ProgrammersitP

[Miscast_Mage]

So, I was wondering if there was anyone involved or wanting to get into programming in the playground, and just had a few questions:

• Where are you and what are you doing in terms of programming? Employment, education or in your spare time?
  
• What language or languages are you using primarily at the moment? What's your favourite, and why?
  
• Where do you hope to go with your programming? Any plans for the future, or just waiting to see if anything of interest comes along?
  
• Any projects, personal or otherwise, you're in the middle of? Anything you're really focused on?
  
• What environment do you work/prefer to work in? Netbeans/Eclipse/Command line and a text editor?
  
• Any problems that are driving you mad? A piece of code not compiling right, or being off by one, or one little syntax error in a sea of code? Not quite grasping the logic of a particular piece of code?
  

For myself:

• Doing a 8-ish month course on java at the moment, and I've done a year of computer applications before.
  
• Java is pretty much my bread and butter at the moment, but I have some skill with html(yes I know it's not a programming language. Hush.) and I've been peeking into in C and C++ lately.
  
• Hoping to get a full time job as a fully certified programmer, though methinks that's a while off.
  
• Apart from the odd random idea such a coin counter or dice game in java, I've been seeing about doing something in Danmakufu, like this, though I'm still quite a novice that regard. I'm also hoping to eventually develop a small roguelike game, though the notion of it rather terrifies me.
  
• I started with compiling and running on the command line on linux, and I'll die with the command line, though I'm trying to get used to Netbeans at the moment.
  
• I'm having a rather annoying problem with Java; for most of my old code from college, I had used the console commands to read in strings/ints/etc from the user on the command line. I've only recently started coding again, but for the life of me I can't find out how to set up or import the console util, or the graphics util for some of my other code for that matter; this is regardless of whether I use command line, Eclipse or Netbeans. Any help would be much appreciated.
  

So yeah, any programmers in the playground? If so, speak up.

Oh, and I may randomly post interesting bits of code, if people need them, or if there's something about them bugging me; things like this:

//Works as planned when tested, values come out
 		//correctly. Originally thought a while loop was
		//needed, but realised that wouldn't be the case when 
		//using the / and % arithmetic operators. Works for 
		//values above 99, just giving out more 50's. Unsure 
		//if a restriction is needed on the money entered, 
		//but an if statement could be used.

public class Change //
{
	public static void main(String[] a) //main class
	{
		System.out.println("Enter amount of cents: ");	//gets user to input amount of money in cents
		int centsx = Console.readInt();	//code to translate 1 euro = 100 cent could also be used

		int cents50 = (centsx / 50);
		//First line finds the value to print out. Eg, if 99 cent, this will print 1.
		int cents50Remain = (centsx % 50);
		//Second line finds the remainder to send to the next line. Eg if 99 cent, this will divide by 50, 
		//and send remainder(49) to next line of code.

		int cents20 = (cents50Remain / 20);
		//Uses the remainder from the above line to repeat the First line for the 20cent value.
		int cents20Remain = (cents50Remain % 20);

		int cents10 = (cents20Remain / 10);
		int cents10Remain = (cents20Remain % 10);

		int cents5 = (cents10Remain / 5);
		int cents5Remain = (cents10Remain % 5);
	
		int cents2 = (cents5Remain / 2);
		int cents2Remain = (cents5Remain % 2);
	
		int cents1 = (cents2Remain / 1);
		int cents1Remain = (cents2Remain % 1);

		System.out.println("50: " + cents50);	//These print out of the number of each coin that was calculate
		System.out.println("20: " + cents20);
		System.out.println("10: " + cents10);
		System.out.println("5: " + cents5);
		System.out.println("2: " + cents2);
		System.out.println("1: " + cents1);
		//More organised when grouped together, as opposed to
		//int cents50 = (centsx / 50);
		//int cents50Remain = (centsx % 50);
		//System.out.println("50: " + cents50);
		
		//A while or for loop may be possible to use here with a break; command. Will have to try out.
	}

}

[Tyndmyr]

• Where are you and what are you doing in terms of programming? Employment, education or in your spare time? It's my job, has been for, oh, eight years or so now. Went to college a bit for it, could use some more certifications and stuff.
  
