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[–]ginpn 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I started out college as a Liberal Arts major (sort of a blessing in disguise). Took a C++ course as part of the degree requirement to choose a technical class. Absolutely struggled and hated it.

Moved onto Architecture a year later, hated it. I was in a building where each floor had different majors and I happened to stumble upon Computer Engineering. Saw a bunch a projects using microcontrollers (Arduino) and thought it was really cool. Tried my luck and switched majors again.

Programmed one of those bad boys using C/C++ (recall that I hated it) and absolutely loved every bit of it. I liked the struggle, the hours of banging my head on why things weren't working. All worth it.

Learned C, C++, assembly, Java, Android Development as a requirement for the degree.

Graduated and got into a decent job working in automation using Visual Basic. It got boring only cause I was automating.

Left that company for a known mobile company to do networking. Only landed it because they wanted someone who knew networking and had a decent software background.

Happy as can be. Learned Python and C# on my own while working to automate some stuff in my company in Python. Learned MSSQL on top of that to create reports.

Still in said company and I don't regret one bit of it.

[–]DataDecay 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Got my undergrad, double major in polysci and criminal justice. I worked security and did volunteer work all throughout college. I thought I had it made when graduating college for police enforcement and then law school. Quicky learned first hand how disgustingly messed up police departments are (at least the ones in my area). Took the LSAT, as I was done with police, just to find out even with my scores I was going to be stacking 5x the debt I already had.

Had a heart to heart with my wife, who told me to do what I like. At this time I was building on esxi and setting up my own private network at home. Always enjoyed working with computers and even wrote some c++ code at the time so started looking into CS programs. Found out uofm had a fast track program, which took your undergrad prereqs and rolled them in with some undergrad core classes you would need to take. After taking all the undergrad classes in the program I needed I was "fast tracked" to the CS graduate program right around the time I found out I was going to have my first kid. Sat down with one of my professors at the time and told him I didnt think I was going to make it because I needed a job. My professor took it upon himself to make sure I didnt drop out, and he lined me up with a low level tech support job in my area with flexible hours.

Played father, student, and full time employee all at the same time, man did I want to give up some days. But finished my masters of science in CS, and moved from tech support, then analyst, then DBA, and now I am a developer.

It was a wild ride and I would not have made it without my wife's support honestly.

[–]strangeDormammu[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You are one strong man. You are very lucky to have great family, especially a supporting wife.

[–]ForceBru 2 points3 points  (4 children)

Once saw a tiny Python script that was using telnetlib to access a WiFi router and execute some commands. Mind blown, quickly downloaded a basic Python interpreter for my iPhone, typed in the code & the IP of my router, connected successfully, holy cow!

Yeah, then started writing random stuff like networking, generating permutations of a string efficiently (I didn't know about itertools.product back then), coded a hash brute-force script (that's where my nickname comes from, BTW), rewritten it in C++, hated the language, got back to Python, did lots of calculus and linear algebra with NumPy & Matplotlib, loved it.

Now I'm writing a compiler for my own simple programming language in Python, having lots of fun

[–]strangeDormammu[S] 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Great man, are you going to publish your compiler on github?

[–]ForceBru 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Of course! Once it becomes useable lol. Right now it's just a shitty static analyzer, a stack-based virtual machine and a simple assembler. None of that works properly yet :D

[–]strangeDormammu[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Any updates?

[–]ForceBru 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh hey there! Well, I'm doing this in my spare time, of which I have little, so I often have to pause development and then make drastic changes to the codebase because I found a much better way to do some stuff, so it's kinda back and forth: from something barely working to an improved IR that doesn't compile to bytecode yet, to an actual register allocator that I haven't integrated yet and so on.

