Software Career

[shreyaskudav]

I am 16 years old, but i am interesting in software, web designing and scripting. I have taken admission in an Institute in India.There were two choices,-Computer Engineering-Computer TechnologySo what is a right choice from the 2 for my statement:

i am interesting in software, web designing and scripting.

I need suggestion and feedback....

[Ingolme]

I think you would have to look into the subjects and content of each course. The title alone doesn't describe the kind of content they teach.

[jeffman]

Also, different countries may have different names for different majors AND different requirements for computer-related careers.My GUESS is that Computer Engineering refers to what Yanks call Computer Science, which is a very technical and theoretical field about hardware and software of all kinds, not just web-related stuff. In the USA, most web developers (there are exceptions) do not major in Computer Science.As Ingolme says, look at the course requirements for the major, and then look at the descriptions of the courses. There will probably be some general courses that do not cover web development specifically, but a lot of the courses should be on topics like HTML, JavaScript, server-side programming (ASP.NET, PHP, maybe both), possibly Java and/or Flash, and maybe some design courses using Photoshop and/or Illustrator. If a major does not cover those topics (most of them, anyway) it is not the correct major.

[shreyaskudav]

Well, the topics in Computer Eng. and Computer Tech. are almost the same...But some topics differ:-Comp Eng. -Advanced Microprocessor-Windows Programming-Embedded System-Systems Programming -Advanced Web Technology Comp. Tech -Database Management -Multimedia and Animation Tech-Object Oriented Modeling and Design -Advanced Web Technology

[jeffman]

It looks like Comp Tech is the degree for you. BUT DON'T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT. Talk to web professionals in your country. Talk to the faculty in the Comp. Tech. area.

[thescientist]

It looks like Comp Tech is the degree for you. BUT DON'T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT. Talk to web professionals in your country. Talk to the faculty in the Comp. Tech. area.

along those lines, without much context it appears to be case of hardware vs. software. However...talk to an advisor and/or other professionals in your area.

[jeffman]

That is a big part of the distinction, yes. All the Computer Science programs I know spend a fair amount of time getting close to the metal. It starts with experiments on actual transistors, big ones, like you'd find in old radios. The logic of transistors leads directory to logical concepts like and, or, xor, etc. I knew a computer scientist who wrote a complete operating system for a Motorola type setup for his senior thesis. It wasn't complicated, but did require learning very fine details about microprocessors, rom, ram, and so on. Sometimes I find it helpful conceptually to know about this kind of stuff when I write executable code in a web environment, but most of the time I don't think of it at all, and most web developers I know never think of it at all.

[MrFish]

I don't have a degree in anything and I'm only fresh out of highschool so I will give you fair warning that my advice is limited to what I've heard from developers here in the US.The most important thing (so I've been told) is that you have experience. What you read in books won't automatically make you a great programmer. While you learn make as many programs/websites as you can and build a portfolio. There is nothing like experience and that's what (so I've been told) employers look for. Especially in what I assume to be an employer's market like India. Where an employer has so many developers applying for the position that the one that has the most experience and can demonstrate his/her ability best will get the job.If you want to program then India's equivalent to Computer Science is what you want a degree in. Computer Science doesn't necessarily teach you any specific language but teaches theory on the best way to do it in any language. With a CS degree you will never run out of work. At least until a program is written that writes programs. Then god help us.There's my two cents.

[shreyaskudav]

That is a big part of the distinction, yes. All the Computer Science programs I know spend a fair amount of time getting close to the metal. It starts with experiments on actual transistors, big ones, like you'd find in old radios. The logic of transistors leads directory to logical concepts like and, or, xor, etc. I knew a computer scientist who wrote a complete operating system for a Motorola type setup for his senior thesis. It wasn't complicated, but did require learning very fine details about microprocessors, rom, ram, and so on. Sometimes I find it helpful conceptually to know about this kind of stuff when I write executable code in a web environment, but most of the time I don't think of it at all, and most web developers I know never think of it at all.