• What language or languages are you using primarily at the moment? What's your favourite, and why? For work? Java. At home, I use C#. Don't really have a favorite per se, just different things I prefer in different situations.
  
• Where do you hope to go with your programming? Any plans for the future, or just waiting to see if anything of interest comes along? Getting back into java webapp/web service coding...probably going to pick up one of these attribution based frameworks.
  
• Any projects, personal or otherwise, you're in the middle of? Anything you're really focused on? I have roughly a million unfinished projects at the moment, but right now, my focus is on 3d modeling/printing, so coding projects are being mostly ignored.
  
• What environment do you work/prefer to work in? Netbeans/Eclipse/Command line and a text editor? Eclipse/Visual Studio. Nothing terribly creative, I'm afraid, but it makes it super easy to swap workstations. That said, I am terribly fond of TortoiseSVN.

[Razanir]

• Where are you and what are you doing in terms of programming? Employment, education or in your spare time?
  Odd tasks in my free time
  
• What language or languages are you using primarily at the moment? What's your favourite, and why?
  I primarily use Java, but also know some C++ and Python
  
• Where do you hope to go with your programming? Any plans for the future, or just waiting to see if anything of interest comes along?
  Nothing in particular yet
  
• Any projects, personal or otherwise, you're in the middle of? Anything you're really focused on?
  I was programming a Chrome extension, but they won't accept Java applets. Anyone want to help convert it to JavaScript?
  
• What environment do you work/prefer to work in? BlueJ or a command line
  
• Any problems that are driving you mad? A piece of code not compiling right, or being off by one, or one little syntax error in a sea of code? Not quite grasping the logic of a particular piece of code?
  Like I said before- Chrome doesn't allow Java applets in extensions
  

[Knight13]

•Where are you and what are you doing in terms of programming? Employment, education or in your spare time?

Got my BS in Comp Sci and I've been working for a company as a programmer for 3 years now.

•What language or languages are you using primarily at the moment? What's your favourite, and why?

In high school and college I mostly used Java, along with a sprinkling of other languages. At my current job, my primary language is C#, along with some ASP.Net (I primarily work with web pages) and I've recently been getting into javascript. I also work with SQL databases. My favorite language right now is C#, it's like Java except it's even easier to get it to do what you want.

•Where do you hope to go with your programming? Any plans for the future, or just waiting to see if anything of interest comes along?

I've been looking for a new job lately, since this one doesn't pay enough. I'm also looking to move away from web-based stuff. I would like to work for a game company eventually, but that's kind of a vague goal at this point.

•What environment do you work/prefer to work in? Netbeans/Eclipse/Command line and a text editor?

I use Visual Studio at this job, though I used to use Eclipse back in high school and college.

[Whoracle]

• Where are you and what are you doing in terms of programming? Employment, education or in your spare time?
  
• What language or languages are you using primarily at the moment? What's your favourite, and why?
  
• Where do you hope to go with your programming? Any plans for the future, or just waiting to see if anything of interest comes along?
  
• Any projects, personal or otherwise, you're in the middle of? Anything you're really focused on?
  
• What environment do you work/prefer to work in? Netbeans/Eclipse/Command line and a text editor?
  
• Any problems that are driving you mad? A piece of code not compiling right, or being off by one, or one little syntax error in a sea of code? Not quite grasping the logic of a particular piece of code?
  

• Mostly spare time, a little bit due to employment.
  
  
• Primarily I use python and bash, and I know my way around the following, at least a little bit:
  PHP, HTML, CSS (yeah, I know. Shush.), C, C++, JS, Java, D, perl, lua, C#, LotusScript and BASIC.
  Python's my favourite, since it's great for rapid prototyping and easily readable. Granted, its performance isn't too great, but for quick demonstrations it's great. Also, the various toolkit bindings are good.
  
