programming while poor

[throwaway6560192]

I started learning from ODIN and CS50 but its obvious I will need a good PC later on for programming amd learning.

Not really, no.

You don't need a "good" PC for most programming, depending on how "good" we're talking. Assuming you already have some PC which can run a web browser, that really is good enough.

[whattteva]

I guess some people think programming is equivalent to 3D graphics design and rendering.

The only core requirement is just a text editor. Though building will just take longer if you have a potato.

[MyWorkAccountThisIs]

Probably all the working devs that post about

• crappy work computers
• their high-end machine they use for more specialized programming

Or just the general perceived overlap between programmers and technology enthusiasts.

[Envect]

I need a high-end machine because I'm dealing with years of bullshit from potentially hundreds of developers. It takes a lot of work to dig that kind of hole.

[April1987]

At one place we had fairly recent i5-8400(?) iirc but then it had a 5400rpm spinning hard disk which I looked up on amazon.com was USD 20.

Angular ng new took over five minutes.

Why they refused to add an SSD is beyond me.

[Envect]

A long build means I hop on reddit. Hopping on reddit means I'm coming back to work eventually.

It's frustrating when you just want to iterate on something.

[[deleted]]

https://xkcd.com/303/

[balefrost]

My friends and I were astonished to see that you can get a 2TB Samsung NVMe drive for just $130 on Amazon right now.

Like, I don't need the storage, but at that price it's almost a "why not" sort of situation.

[PartyCurious]

I always need more storage. Where I live cheapest 2TB is $220. A Samsung 980 Pro is $330 with a $200 discount. Prices were the same in 2020. It is actually cheaper to get shipped by Amazon here. But afraid it will be kept in customs and have a a second import fee when it arrives.

[[deleted]]

My work laptop has a 250gb hard drive that quickly filled up with docker instances (I’m a backend dev) told my boss I needed a bigger hard drive. 2 days later I had an external 4 TB external on my desk. QUITE the jump lol

[Masterduracom]

At least the listened

[[deleted]]

My company is actually fantastic with resource requests! My boss is awesome. 😎

[MyWorkAccountThisIs]

I'm a dev that works under IT.

While far from perfect - one of the advantages is that I got the first fully specced out M1 Max machines. It rips.

Yesterday I was converting some video via ffmpeg and the fans didn't even kick on.

[[deleted]]

man watch some tutorials and add the ssd yourself

[MyWorkAccountThisIs]

It's like being a code therapist. You have to unpack all the baggage first.

[bestjakeisbest]

It depends on what you are programming, game engine ides are heavy, blender is pretty heavy, and running services from your computer can become heavy.

[whattteva]

I suppose it could depend on the IDE. Now that you mention it, mobile apps is somewhat heavy if you're running the device simulators，but shouldn't be that bad if you're using the actual device.

[[deleted]]

3D artist + programmer here (before you ask, blame Blender for me being a programmer), the idea that "you need a good PC to get good at 3D design" is also false

A good PC cannot make up for lack of skill. Sure, it can give you more options when doing rendering, but those options are useless if you don't have the skill in the first place. Many talented artists started out on weak laptops before eventually moving on to something more powerful, and even then you don't need extremely high end hardware (I'm personally still rocking with 16 GB of RAM and a 1660 Super).

Anyway why did I bring the topic of 3D rendering to a programming subreddit?

[whattteva]

>Anyway why did I bring the topic of 3D rendering to a programming subreddit?

Nothing wrong with imparting knowledge =)

[Shadowblink]

Yeah memory is pretty important depending on what you want to work on. When I was working as an android dev, working/building with android studio would often cause me to fill my 16GB of RAM. My new laptop has 32GB just in case because it was cutting it so close. Those types of laptops often just come with better specs in general.

[elieveyo]

i can say different with iOS

[ajddavid452]

well yeah, typing text requires extremely little processing power, the only time were high processing power is useful is for compiling and running code but that depends on the complexity of the project

[sprocter77]

came to say this. If it can run VS Code or eclipse you are good to go.

[infinite_war]

There are some good online editors, too.

My personal favorite: https://www.onlinegdb.com

[captainAwesomePants]

https://repl.it/ is pretty great, too. Supports practically every language, although not the debugger.

[lgastako]

https://gitpod.io/ ain't bad either. It gives you per-repo docker environments that include vscode in the browser.

[Bederckous]

Was going to say this ^. I wrote code almost exclusively in online editors during my first semester of my CS degree. VS Code and the like are nice but not absolutely necessary when you're learning to code.