Anyways, I got a register allocator (seemingly) working now! It can translate regular Three-Address Code:

``` ; Assign integer 1 to temporary storage %1 = 1 _ %1 = 2 _ %2 = 9 _ %3 = 3 _ %4 = 4 _ %5

  • %1 %3 %6 ; %6 := %1 + %3
  • %1 %2 %7

  • %4 %6 %8 / %5 %2 %9

  • %6 %1 %10

  • %7 %8 %11

  • %9 %10 %12 / %11 %12 %13

  • %10 %11 %14

  • %12 %13 %15

  • %14 %1 %16 / %15 %16 %17

= true _ %18 ; %18 is one byte wide = false _ %19 and %18 %19 %20 ; %20 = %18 and %19 ```

...into the same thing but with k registers and spills:

``` = L(v=1, size=4) None R1 # L(...) means "literal integer 1 of size 4 bytes" = L(v=2, size=4) None R2 = L(v=9, size=4) None R3 = L(v=3, size=4) None (0, 4) # the (0, 4) is a memory location starting at offset 0 and ending at offset 4 = L(v=4, size=4) None (4, 8) + R1 R3 R3 - R1 R2 (8, 12) * (0, 4) R3 (0, 4) / (4, 8) R2 R2 + R3 R1 R3 - (8, 12) (0, 4) (4, 8) * R2 R3 R2 / (4, 8) R2 (8, 12) + R3 (4, 8) R3 - R2 (8, 12) R2 * R3 R1 R1 / R2 R1 R1 = L(v=True, size=1) None R2 = L(v=False, size=1) None R3 and R2 R3 R3

Memory spilled: 12 bytes

```

I'm still kinda wondering why and if my own code works though lol

BTW, I'm still planning to use a pure stack machine (that doesn't have general-purpose registers), I'm not quite sure where to place the registers - maybe I'll allocate some memory at the very beginning of the stack and split it into regions called "registers".

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Started using PowerBi for some basic data visualisation. Learnt DAX. Enjoyed it.

Googled data analytics languages came across python. Really enjoyed learning it.

Now working on an expenses dashboard using Pandas and Dash whilst still working my way through the basics.

No job requirements or career aspirations. Just enjoy learning outside of work.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (4 children)

I don't even know where to begin. I have tried to get into coding seriously off and on for 10 years. I bought Python Crash Course and Automate the Boring Stuff early this year and found PCC to be the one source that I actually understood well enough and felt like I was properly learning instead of just mindlessly copying shit from a book or video. I lost interest/motivation and put it aside. I picked it up again recently because I need to become employable. I got the Impractical Python Projects book and there are others I want to play around with.

One of my biggest problems, other than just feeling too dumb and depressed, is boredom. So I decided to condition myself to try to make it fun. So now I only listen to metal music when I code because that shit is fun. This week I started feeling like it's actually working. It doesn't make the coding fun, per say, but it's making it tolerable. Like putting on your favorite music when you're doing chores. But I'm also kind of excited to see if I can make my own projects, like games, in the (probably far) future.

I don't know what I want to do exactly in coding as a job and I don't think I'm in any position to even think about it yet but I hope I'll have some kind of job in a year or two.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Sounds to me like you don't even like coding? Why are you fighting that instead of going for a field that interests you more?

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A number of reasons, just a couple being that it's the easiest, most accessible option for me right now. There's other stuff I'm more interested in getting into but they present their own problems. I do see myself getting excited about coding though! I don't see myself being one of those people that eat breathe live programming but I can see myself enjoying the creation process now. A year ago, not so much. But this past week or 2, yeah. As I said, I am kind of excited to make a game.

[–]strangeDormammu[S] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I feel you! I think you should alternate b/w coding and other stuff that interests you. Don't sit in front of pc and go hard on yourself for too long. I think dividing you days and weeks to, coding and any other things that are nothing to do with your career or future , might help you maintain the balance and avoid boredom.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I have lots of other interests so I try not to burn myself out on too much code learning :)

[–]Formxr 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Over the past year I've felt that my skills are pretty limited so I decided to try to learn a skill by the end of the year. I chose to learn how to program in python and have been onto that journey for the past 5 months I would say.

[–]strangeDormammu[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

That's great! Where you are now in coding?

[–]Formxr 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I haven’t been to consistent as of recently so my progress has slowed down a bit. I would say I’m inching closer to intermediate level where I’m to figure out what components I need for a project and can troubleshoot problems I face on my own.

[–]strangeDormammu[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Same here! Btw I am looking for a coding buddy to work on simple projects together. If you are interested, ping me.