  
• I'm quite content with where I am, to be honest. With the current trend of "everything must run in a browser" and such, I'm not too sure if I like where programming is going. Oh, the days where you at least tried to code clean and elegant, and didn't just steamroll code problems with MOAR CYCLES and MOAR RAM!
  
  
• I've got two projects:
  A procedural 3D-Landscape engine (I blame Shamus Young for that.
  And a 2D action adventure engine/editor/framework a la Secret Of Mana.
  Both get the occasional big push, when I manage to get some consecutive free time, but nothing I follow with any determination.
  
  
• Under Windows: Notepad++.
  Under Linux: vim/urxvt and sometimes geany. Simple, clean and powerful. Just as I like it.
  
  
• Trying to understand computing surface normals. I've seen many implementations of it, and shoved some of them right into my codebase. I think I managed to understand the underlying principle. But I just can't get it right.
  Threading in Python. Most of the times it works, but time and again I've run into snags that _should_ have worked...

[Teddy]

So, since I seriously don't feel like doing a list...

I'm currently working toward a master in Information Technology (I've just begun my second year out of five), and so far, I've learned programming in SML and MIPS assembly, and we've just recently begun with C. Later this school year, we'll be getting into Java as well, but I already know a fairly decent amount of that since earlier, and I use it whenever I've got a hobby project to work on.

My goals for the future are mostly learning as much as possible (going strong so far), and then getting a job somewhere. I don't really care much about where I end up for as long as the tasks provide me a suitable challenge, but I suppose a good salary would be nice as well. I'm currently working on a computer game as well, and I aim to finish that one in a few years. I'm not sure about making my career in the gaming industry, but I can kind of see myself as a part-time indie game developer if things work out well in that direction. Then again, my primary goal on that front is to get anything done at all, so any eventual delusion of grandeur can wait until then.

When it comes to programming, I've used all manners of environments, mostly depending on what language I'm working in at the moment. During school, I mostly use Emacs, which I find just as infuriating as it's helpful. At home, I'm using DrJava, which is what I started learning Java in, and I haven't bothered with an upgrade.

My biggest problem with programming isn't anything code-related per se, but rather my inability to figure out how to go about making my game. I do have achieved some progress, and I still am, but it's going terribly slow, just because I can't figure out from which direction I should attack it.

[Miklus]

[QUOTE=Miscast_Mage;13845328]

• Where are you and what are you doing in terms of programming? Employment, education or in your spare time?
  
• What language or languages are you using primarily at the moment? What's your favourite, and why?
  
• Where do you hope to go with your programming? Any plans for the future, or just waiting to see if anything of interest comes along?
  
• Any projects, personal or otherwise, you're in the middle of? Anything you're really focused on?
  
• What environment do you work/prefer to work in? Netbeans/Eclipse/Command line and a text editor?
  
• Any problems that are driving you mad? A piece of code not compiling right, or being off by one, or one little syntax error in a sea of code? Not quite grasping the logic of a particular piece of code?
  

[QUOTE]

I'm a pro, in that they pay me to do it.

C/C++ because that that the codebase is in.

Plans for the future...oh gods, my career...I'm gonna be a programmer forever, ain't I?

We work in Visual studio.

My fellow programmers drive me nuts. They have egos the size of zeppeliners. But I don't think they are all that. For example, they just recently discovered that their home-made memory management system is f-ed up and have been since day one. It is actually possible for two parts of the program to get their data mixed up! Even worse, they can't fix it because the entire concept don't work. They just did some work-around so that the program deliberately crashes itself if the memory gets screwed up. That way, they avoid a potentially catastrophic data-mix up!

Today the head zeppeliner waddles over to me and accuses me of making dup code (two parts of the program is exactly identical). That is not too bad, it is just redundant. But the part that I had supposedly dupped from somewhere else in the program was actually in a file that I had stolen off the internet and used unchanged. How curious. The only explanation is that the guys I stole from in turn stole their code from the same place that the head zeppelin stole HIS code from.

And so the world goes around.

[olelia]

So, I was wondering if there was anyone involved or wanting to get into programming in the playground, and just had a few questions:

• Where are you and what are you doing in terms of programming? Employment, education or in your spare time?
  
