Prog

Hey guise.
So I live near Everett,WA and I wanna start on getting my Bachelors in Computer Science. I wanna go to a community college first since I'm not exactly rich enough to start off at a University. Which would you guys recommend I go to?

I wanna go to a community college
Don't.

>>1
Read SICP instead.

University of Washington's computer science program is considered one of the best. If you're a permanent resident of Washington state, attend a local community college, fulfill the state general education requirement and adhere to UW's additional CS transfer requirements, your odds of admission are greatly improved.

Local community colleges tend to have transfer agreements with nearby state universities, meaning they can help you draft and educational plan that if completed guarantees admission.

In California we have assist.org that maps of the required path from any community college to any department of any state university. If you have an equivalent in Washington you should start there.

But first, read SICP.

What is a SICP?
Obviously I'm new here. Which community college is good around here?

>>5
What is a SICP?
Lurk more, ``faggot''.

Which community college is good around here?
Read >>4 again, you're not going to find a definitive answer here. We're not from Everett.

Do something else. I'm serious.

Maybe I'm cynical but if you're an adult and not already programming or clear about what you want to do, then computer science probably isn't for you. It's largely theoretical and you won't just be making KILLER APPZ or computer games or anything like that.

Do your own research, give up, and then do something more worthwhile. Take up programming on the side for fun and/or profit.

Well I'm kind of lost on what to do. I want to program video games. I'm 18 right now so it's not like its too late to start to learn.

>>9
I'm 18 right now so it's not like its too late to start to learn.
Your brain is most adept at forming new neural pathways in your early teens. Obviously you can still learn things, but you have left it late. ``You can't teach an old dog new tricks'' doesn't just apply to dogs.

>>9
I want to program video games.
It's really not going to be as fun as you think.

If you like playing games, it doesn't mean you will like making games.

If you like masturbating to drawings, it doesn't mean you will enjoy raising a child.

Guys I'm not gonna try to be a programmer because it's fun or not...I just wanna make a shit ton of cash. Plus I like coding right now, hate learning it, like using it though.

>>13
You won't get more than $2k/year with a programming job.

>>13
You're going to have to learn a shit ton in order to get good enough to not put out shit.
I like coding right now
Right, as in, you're going to go off it soon.
Just please take our advice and give up.

>>15
I used to be like him, a stubborn lebrogrammer retard. Then I dropped out, enrolled again, got my electric engineering degree and work for a sound engineering company.

I'm glad I followed this path. I truly enjoy programming and don't have to work for a dirty indian pig writing robust scalable billing solutions.

Programming is hard. Programming video games is really hard.

We can tell already that you don't know what it takes to be programmer. Programming requires research and it shitton of it. In college you'll learn a few things, you'll have a professor hold your hand through the concept of a for-loop, etc. Then you'll go out into the real world and if you manage to find a shitty job you'll learn quick that you don't know shit and they'll wonder why they hired you. A real company will put you through a rigorous interview process to prove to you and themselves that you aren't actually a programmer.

I work as a programmer. I can program, but what I don't know can fill a warehouse. I spend hours of my day reading references and documentation. I Google shit constantly. I read responses to questions other have asked on forums and mailing lists, but I've never had to ask myself because I know how to research and find the answers.

You, on the other hand, come here to /prog/, essentially a parody of a programming forum, and ask us the best community college in your area. If you don't know how to Google or where to look for information then just fucking forget about programming.

Now /le backseat bop/, ``faggot''.

go to bellevue community college and transfer to university of washington after you finish your gen ed and pre reqs.

I have a friend that did exactly that (but is in ee) and I'm currently in uw cse.

uw cse is pretty hard to get in (it took me three tries and a > 3.6 gpa) but as people say, it's pretty famous.

if you get in, we can have a prog meetup :))))))

(finally, if you just want to learn to program, nothing beats doing your own side projects. I know lots of people in the major who suck)

>>13
You are misguided. The last reason to get into programming is for the money, because there is none.

>>17

Learning how to manage the lack of information is just another part of programming. It's nearly half of it. And like any other skill, it can be developed.

And I don't know where you work, but quality and expertise are not valued in my experience. Punctuality and meeting dead lines are valued higher than building a complete and reliable solution. And it is much worse when it comes to security. If I had no moral compass I would just become a hacker for a living, but I have qualms with taking advantage of others.

If you want to program video games, you can do it RIGHT NOW.  For a very simple look on how to do it, google Pygame.  Note that this is not a very professional way of doing it (C++ and ruining a horde of replaceable autistic neckbeards is how the real magic happens).

Most people who graduate with a CS degree end up being code monkeys for a few years until they can move up into management or senior positions.  This employment pattern is very similar to engineering fields, as the incentive to hire naive CS grads is that they can be replaced every couple of years with more naive CS grads who will work under ever-shittier work conditions for less money and with a shit-ton of stress. 

For some perspective, think of a difficult test you've taken recently, and then add in losing your meal ticket should you fail.  The test is given daily.  You are not allowed to coast or have off days).  The work is often dull and monotonous, and you will be hounded by management as if they were trying to wring water from a stone.  Capitalism will seem more like organized crime the longer that you stay at your job.  I am not kidding about this, this is 100% reality.  Office Space is real. 

