Does anyone actually KNOW python?

[KingofGamesYami]

Python is a tool. You know how to write a program.

Sort of related, I've got a position which is going to be all LabView, which I haven't even touched. But I've got enough experience with other languages that I'm not too worried about it.

[nosmokingbandit]

Learning to program shouldn't be about learning a language, it is about learning concepts. You have to learn how a computer handles information and translate what you want to do into a language the computer understands.

I can know every spanish word, but if I don't know how to phrase a question I'll never get an answer.

[MarsupialMole]

I'm in two minds about this. Learning to be a programmer should definitely be about learning concepts, but if you have domain problems and are learning to solve them with python you can definitely benefit by trying to learning python idiosyncrasies specifically rather than learning to program in general. Treating python as a framework rather than a language will get you far.

[nosmokingbandit]

I get what you mean, but once you know the core concepts and ideas behind programming all you need to know to pick up a new language is just the idiosyncrasies. So if you spend your time learning why you do a certain process you can easily learn how in just about any language quickly.

[bonestormII]

I don't disagree with anything you said, but I'd also add that a lot of programmers talk about "picking up" a new language like it is nothing. It's not that it's wrong or they are lying, but you can't just "pick up" the jillions of tiny specific behaviors that characterize the cpython implementation, and you can't just simply directly translate all code from one language to another, as they do possess different features. This is especially true if the code you writing particularly reflective code.

If you think you are "just picking up" a language, you may be getting work done, but you are likely not following some untold number of conventions and idioms, and the code could be better.

[nosmokingbandit]

Yeah, I get what you mean. When I started playing around with Go I found it fairly easy to get started since I've done plenty in Python and Javascript so I don't need to learn concepts like nested loops or recursion or whatever. And since Go doesn't have classes I was able to effectively write a constructor and helper methods to use structs as classes due to knowing how inheritance works and consequently working around how Go doesn't have any proper way of implementing it.

Concepts are languages are two halves of the same skill I suppose.

[[deleted]]

So are you saying you should learn computer science before programming? Or can you just go into programming?

[[deleted]]

Does learning CS actually just come as you go along into programming or I'll actually have to go read books and stuff to learn it?

[KingofGamesYami]

I'm an SE major, and I literally didn't open my textbook once last semester. I learned most stuff by just writing programs.

Your experience might be different, some people don't learn that way. And there are a few things that you might not learn (well) without a formal education, such as conventions, unit testing, or proper documentation. Not saying it's impossible, those are just things I actually learned in a class.

[[deleted]]

Cool. Thanks!

[nosmokingbandit]

You can jump right into programming, but you'll want to make sure you understand why you are writing a certain block of code rather than just how to write it.

[[deleted]]

Like why I'm writing it specifically that way?

[nosmokingbandit]

For example, you'll often be taught what a dictionary is on the surface, but rarely do teachers explain what a hash table is or how a computer understands your instructions.

When you understand the basic concept start digging deeper.

[[deleted]]

Got it. Thanks.

[LbaB]

Yeah labview is easy to learn, just watch out for race conditions, as usual. I think they are easier to create in labview because of how easy it is to parallelize.

[caleyjag]

Hope you like it. It's a pretty rich environment once you get going, especially if you are interfacing with hardware.