• What language or languages are you using primarily at the moment? What's your favourite, and why?
  
• Where do you hope to go with your programming? Any plans for the future, or just waiting to see if anything of interest comes along?
  
• Any projects, personal or otherwise, you're in the middle of? Anything you're really focused on?
  
• What environment do you work/prefer to work in? Netbeans/Eclipse/Command line and a text editor?
  
• Any problems that are driving you mad? A piece of code not compiling right, or being off by one, or one little syntax error in a sea of code? Not quite grasping the logic of a particular piece of code?
  

For myself:

• BS in comp science. Been working at a company for two years now.
  
• My primary programming language is SQL Server and VB.net. I know enough about C# to read it proficiently but wouldn't trust myself to code in it.
  
• I'm currently happy with my company and they are extremely happy with me. If I got some time of once in a life time opportunity, like a job at a gaming company, I'd grab it...otherwise I don't current have plans to leave.
  
• My current big project is designing a report that heavily utilizes dynamic components in its variables...but the trick is it isn't using dynamic sql...just overly complicated filters and selections.
  
• Visual Studio is my favorite but thats mostly because I'm lazy
  
• Currently my main problem includes our IT department. My job requires nearly unlimited access to work efficiently...but...they like to hedge me out as much as possible since i'm not One of them
  

[RunicLGB]

• Where are you and what are you doing in terms of programming? Employment, education or in your spare time?
  
• What language or languages are you using primarily at the moment? What's your favourite, and why?
  
• Where do you hope to go with your programming? Any plans for the future, or just waiting to see if anything of interest comes along?
  
• Any projects, personal or otherwise, you're in the middle of? Anything you're really focused on?
  
• What environment do you work/prefer to work in? Netbeans/Eclipse/Command line and a text editor?
  
• Any problems that are driving you mad? A piece of code not compiling right, or being off by one, or one little syntax error in a sea of code? Not quite grasping the logic of a particular piece of code?
  

• I'm in Las Vegas, and currently going to CSN to learn programming.
  
• Taking classes in both C and Visual basic right now.
  
• The Dream is to somehow become involved with Video Game Development, thats what I've wanted to do since I was like 9 years old. If that (in all likleyhood) doesn't pan out, its a good thing I just enjoy programming for its own sake.
  
• Not really.
  
• Couldn't say, I don't really have enough experience to know what you're talking about.
  
• Not at this time, but I hope this thread could become a new and valuable resource for expert advice and communal learning.

[Emmerask]

So, I was wondering if there was anyone involved or wanting to get into programming in the playground, and just had a few questions:

• Where are you and what are you doing in terms of programming? Employment, education or in your spare time?
  
• What language or languages are you using primarily at the moment? What's your favourite, and why?
  
• Where do you hope to go with your programming? Any plans for the future, or just waiting to see if anything of interest comes along?
  
• Any projects, personal or otherwise, you're in the middle of? Anything you're really focused on?
  
• What environment do you work/prefer to work in? Netbeans/Eclipse/Command line and a text editor?
  
• Any problems that are driving you mad? A piece of code not compiling right, or being off by one, or one little syntax error in a sea of code? Not quite grasping the logic of a particular piece of code?
  

Mostly freelancing for various companies, the biggest organization I´ve worked for so far would be the who.

Primarily Java, Ruby, php.

What I really would like to do would be e-sport related stuff or game design (not the coding part^^), but having a job that pays pretty well is enough atm.

I started and semi completed a d&d java tool that functions both for editing a map and playing on it, atm though I have not enough time to do anything with it.

For java I have tried pretty much anything from netbeans to eclipse but the single most awesome ide is IntelliJ, I cannot recommend it enough for any java projects!

[Miscast_Mage]

My, quite a bunch of programmers we've got.

So, platform-wise for java, there does seem to be quite a lot. So far we've got:

• Eclipse
• Netbeans
• Intellij
• BlueJ
• Visual studio, possibly?(Not sure if you can compile/run java with it.)
• And obviously the command line and a text editor. =3

Do anything of them have any particular features that the others lack? Anything that says "Use me! Use me!" over the other options?