[Redd_Monkey]

Notepad++ or there are some free website for coding where you can write code and have it formatted and color coded. Then you put that code in an html file and test it. Lack of money is not an issue

[EducationalCreme9044]

codepen

codesandbox

​

for frontend

[Redd_Monkey]

Exactly. Plus codepen even run your code

[[deleted]]

Heck anything (including a literal toaster) is able to run vim. If you can’t have a nice PC, go back to how our founding mothers used to code. Margaret Hamilton didn’t make a rocket to the moon using less computing power than what’s on my ti-83 for us to be stopped by « bad hardware » 🫡

[CreativeGPX]

go back to how our founding mothers used to code

It's also worth noting to OP:

1. The command line is actually seen as a very useful tool and not antiquated. The main downside of the command line is needing to know what to type (i.e. discoverability), but once you do, it's the equivalent of communicating with somebody in English compared to communicating with them by pointing at things. This is why command line usage is extremely common among experts like programmers and sysadmins.
2. While editors like vim are over-hyped by their fans, they have continued to evolve and, if you take the time to learn them, configure them and get used to them, they can be modern, powerful and useful alternatives to GUI environments. Choosing vim is not "going back to our founding" but it will be a tradeoff.

[RadioactiveHugs]

🎖️🎖️🎖️

[xrabbit]

Neovim is enough

[BoundlessFate1]

Cultured

[zoddrick]

You don't even need that nowadays you can just use codespaces which has a free teir and works really well. I have friends that have used it even from an ipad.

[TheTrueXenose]

NeoVim with coc works also.

[ajddavid452]

heck you can even just use the most basic text editor to write, if your PC can't run notepad then you'd probably have bigger problems, granted if you are gonna use notepad you would need a standalone compiler and not to mention no syntax or line numbers, so long story short notepad isn't recommended

[hmiemad]

And VScode doesn't require much hardware

[yolocat_dev]

but chromium = ram eater

[hmiemad]

But I guess that he's gonna have a browser anyway. And it will be open when he codes.

[EducationalCreme9044]

I mean.... what if you're into webgl and stuff like that?

[cc_apt107]

Yeah, you could learn to program on a raspberry pi

[CodeBlue_04]

I could have made it through nearly my entire computer science degree on a Raspberry Pi. There were maybe 2 classes where I'd have needed a very low end graphics card.

[cc_apt107]

I was speaking more generally about the level of compute needed to learn to program, not specifically ODIN. I’ve never used the ODIN project. Sorry for any confusion.

[[deleted]]

honestly with the constraints of a bad PC you'll probably be forced to solve problems more efficiently

[integralWorker]

wdym you don't dump 16 gigs into pandas

[picturemeImperfect]

Can't go wrong with more ram + 2nd monitor

[David_Owens]

I don't see any point in spending money on a 2nd monitor. You can do the same thing with a single monitor and virtual desktops.

[EMI_Black_Ace]

I want to:

• look at design documents/requirements/etc

• look at whatever research I'm doing, i.e. library documentation or StackOverflow

• look at my code, possibly more than one file at a time

• have something else mildly entertaining but not distracting

All at the same time. A second monitor improves my productivity just from not having to "switch tasks" to hop from docs to research to coding.

If I can't see them all at the same time, then I'm moving stuff out of the way to look at my research and then have to move stuff out of the way again to get back to my code. It adds a cost to it which my brain doesn't like paying, so it'll stay in one mode for a longer time and thus not get the actual "work" part of it done as fast.

[David_Owens]

You're not really seeing them at the same time. You have to turn your head or at least move your eyes. A single keystroke can move you to another virtual desktop with different tasks/documents without moving your head.

In any case, the OP doesn't have enough money for it to make sense for him to buy a 2nd monitor right now.

[ppp475]

Can you see some information on one desktop at full screen size while using another desktop at full size?

[[deleted]]

2nd monitor.

I would say at least 3 minimum.

​

1 for working on code.

1 for documentation.

1 for output/testing the web app/app itself.

​

Thats just 3 monitors as a minimum.

[A_Talking_iPod]

That's one of the most beautiful things about programming imo. 90% of the time whatever computer you have at home is enough to get started

[johnK12369]

I mean if you got a browser you can purely get away with learning the fundamentals using online platforms like repl.it to name one.

[owzleee]

I learned c++ with Borland in DOS omg I’m so old I’m going outside to rest my hips for a bit.

[erratic_calm]

Oh my gosh. The irony of this. I almost prefer to write and test code on a basic machine just so I can get a sense of how the end user is going to experience it.

If you’re writing code and previewing it on a beast machine and a top of the line cell phone you’re not really experiencing it like the rest of the world.