JAVA, C, C++ or C#?

[beyonddc]

Do it the traditional way

C then C++ then JAVA then others...

Going this path you will appreciate the advantage that C++ brought over C and you will appreciate the advantage of JAVA brought over C++.

JAVA makes a lot of people LAZY b/c it takes care a lot of memory management for you. Start with C and C++ and learn about proper memory management then when you go into JAVA you will have that mindset already. Good luck

 

[PTNL]

Do it the traditional way

C then C++ then JAVA then others...

Going this path you will appreciate the advantage that C++ brought over C and you will appreciate the advantage of JAVA brought over C++.

JAVA makes a lot of people LAZY b/c it takes care a lot of memory management for you. Start with C and C++ and learn about proper memory management then when you go into JAVA you will have that mindset already. Good luck

Laziness is not endemic to a programming language. Poor implementation is just that, regardless of the language.

 

[eon]

ya I would be careful with Devry, I've heard mostly negative opinions about them from employers. And then some universities can screw you up, where many courses dont even include any form of programming.

 

[Recursion]

An engineering degree is good, but certainly does not guarantee a thing. Some of those calling you crazy are unemployed engineers.

No it doesn't guarantee a thing, but an engineering degree proves competence in complex problem solving. Something most other degree's dont. You would be surprised how few engineers are actually unemployed, as employment is rather easy.

An engineering degree will also allow one to advance to levels of IT that you just cant with other disciples or experience. Such as being Unix admin for critical systems, like on wallstreet. Every one of those guys has an engineering,physics or math degree.

 

[eon]

I'm pretty sure Computer Science offers plenty of complex problem solving

 

[Recursion]

I'm pretty sure Computer Science offers plenty of complex problem solving

At many schools, like the University I graduated from. CS is an Engineering degree. It would be equally as good.

 

[stevedave]

I'd say do C++ for a year then Java for a year and see which one you like better.

In my opinion learning the skills is 80% you 20% the school you go too and in terms of getting a job people skills is alway the most important.

College is separated into 2 groups Ivy and non Ivy.

With a non Ivy degree you will be able to submit your resume and it wont get filtered out. If your lucky you'll get picked out of the 4000 other non IVY degrees submitted for an interview. Then it relies on 30% technical knowledge 70% people skills like answering questions right and not looking like a douche.

For an Ivy degree people seek you out to work for them and it is then 10% tech 90% people skills that get you the job because obviously you have the knowledge you went to an IVY school.

 

[PTNL]

No it doesn't guarantee a thing, but an engineering degree proves competence in complex problem solving. Something most other degree's dont. You would be surprised how few engineers are actually unemployed, as employment is rather easy.

An engineering degree will also allow one to advance to levels of IT that you just cant with other disciples or experience. Such as being Unix admin for critical systems, like on wallstreet. Every one of those guys has an engineering,physics or math degree.

There are more factors that affect your anecdotal evidence than degree alone; some of which would be weighed heavier during a job interview for a critical Unix systems admin position. The main point I'm emphasizing is that a degree is not a "golden hammer".

 

[Recursion]

You're right, I didn't mean to make it sound like the key to success, but it can certainly help.

 

[jeoff_b]

There are more factors that affect your anecdotal evidence than degree alone; some of which would be weighed heavier during a job interview for a critical Unix systems admin position. The main point I'm emphasizing is that a degree is not a "golden hammer".

It may not be a golden hammer, but for someone like me, who only has only worked physical labor jobs all their life, it'll sure help when I apply. Sure maybe I'll have to be weeded out from 4000 candidates, but that's why I'm not screwing around and am actually getting good grades. If they can at least see that I'm willing to put in the effort to get a degree, then I'm sure they'd be a lot more willing to hire me rather than some joe blow who could know nothing when it comes to computers.

Besides all of this, it seems that with this whole economic crisis, employers are more willing to hire people with paperwork over experience. I've heard of people fresh out of university getting hired rather than the other guy who has no school experience, but has done that job for the last 10 years. It doesn't make sense to me, but if that's what it takes...

Thanks for all the input everyone btw. I'm still considering C# because a lot of what I want to do will be on windows, but I'm definitely considering changing that to C++ as that seems to be the most powerful. In the end I'm hoping to learn at least both of those (hopefully also learn enough c to get by and enough Java to be efficient in it.

 

[1.1.2.3.5...]

Want a tip?

Get an engineering degree. It will take you a lot further in life. Now there will be a number of people below me who call me crazy. They are nuts. Look into it. Its well worth the work put in.

I actually agree with this for an undergraduate degree. For my undergraduate degrees I have physics and mathematics with an minor in computer science. Which would be enough, I figured, but there are not a lot of job for either degree unless you have postdoc experience so I am now doing a master in math (go figure.) At nearly every job I applied for they wanted me to be a EE or ME. If I took either route a job would have been easy. Now I need to set my sights higher and go for actuary work.I suppose I could go software, but all the fun stuff requires you to be an EE. Funny that the EEs get better jobs in software than CS peps. Funny that MEs are more desirable at power plants than physics majors.

Oh well. I have a hellva CV at least...

 

[1.1.2.3.5...]

Thanks for all the input everyone btw. I'm still considering C# because a lot of what I want to do will be on windows, but I'm definitely considering changing that to C++ as that seems to be the most powerful. In the end I'm hoping to learn at least both of those (hopefully also learn enough c to get by and enough Java to be efficient in it.

C/C++, C# and java are all C like languages. The syntax is all very similar, but they have a lot of different ideas going on. The main thing about C# is that it was designed to work with the .NET platform. Of course VB also works with .NET as well as C++. If you want to write windows GUI apps, then it is certainly prudent to learn the .net platform. However, you can do this just as well with C++ as with C# or even VB.

The problem with C# is that it is mainly for windows. Mono is ok, but hardly ideal. If you learned C++ for .net you would be well on your way to learning C#. In fact I would say that if you got good at C++ for .net and understood the OOP aspects well, then jumping to C# would be a nobrainer. You can easily pick up ideas like the GC and other things and in fact you would better appreciate what a managed environment offers after having to deal cleaning up pointers yourself.

 

[Sufu]

I took classes for C, followed by C++ and some basic HTML. I managed to put my foot in the door at my current job by being able to create tools that are now used company wide, which are written in Python. I was not hired to be a programmer (i'd probably have been layed off, and my job shipped off to India by now), but my programming skills became invaluable for me.

Alot of the work I do with Python are also using C++ libraries (which are wrapped in Python's C Code). So I have to say C++ is the foundation of it all. If you learn C++, you will easily pickup other languages.