And just a personal question here; do any of them handle console commands or importing the console class? All of my old code uses the console class for inputting data from the command line in linux, but trying to recompile or rerun them now, I constantly get a "class cannot be found" error. It's probably a case of not importing or setting up the class right, but it's still causing me a bit of grief. In class at the mo, so I'll see about getting the specific error when I get home tonight if anyone thinks they can help.

I've been meaning to look into getting started with databases(with java), and I've seen a few different choices; HSQLDB, Java DB, JDBC... What would be best suited for someone who hasn't touched databases before? Any good tutorials or information about them? The only thing I've found(and have yet to look at) is Manga Guide to Databases.

[shawnhcorey]

Yeah, I program computers. I don't do Windows¹. I usually do web development on Linux servers.

¹ Programming in Windows is like trying to run a marathon while pulling a bus in an ice storm.

[Dusk Eclipse]

I might as well ask here, I am having trouble with a loop for my programming course at University.

The program is supposed to help teachers capture Students data for the course, the data that is needed to capture is:
Name, carreer, term and register number.

Right now I only have to make the pseudocode and a flow chart diagram.
Now my problem is that the number of students per course is variable and I have to make an input for the number of students. I thought a while loop (While X <=number of students per course, capture data); but I don't see how I can make it so the program automatically declare different variables based on the number of students input.

Am I making sense?

[Miscast_Mage]

Wel'p, I'm an idiot. I figured out what I was doing wrong with trying to get the console class to work in Netbeans;
I had the console.java file in the project that I wanted to use it in, but it turns out I didn't have the package name in the console file, and it wasn't recognising it.
It works perfectly with the package name added in, but I didn't realise this; the progress bar just said "running", so I assumed it was looking for the class and it couldn't be found. Turns out, it was waiting for input, and now I feel silly.

I might as well ask here, I am having trouble with a loop for my programming course at University.

The program is supposed to help teachers capture Students data for the course, the data that is needed to capture is:
Name, carreer, term and register number.

Right now I only have to make the pseudocode and a flow chart diagram.
Now my problem is that the number of students per course is variable and I have to make an input for the number of students. I thought a while loop (While X <=number of students per course, capture data); but I don't see how I can make it so the program automatically declare different variables based on the number of students input.

Am I making sense?

First off, what language are you using? I only really know about java, so my suggestions are coming from there, primarily.

Also, I'm not quite sure what you mean by

declare different variables based on the number of students input.

I'm assuming you mean take in different variables for each "student", right?

My first guess would be using a constructor called getStudent

Spoiler

Show

class Student
{
        String forename;
        String surname;
        String career;
        int term;
        int registerNumber;



        void getStudent()	//class constructor. Takes in these parameters.
       {
  	      forename = Console.readToken();
	      surname = Console.readToken();
	      career = Console.readString();
              term = Console.readInt();
              registerNumber = Console.readInt();
       }
}

Here's a sample code of something I did, that sounds a bit similar to what you want:

Spoiler

Show

class Person2
{
	String forename;
	String surname;
	char gender;
	int age;

	void getPerson()
	{
		forename = Console.readToken();
		surname = Console.readToken();
		gender = Console.readChar();
		age = Console.readInt();
	}

	void putPerson()
	{
		System.out.println(forename + ", " + surname + " " + gender + " " + age);
	}
	
	boolean isYoungMale()
	{
		if(gender == 'm' && age >= 20 && age <= 30)
			return true;
		else
			return false;
	}

	boolean isYoungFemale()
	{
		if(gender == 'f' && age >= 18 && age <= 28)
			return true;
		else
			return false;
	}

	boolean isEligible()
	{
		if(isYoungMale() || isYoungFemale())
			return true;
		else
			return false;
	}

	public static void main (String [] args)
	{
		int num = 0;
		while(!Console.endOfFile())
		{
			Person test = new Person();
			test.getPerson();
			test.putPerson();
			if(test.isEligible())
				num++;

		}
		System.out.println("number of eligibles: " + num);
	}
};

Basically, what it is does is, is read in from a file(using the command line), constructs a constructor/pseudo-method(is object also correct terminology for this?) called getStudent from the information taken in, tests these objects against a few boolean methods, and if they're eligible, a number is added to a counter, which is printed at the end.