I don't have a degree in anything and I'm only fresh out of highschool so I will give you fair warning that my advice is limited to what I've heard from developers here in the US.The most important thing (so I've been told) is that you have experience. What you read in books won't automatically make you a great programmer. While you learn make as many programs/websites as you can and build a portfolio. There is nothing like experience and that's what (so I've been told) employers look for. Especially in what I assume to be an employer's market like India. Where an employer has so many developers applying for the position that the one that has the most experience and can demonstrate his/her ability best will get the job.If you want to program then India's equivalent to Computer Science is what you want a degree in. Computer Science doesn't necessarily teach you any specific language but teaches theory on the best way to do it in any language. With a CS degree you will never run out of work. At least until a program is written that writes programs. Then god help us.There's my two cents.

Thats seem great feedback from you all guys,...and thanks for it... @MrFish, I took a look at your profile, and it seems that you are 18 years....and you been knowing

Languages: XHTML, CSS, Javascript (JQuery/Ajax Included), PHP, MySql, Java

Have you mugged it up from the W3Schools or you are doing any course of it???I am asking because i am 16 and i hardly know HTMl and some what Javascript...

[MrFish]

You can learn most of it here on w3schools but google is a big help too when you know what you're looking for. When you start practising what you learn on w3schools it starts becoming hard grained into your memory. Like you never forget how to ride a bike I don't think I can forget any of these languages. To learn best, pick a website you want to build and just start building it. It's hard to read through everything and retain all that you learned. I tried that several time. And just keep going until you run into something you don't know how to do. Like- "hmm... How to a create a login with php?". Then you google that.HTML- Page structureCSS- Page stylingJavascript- Client side scriptingJQuery- Javascript library to make things faster/easierAjax- Client-Server communicationPHP- Server side scriptingMySQ - Databases

[shreyaskudav]

Yup...its a good tip,...but i just wanna know how did you learn it? I mean to say....,how long you been learning all these languages? and how much time it took for you to gain perfect knowledge about the same??

[ShadowMage]

and how much time it took for you to gain perfect knowledge about the same??

Perfect knowledge? There doesn't exist a developer (or anyone else for that matter) who can truthfully say they have perfect knowledge of anything. That is impossible. There will always be things a developer doesn't know or remember.That said, I can't speak for MrFish, but I have been doing web development for roughly 2.5 yrs. All of my web development knowledge was self taught using Google, W3Schools, and the members of this forum. I had previous programming experience (Java, C#, Visual Basic) that I attained in high school and college, so that really helped me learn and get a grasp on the concepts and syntax.I would say that I still do not know half as much as some of the more experienced members of this forum like justsomeguy, Dierdre's Dad, thescientist, Ingolme, and boen_robot but I know enough that I can usually work out solutions to my problems.How much time will it take you to reach that point? I don't know. It depends on how good of a learner you are and how easily you grasp the concepts of programming logic. Only time will tell how much time it will take you.

[birbal]

Yup...its a good tip,...but i just wanna know how did you learn it? I mean to say....,how long you been learning all these languages? and how much time it took for you to gain perfect knowledge about the same??

Knowing the basic concepts is most important things. If you know that clearly you wont have any problems to grasp other things. working with API or functions (specialy talking about for php and js) realatively easy if the basic is clear enough. working with those language is basicaly working with its api/functions. once you got that basic you wont have any problems with using them. With little bit of imagination and google or with any other help you can find when and where to use those function acording yto your situation. and after that you need to check the manual. If you get used with the MANUALS you can make your own way. As shadowmage said its hard for someone to remember all the things. as much as you work with them and remember it you will move a step forward of learning. A good developer knows how to use the manual. As much you can put time on it you will gain as much of knowledge on it.

[jeffman]

Then there are the kinds of things that can only be learned through experience. Here are a few programming related items off the top of my head:knowing when to match a regular expression instead of a stringknowing when it is more efficient to use object-oriented programming or procedure-orientedknowing when it is efficient to isolate a code sequence into a separate functionknowing when it is efficient to use an anonymous function instead of a named functionknowing whether to choose a for, while, or do-while loopThat's a very incomplete of things that manuals don't/can't teach very well. I only mean to add this to the conversation: there's a big difference between knowing what a thing is and knowing when to use it.

