I can probably manage fairly well on my own. I'm using Dev-C++ for a compiler, though, and I've heard it's a bit outdated, to say the least. I'm currently using Windows XP, so what's a good compiler I could use? I don't have the money to throw down for anything that isn't free, but I won't say I wouldn't look into finding a torrent for anything else.

One last question. Any other languages and/or libraries I should at least look into, if not try to learn, before then? I'm thinking of looking into Python for another language or SDL for a library for C++.

Name: Anonymous 2007-08-05 8:14 ID:ZKoWHudT

College/Uni:
You want a school with a good computer science program.  You'll have to do your own research to figure out where your sweet spot is for price vs quality.  Don't fall for idiotic DeVry (and similar) degrees in videogameology.  They're fishing for stupid people. 

WinXP Compiler/IDE:
Visual Studio Express Edition.  Legal, Free, and more than capable of doing anything you're going to be doing.  As your tastes develop, you can decide whether you prefer a featured IDE or a thin IDE.  Try both, but don't fall into the slashdotty fanboi elitist traps.  The average person is not more productive in vi than they are in Visual Studio.

Libraries:
You overestimate your abilities if you think that you'll have a complete grasp of C++ in the next year or so.  Learning C++ and the C++ libraries, including the STL, is more than enough to keep you busy.  If you insist on breadth instead of depth, however, a good primer would be the OS APIs of your choice.  It'll give you a fair introduction to C library stylings as well, most native OS APIs that I've worked in have been C-based.

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