If you somehow learn some programming skills during your 4 years of pointless lectures given by thick-accented Indians/Asians, you'll have a better time working outside of the world set aside by your university overlords.  Web development is like a breath of fresh air, and can pay quite well if you're a go-getter freelancer or hook up with clueless people who pay out the ass so their start-up doesn't look like a fratboy's stoner epiphany.  PHP, Ruby, Java, Python, Javascript, and other languages that will be mocked on this board will be your bread and butter.  Just learn why they're fucked and move on with your life.  Mobile device development is hot right now, and the money is damn good. 

But >>19 is partially right, as 3rd world outsourcing has reduced the skill/pay ratio to the point where it's pointless to compete with the Indian hordes.  What many 1st world programmers do is little more than act as salesmen - get a contract and then get on Skype at around 10PM to relay the specs to the oDesk team.  Others specialize and enjoy a little bit of job security.

Well guys, this is like the only thing I enjoy doing right now that I can see as a career. I'm not interested in the Medical Field nor am I interested in Law, or Arts. This is pretty much the only thing I can go for.

>>22
It's usually best to make the decision that makes the most sense in the moment. The future is in too much motion to make decisions based upon it, and you'll make the most of it when it comes anyways. You may as well do something you enjoy now.

>>22
I'm not interested in the Medical Field nor am I interested in Law, or Arts.
Well you probably couldn't do any of that either. Better grab your toilet brush.

OP, like everyone has said here, it is best that you pick a career that you can depend on. When sh1t comes, you have that job, and you can count for your bread and milk. Programming as a career is too flaky, and moves on the fly. We love the fact hat you like programming now, and want to make games. I applaud your endeavor, but you need to think of programming, esp. for games as a hobby, or a past time.

If you even try your Junior year at CS, you will hate it. You only enjoy now the mental reward of achieving something, but not the skill of programming. From your reading, it only sounds as if you want to learn how to program a game, or maybe some. Well that sounds good, but do not make it your bread and money.

If you like to start learning, look for books that teach game programming, and that use SDL. Here are some good one:
http://content.gpwiki.org/index.php/SDL
http://www.libsdl.org/

But do not make /prog/ you job.Try experimenting on your local community with jobs, and see which one you like best. I hear lots of real fun  vid programmers are actually into some sort of social jobs, like desk and phone agent, even as waiters and cash registers, and they enjoy it. And we meet and eat food together on mondays-tuesdays. If you like to join us, come to stepmania.com

>>9
Learn C++ (http://www.cprogramming.com/) and read doom3 source and fuck around with it.
And read Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs on the side.

>>25
SDL
— Prior to version 2, SDL's inefficient surface model prevented any kind of useful 3D-hardware-based acceleration. It still doesn't allow rendering using multiple textures or the same texture multiple times in one draw call. This overhead is not negligible.
— SDL GL has no notion of frame-skipping, even though interfaces such as WGL_EXT_swap_control and GLX_SGI_swap_control support it.
— You cannot mix Direct3D or OpenGL and SDL rendering. This makes the SDL rendering interface's interest very dubious.
— SDL likes to pretend the refresh rate of the display in hertz is always an integer. While very few programs would be bothered by this (video players maybe?), it's just plain wrong.
— SDL promotes the use of timers which lack precision and are very cumbersome since, as the documentation explains, their use contaminates your program with pointless multithreading nonsense. It's best not to use them.
— The SDL doesn't provide functions for loading compressed data. This is not a sensible decision for a primarily game-oriented library. It's not consistent in this behaviour as it does provide functions for loading RIFF Wave and DIB files.

>>21
This does not apply as much to top 4 CS grads from the US.
The stress part/tons of work does, but undergrad is a lot of work anyway.
Your lifestyle will also be contingent on where you fall on the spectrum from startup founder to engineer at some huge company.
The outsourcing thing applies mostly to low skill jobs.

The same rule applies to almost any field: Be better than most people, otherwise you will not have job security or money. This means putting in a lot of hours studying math/CS/business.

>>22
You are on the right track. Do what you like to do.

The people here saying "there is no money in programming, it is a shit career etc." are deluded. Programming pays very well compared to other careers in the U.S. Look at incomes of CS grads compared to psychology, business administration, and other popular degrees. They are also less frequently unemployed.

If you want an example of career hell, try working in corporate finance at an investment bank. Programming is a great deal right now.

>>29
Programmers will always be in demand for as long as people use computers. General system design and programming are technical skills that require training and experience: it takes too much effort to implement non-trivial changes to any system. There is also the adage that user requirements change over time.

>>29
psychology, business administration, and other popular degrees
Popular degrees are usually not very lucrative.

>>27
What's better? Ideally with bindings to Lisp.

>>30
Until the third world has good enough internet connections, or Congress decides to expand the H1-B program and let in a hundred thousand PhDs from China that work for minimum wage without overtime.

>>33
Chinese can't program for shit.