[shreyaskudav]

Thats been great of you guys...many things i got to know which I didn't even heard about it....But while i was learning scripting...let me say like Javascript, there are many things which are added in the script which have no meaning at all...but still those things make the script run perfectly...What should be done about those things? should we have to memorize it or we need to make a habit of it?Let me take one example, like, the 'demo' in this script:

<script type="text/javascript">function displayDate(){document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML=Date();}</script>

whats the demo thing which makes the script run.?

[birbal]

there are many things which are added in the script which have no meaning at all...but still those things make the script run perfectly...

without any meaning script will not run perfectly as its intendent for.demo is string here. which is being passed as parameter in function getElementById().document is the object which has method getElementById() which returns a object node. that object node has a property named innerHTML. here the code is saying that take out the node from the document where the id of the node is "demo" and set his innerHTML.

[shreyaskudav]

without any meaning script will not run perfectly as its intendent for.demo is string here. which is being passed as parameter in function getElementById().document is the object which has method getElementById() which returns a object node. that object node has a property named innerHTML. here the code is saying that take out the node from the document where the id of the node is "demo" and set his innerHTML.

WoW...Whatever you explain..i don't think it was there on W3School's Tutorial...?How do you get these all things?

[birbal]

http://w3schools.com/jsref/dom_obj_document.asp <= you can find about document object if you look int the methods you will find getElemensByID()http://w3schools.com/jsref/dom_obj_all.asp <= here you can find commond element property and methods. if you look into it you can find the innerHTML property is there too.and about the string and parameters that you can find in basic js listed in w3schools.

[shreyaskudav]

Hey birbal, just one personal question..have you learnt these all things on Computer or you are studying it?

[jeffman]

document.getElementById is the most common function you will use when accessing data in your document. It gets a reference to a page element with a certain ID. In your line of code: document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML=Date();"demo" probably refers to a page element like this:<p id="demo"></p>There are many ways that JavaScript can refer to page elements. document.getElementById is the most common, and it ALWAYS works.

[shreyaskudav]

oh..god..By listening to all these stuff i don't think i have a complete knowledge even of HTML ... But know i need some guidance from you all..If I start from HTML from now (basically i have completed it before)and complete all the stuffs like advanced, reference etc..etc..then what would be the next language for learning...?

[jeffman]

I assume you are learning HTML and CSS together. Make sure you really master both of those.Most developers learn JavaScript next, because JavaScript also affects the appearance and behavior of documents. But it depends on your priorities.The other possibility is a server-side language like PHP. Many people learn the PHP API for MySql at the same time they learn PHP. This is not required, but having access to a database is a reason many people learn server-side scripting at all.Anyway, after HTML & CSS, the next choice is usually either JavaScript or a server-side language. I personally recommend JavaScript as the next step.

[birbal]

Hey birbal, just one personal question..have you learnt these all things on Computer or you are studying it?

i am studying for a degree in computer science now. Though web developing and related languages is not covered in it. I learnt web related languages from w3schools site and the looking up the manuals and with the help of this forum only.

[shreyaskudav]

I assume you are learning HTML and CSS together. Make sure you really master both of those.Most developers learn JavaScript next, because JavaScript also affects the appearance and behavior of documents. But it depends on your priorities.The other possibility is a server-side language like PHP. Many people learn the PHP API for MySql at the same time they learn PHP. This is not required, but having access to a database is a reason many people learn server-side scripting at all.Anyway, after HTML & CSS, the next choice is usually either JavaScript or a server-side language. I personally recommend JavaScript as the next step.

OK....but i have one question....While learning javascript there are many stuff what are not defined systematically along the tutorial, Indeed, we have to search it for somewhere else...where can i find those things and how?

i am studying for a degree in computer science now. Though web developing and related languages is not covered in it. I learnt web related languages from w3schools site and the looking up the manuals and with the help of this forum only.

OH....good ..My too Diploma is going start in Computer Technology from this month.I suppose you have got more then 85% in your Diploma Course, right?

[jeffman]

The W3Schools home page contains a link to a more complete JavaScript reference. There is a lot more information there. It is not 100% complete. I don't think a reference exists that is 100% complete.