Help

Hello /prog/,

 I am currently going to college for computer science, probably like many of you here. However, this computer science curriculum does not seem like it is going to make me an EXPERT PROGRAMMER; my sophomore year of classes is dedicated to learning sepples and java, and after that there are classes on software engineering BEST PRACTICES. Furthermore, upon introspection I have realized that while I like programming creatively in my spare time, I do not think I would enjoy spending the rest of my life in an office chair writing internal business software or KILLER APPS for nine hours a day. The dilemma here is that I managed to get a mostly free ride through scholarships, and the classes are easily passable, so if I quit it'd be throwing away a ton of work I had to do to get here.

So /prog/, should I just deal with the fact that I might not like my future career, or are there better things out there?

Go to grad school afterwards.

>>2
But aren't the job prospects for grad students basically the same, just with a bit higher starting pay? I don't want to stay in academia forever.

test

>>4

Wonderful BB^CODE

>>4
I'm not sure if you know, but there is a thread dedicated to the testing of BBCODE.

On a side note, OP stop being such a pussy. Getting to do something you have an interest in, and making money doing it, is more than what most people have.

You start off doing ENTERPRISE shit, but eventually will get into the actual _MAJCIK which is more interesting to make a career out of.

>>1
Well dear OP, I'm in the case as you. My solution to the problem was to start another degree, in parallel. I choose to study Japanese.
LISP & Japanese, probably no job in the future, but my life is like a dream.

Computer science is not a course on programming.

>>1
Learning java and ENTERPRISE BEST PRACTICES is exactly what makes EXPERT PROGRAMMER. If you want to become a smug lisp weenie instead, you should have said so instead of producing contradicting and confusing statements.

If you want to become a smug lisp weenie instead, you should  instead be producing contradicting and confusing statements.

>>1
Are you good at it? That's the main question. Programmers are a dime a dozen; you have to be *really good* to make it anywhere. Something like 90% of software development is internal business software, but you can escape this if you're talented. Read this:

http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Programming-Sucks!-Or-At-Least,-It-Ought-To-.aspx

Pretty much everything in Alex's soapbox is gold.

If you aren't good, well then maybe it's not for you. You should consider finishing your degree anyway though (see if you can switch into a 3-year program). If you're interested in just programming creatively, maybe research is better; get a doctorate (you'll get to study what you're interested in) and teach. Or get into video game development; some of that can be fun depending on where you go (you won't make any money though).

>>12
I'm not quite sure if I'm good at it; I can organize programs well in high level languages, and I can implement clever algorithms in assembly, but I do tend to get frustrated with large amounts of code; with simple projects I'm fine, but I have trouble finishing anything complex because it all ends up a big house of cards and when one part breaks I tend to just give up. Overall I think I'm a somewhat above average programmer, just not an excellent one.

As for grad school, it's out of the question; my scholarships only cover four years of college, and I've told myself I'm never getting a student loan (my parents are still paying theirs off). Besides, I'd like to get a job and learn the interesting things in my spare time, rather than pay a ton of money to be taught what I could teach myself anyways.

Reading the comments for that article, I think what my problem is is that when I program, I'm excited by the results, not the programming itself. I like seeing cool things happen, whether it's a microcontroller blinking an LED or an assembler I wrote turning text files into machine code for a processor I designed. Because of this, I don't really think writing internal business software is my kind of thing, and I'm afraid of getting stuck doing something like that as a career. Is 90% really an accurate figure for the proportion of programming jobs that are (in my opinion) deadly dull?

>>12
Programming can be as fun as you make it be. Admittedly, writing bussines software is boring, but any kind of programming can be fun depending on how you approach it. I believe in his case where he shows boring code, the problem is the language - it's incredibly verbose and repetitive. I get bored coding in lower level languages - I can do it, it's just boring. High level languages without good macro facilities and with a crippled object model can be somewhat boring too. Lately, only Lisp (with some bits of C and ASM for my low-level needs) has been good enough to make programming fun. For his problem - bussiness software - you could just create a DSL to describe the bussiness rules concisely from which the code would be generates. There you go, simple and fun to code, and without having to go through hell writing repetitive code. I've also heard MUMPS and other braindead languages mentioned on TDWTF. I would rather kill myself than code in something like that directly, but I believe there is a solution to that problem too. Write a Lisp/Scheme/Some custom DSL to MUMPS compiler, and your problem is solved. The only problem with this is that if someone has to work with the autogenerated code, that might be somewhat of a problem. I remember reading on c.l.l how some dude managed to keep his sanity in such a way, but ended up with having the other programmers hate his guts (what could be worse than having to code in MUMPS/*insert crappy language*? Having to code in auto-generated MUMPS/*insert crappy language*!)

>>12
I hope you get hit by a car.

>>12
thedailywtf
IHBT

>>15
I hope you get hit by a cdr.

>>17
One day I will be tired of this joke, but today is not that day.

>>17
I hope you get hit first.

>>19
I hope you get hit rest.

>>20
I hope you get CONStantly

>>21
I hope you get bound and destructured.

>>21
I hope you Just get hit.

>>23
I think you need to reevalulate your life

>>24

I hope you can one day become human.

this is just shameful

>>26
Leave and do not return!

>>27

I hope you accept your shortcomings.

>>28
"GRUNNUR"

I think you joined the wrong program OP. Don't you have something called software engineering? And why don't you do a minor in something else that you might like?

>>19-29
Back to /reddit/, please.

>>31

I've never been to reddit so how can I go back there? Why are you delusional?

<-- check em dubz

35 Name: tray 2012-03-14 22:59

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyUfTzxVtf0