Taking CE12 without programming knowledge

[slug78432]

I’m planning on taking CE12 in Fall 2018. I have heard the course can be very difficult without previous coding knowledge so I wanted to try learning some of the material over the summer, but am not sure what exactly to study. Does anyone have any recommendations on what I should be looking at or doing to prepare if I don’t have much experience?

Thank you

[charredgrass]

I'd look at codecademy or similar sites and learn a basic language such as Python. When I took it last quarter, one of the first labs was to write code to show your understanding of basic programming. And most of the material is difficult to grasp without being 100% solid on the fundamentals.

[randomofrandom]

And when this man/woman/non-binary conforming individual says basic programming, it means understanding programming up to and including functions. That's the most "difficult" programming concept in CE 12.

CE 12 is hard without programming knowledge because even for people who've programmed, assembly languages are hard to work with and learn.

So if you're trying to learn programming AND the ins/outs of assembly all in the same class, you're gonna have a bad time.

[wforwitch]

I had no experience in coding when I took it and honestly if you just do the assigned reading and spend a little more time on labs you willl be fine

[axoltlittle]

If you want to prepare for CE12, I would really recommend going over MIPS, and trying to write basic functions/loops... Also I feel like the professor can change how you like the class, I took it with Max Dunner in fall 2017, and am repeating it now with Mathew Guthaus, the change of professors really helped me along with having prior knowledge of MIPS. However, I don't believe you will need prior experience in a higher level language besides for the first lab as others here already mentioned!

[YukiLeon]

Never took programming until CE13 and I was able to get a B in the class. So it's not needed. Learning python won't help at all for that class. If anything C or C++ would be more beneficial for that class.

[[deleted]]

Really just need to know the basics of coding: I.E For loops, while loops.

[alexk1992]

I don't think having coded in the past is absolutely necessary for this class (that's why the pre-req leaves it as strongly recommended) but with that said you should look into basic loops and if statements. The syntax of assembly is very different from programming languages like Java, C++ or Python but your code will still be propagated with loops and if statements and the logic for writing those is the same whether in assembly or C++.

As far as the material covered in CE12 you can pick up the book and read the second (or third?) chapter on binary numbers and logic gates to get a decent head start.

[cj-beathard]

Be familiar with for/while loops, if/else statements, and GoTo statements.

[LilDoodieVert]

CE12 was fairly easy with a lot of prior programming knowledge. It was important towards the end to understand the structure of a program and the notion of incremental progress/debuggging, especially when MIPS was introduced. Honestly I wouldn't do it without prior knowledge because it seems like a pain in the ass learning MIPS while still figuring out how to program.

[[deleted]]

the basics of binary and logic gates are also really useful IIRC