Hope that any of that was of help, Dusk Eclipse.

Edit: Ah, sorry, I missed something in what you said. How are you inputting the actual student information? If it's from a file, you could use while(!Console.endOfFile) like I did in my example, if you have the console class. There should be something similar if you don't, though I wouldn't know what it is, sadly.

[Dusk Eclipse]

First of all thanks.

Right now I am not using a set language, just pseudo-code and Raptor (which from what I understand is an Flow Chart Interpreter), though I think we will start with Java or C++ after we finish this project.

What I need, is say the user declares that there are 5 students in the course, now my loop should well loop 5 times. In each loop it should ask for Name, Register number and career. My problem is that I don't know how to make that within that loop, the name, career and register number is set to a different variable each time (so on the first loop name, career and register number would be n1, c1, rn1 and on the second would be n2, c2, rn2, and so on) without me having to write and arbitrary number.

Does that makes more sense?

[shawnhcorey]

I might as well ask here, I am having trouble with a loop for my programming course at University.

The program is supposed to help teachers capture Students data for the course, the data that is needed to capture is:
Name, carreer, term and register number.

Right now I only have to make the pseudocode and a flow chart diagram.
Now my problem is that the number of students per course is variable and I have to make an input for the number of students. I thought a while loop (While X <=number of students per course, capture data); but I don't see how I can make it so the program automatically declare different variables based on the number of students input.

Am I making sense?

Kind of.

If you're using a modern scripting language like Perl or Python, they have built-in auto-expanding arrays that can be easily used for this type of operation.

However, just loading the data into memory seldom serves any useful purpose. What do you intend to do with this data?

[Miklus]

First of all thanks.

Right now I am not using a set language, just pseudo-code and Raptor (which from what I understand is an Flow Chart Interpreter), though I think we will start with Java or C++ after we finish this project.

What I need, is say the user declares that there are 5 students in the course, now my loop should well loop 5 times. In each loop it should ask for Name, Register number and career. My problem is that I don't know how to make that within that loop, the name, career and register number is set to a different variable each time (so on the first loop name, career and register number would be n1, c1, rn1 and on the second would be n2, c2, rn2, and so on) without me having to write and arbitrary number.

Does that makes more sense?

Looks like you need to build a list? You make a struct with one students data (like that class miscast mage did) and inside the loop you allocate one of these structs per student. A list seems to be the way to go when the number of students is variable. Or you could use an array if you make sure it is long enough. But with variable amount of data, the array is either too big or not big enough. The beauty of a list is that you need not keep a variable for how many students there are, you can just count the number of elements in the list.

1) Promt user for student data
2) Put data into student data struct
3) Hitch data struct to end of list
4) Repeat until user gets bored with this

So you don't need to promt the user for how many students there are beforehand.

Anyway, we had this big audit yesterday. One customer, how is, like, the world fifth largest medico company decide to audit your software quality insurance systems. So they send these two external consultents. Much hilarity ensued.

Consultant: "Where are the program files stored?"
Boss: "Here, on the development server."
Consultant: "...uhm, why is the servers electronics showing?"
Boss: "It's just the cover that has been taken off. So it gets more air."

[Dusk Eclipse]

Kind of.

If you're using a modern scripting language like Perl or Python, they have built-in auto-expanding arrays that can be easily used for this type of operation.

However, just loading the data into memory seldom serves any useful purpose. What do you intend to do with this data?

With the data I have gathered in the first part of the project I have to run some calculation (average grade, highest grade, lowest grade and the like); but right now I only need to be able to run this loop.

