Software Engineering Stack Exchange
Software Engineering Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [learning]

OFF TOPIC QUESTIONS ARE NOT SUPPORTED! This tag is going away and is part of the STCI burnination effort.

OFF TOPIC QUESTIONS ARE NOT SUPPORTED!

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355 questions
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My Dad is impatient with the pace of my learning to program. What do I do?

So my Dad bought me 5 books on programming (C++, Java, PHP, Javascript, Android) about a month ago. He's an architect and he knows NOTHING about programming. He bought me them because I told him programming was fun and I wanted to learn it. As you…
David
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How can I find a good open source project to join?

I just started working a year ago, and I want to join an open source project for the same reasons as anyone else: help create something useful and develop my skills further. My problem is, I don't know how to find a project where I'll fit in. How…
Pops
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How can I teach a bright person, with no programming experience, how to program?

I have been asked to take a person in our IT department who has no programming experience but is a smart and capable person and help him move into programming at lets say an entry level developer supporting existing .Net applications. I definitely…
Richard Fantozzi
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11 answers

How can I make sure that I'm actually learning how to program rather than simply learning the details of a language?

I often hear that a real programmer can easily learn any language within a week. Languages are just tools for getting things done, I'm told. Programming is the ultimate skill that must be learned and mastered. How can I make sure that I'm actually…
Ryan
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12 answers

Do you spend your working hours on learning?

Do you spend your working hours learning new stuff, reading tech blogs, books on programming etc.? What's your opinion on it? Can an employer have benefits allowing developers to spend about 1-1.5 hrs a day on learning. Will it be repaid in future…
make_sense
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How do you learn Regular Expressions?

I'm not asking where to learn. I've found lots of good resources online, and books etc. But how the heck do I tackle them. Where is the start of it, the end? When does the regexp processor advance on the text, when does it hold its stand and tries…
dumbBoy
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26 answers

How do people read big technical books?

I see that most of the good programmers have the habit of reading big books for learning about technology. What does it really take to read technical books, apart from the real interest on the technology? How can I improve my ability to read these…
NLV
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17 answers

How important is self-teaching in the programming field?

I'm 16. I started programming about a year ago when I was about to start high-school. I'm going for a career in programming, and I'm doing my best to learn as much as I can. When I first started, I learned the basics of C++ from a book and I started…
Bugster
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What differentiates the exceptional programmers from the really good ones?

You know who they are. They are the rock stars of programming: They code 10X faster. Their code just works. They not only know their primary language inside and out, but they also know how it works under the hood. They know the answer to most…
Robert Harvey
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17 answers

What programming problems are best solved by using pointers?

Well, I basically understand how to use pointers, but not how best to use them in order to do better programming. What are good projects or problems to resolve involving the use of pointers so I can understand them better?
dsocolobsky
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When do you not give help to less experienced programmers?

Do you think that its a good idea when a junior programmer needs help to always jump in and try to educate them? Or will they ignore all the "teaching to fish" advice you give them and just focus on the "fish" you just brought them? Do you let them…
Doug T.
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I don't know C. And why should I learn it?

My first programming language was PHP (gasp). After that I started working with JavaScript. I've recently done work in C#. I've never once looked at low or mid level languages like C. The general consensus in the programming-community-at-large is…
Stephen
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moving from Windows to Linux

I need to reconcile these 2 facts: I don't feel comfortable working on Linux; I need to develop software for Linux. Some background: I have a 10+ years of programming experience on Windows (almost exclusively C/C++, but some .NET as well), I was a…
rincewind
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Where do you go to read good examples of source code?

I have heard a few people say that one of the best ways to improve your coding ability is to read others code and understand it. My question, as a relatively new programmer, where do I go to find good source code examples that are not too far over…
Jesse McCulloch
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How to correct a junior, but encourage him to think for himself?

I am the lead of a small team where everyone has less than a year of software development experience. I wouldn't by any means call myself a software guru, but I have learned a few things in the few years that I've been writing software. When we do…
Phil
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