Introductory Programming Lessons

[Robber]

Hey everyone!

Heroscape shares a big place in my heart along with two of my other passions: computer science and teaching. I'm on winter break at college and have a ton of free time, so I figured I would try something new. If you want to learn about programming, I would be happy to offer you free lessons! The lessons are aimed towards someone who has little to no experience with programming and would offer a good introduction to the topic.

I think programming is really awesome, and there are limitless projects and opportunities that it can lead you to. If you are interested, send me a PM and we can talk about it!

[L0B5T3R]

What exactly is programming?

[Robber]

Originally Posted by L0B5T3R

What exactly is programming?

Computer programming is how you make a computer do something. It's also called coding. Most programs are a list of instructions that the computer executes, one after another. For example, a simple program might:

Take two numbers as input from the user
Add the two numbers together
Print the sum back out to the user

There's obviously a lot more interesting stuff that you can make a computer do. To me, programming feels like doing a puzzle. There's a lot of problem solving involved, and the challenge is part of the fun!

[bmon]

This is extremely cool that you are offering to teach anybody with interest. I recommend if anyone has any interest to take him up on the offer.

I also love programming and it has become a very useful tool in my job where I can use scripting to organize, manage, and analyze bulk amounts of data. One trivial task of adding data manually to a GUI, can take 5 minutes or more. Writing a program that does the task in bulk can do hundreds, if not thousands, of those same actions in that same amount of time.

But wait, there's more! Programming isn't just meaningful to the work place. Don't believe me? My hosted Heroscape nights make use of it. I built a web page, programmed in PHP, to support army drafting for my Heroscape games. This means that we take turns picking our armies in the days ahead of the actual game night. When game night rolls around, our armies are already selected and I can have the figures and cards sitting on the table ready to start the game as soon as everyone arrives.

Great stuff! Cheers!!

[marrowick]

@Robber What languages do you know?

[Robber]

Originally Posted by marrowick

@Robber What languages do you know?

My preferred language is Python, and I'm also good at C++, C, Java, and x86 assembly. I've also used Lisp, Perl, Javascript, and a couple other languages but wouldn't say that I know any of them very well. I'm really interested in malware clustering/classification using machine learning, so most of my latest programming projects have involved that topic.

[marrowick]

Originally Posted by Robber

My preferred language is Python, and I'm also good at C++, C, Java, and x86 assembly. I've also used Lisp, Perl, Javascript, and a couple other languages but wouldn't say that I know any of them very well. I'm really interested in malware clustering/classification using machine learning, so most of my latest programming projects have involved that topic.

Cool, so I take it you have a job in programming then?

[Robber]

Originally Posted by marrowick

Cool, so I take it you have a job in programming then?

Yep, but only part time for the next couple years. I'm in college and will be going to grad school next year.