DISCLAIMER: I understand that I might not be posting in the right part of StackE
ID: 649735 • Letter: D
Question
DISCLAIMER: I understand that I might not be posting in the right part of StackExchange, or this question might have been asked before (I haven't found it). If this offends anybody, I apologize.
I'm 15 and a sophomore in High School. I have an interest in Computer Science in general. The thing is, I've learned a few languages here and there, but I just don't know how to keep learning on a regular basis. What I mean by this is that yeah, I can make a calculator with java, or some really basic scripts with python, but the fact of the matter is that I don't know what to do after that. Making a script that can count the words in a book seems so pointless.
What can I do to learn a programming language, practice it, and have an overall mastery of it? Anybody can learn how to do basic things like I've done, but what can I do so that at the end of some time, I can look back and say "yeah, I'm a real programmer now." I know that sounds cheesy, but help me out here.
Explanation / Answer
All of us here know that we just love computer science! Without our passion for it, we would never even have been bothered to adapt to its logical nature in the first place.
As we continue to explore all the wonderful things we can accomplish with programming, we usually find ourselves intrigued in certain areas of it.
Some may like front-end design because of their artistical nature. Some may like back-end computation because they love scalability for the masses. He or she may be working with some beautiful parallax design in web development. Or messing around with sockets in server design.
Find a project that you'd like to start whether big or small. It's one of the best ways to gain mastery not only in a certain programming language, but, computer science itself.
Screw the academic programming. One may learn about data structures, but he or she has never imagined a useful implementation for them. What can set you apart from "those that just learn the basics" is how you apply your knowledge.
Instead of counting the words in a book, how about we count the occurrences of words in a collection of customer reviews about a certain product? Then maybe we can tell the inventors that their product was called "shit" and "horrible" numerous times!
View some save files with a Hex Editor from a game you're playing and study the patterns and structure. Then turn that calculator you made in Java into something that lets people manipulate (read/write, the basics) desired values in his or her save file.
The possibilities are endless when they are seen more than just pointless. Keep pursuing computer science and you'll soon reek of brilliance and won't even know it!
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