Looks like you need to build a list? You make a struct with one students data (like that class miscast mage did) and inside the loop you allocate one of these structs per student. A list seems to be the way to go when the number of students is variable. Or you could use an array if you make sure it is long enough. But with variable amount of data, the array is either too big or not big enough. The beauty of a list is that you need not keep a variable for how many students there are, you can just count the number of elements in the list.

1) Promt user for student data
2) Put data into student data struct
3) Hitch data struct to end of list
4) Repeat until user gets bored with this

So you don't need to promt the user for how many students there are beforehand.

Anyway, we had this big audit yesterday. One customer, how is, like, the world fifth largest medico company decide to audit your software quality insurance systems. So they send these two external consultents. Much hilarity ensued.

Consultant: "Where are the program files stored?"
Boss: "Here, on the development server."
Consultant: "...uhm, why is the servers electronics showing?"
Boss: "It's just the cover that has been taken off. So it gets more air."

I really love all the help I am getting; but this is for an Introductory course and I am really rusty on programing, so while I kinda recognize some of the things you are talking me about I don't know how to implement it.

[shawnhcorey]

With the data I have gathered in the first part of the project I have to run some calculation (average grade, highest grade, lowest grade and the like); but right now I only need to be able to run this loop.

I thought so. You can do this in the input loop. Just store the highest, lowest, running total, count, etc. for each statistic you're interested in. You don't need to store every record. After the loop, calculate and print out the statistics.

[Maxios]

Do any of you know how to code in the Free!Unreal Engine?

[Knight13]

Couple question, Dusk Eclipse

First, does the user actually input the number of students that they're requesting data for or do they just go "get me all the students in this class"? If it's the former, you know ahead of time how many rows of student data you're going to be retrieving, so you can just put that input value in an int variable to determine the size of your array (or whatever data structure you're going to be putting this in).

Second, where is this student data you need to retrieve going to be coming from? Are you requesting it from a database or is it just stored in a spreadsheet file or something?

What I need, is say the user declares that there are 5 students in the course, now my loop should well loop 5 times. In each loop it should ask for Name, Register number and career. My problem is that I don't know how to make that within that loop, the name, career and register number is set to a different variable each time (so on the first loop name, career and register number would be n1, c1, rn1 and on the second would be n2, c2, rn2, and so on) without me having to write and arbitrary number.

You don't need to make separate variables for all of this data. From the looks of it, I would say that a 2-dimensional array should work fine. If you're going to be using something like C#, I would even recommend a Datatable.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Couple question, Dusk Eclipse

First, does the user actually input the number of students that they're requesting data for or do they just go "get me all the students in this class"? If it's the former, you know ahead of time how many rows of student data you're going to be retrieving, so you can just put that input value in an int variable to determine the size of your array (or whatever data structure you're going to be putting this in).

The user has to input everything (that is my main problem)

Second, where is this student data you need to retrieve going to be coming from? Are you requesting it from a database or is it just stored in a spreadsheet file or something?

For the purpose of this project, the data is arbitrary, entirely made up by the user and it won't be stored once the Program ends running..

You don't need to make separate variables for all of this data. From the looks of it, I would say that a 2-dimensional array should work fine. If you're going to be using something like C#, I would even recommend a Datatable.
I can't use arrays, because well I don't know how to program this

Answers in bold.

And it seems I didn't explain my problem properly, first this is not the entire program, just a start and I only need the pseudocode and a flow chart to give in tomorrow to my teacher

Here is what I have already in pseudocode (some parts are in Spanish as I am mexican and the class is in spanish; but it shouldnt affect the read-ability of the "code") and based on this, I have to draw a flow chart.

Spoiler

Show

1 Start
2 Print “Numero de alumnos en el curso”
3 Input nac
4 Print “Nombre del Alumno”
5 Input NombreAlu
6 Print “Introduce Matricula”
7Input Matricula
8 Print “ Introduce Carrera”
8 Input Carrera
9 Print “Semestre Enero-Mayo 2012 (EM) o Semestre Agosto-Diciembre 2012 (AD)”
10 Input sem
11 If Semestre= EM then sem=PrimerSemestre
Else sem=Segundosemestre.
12 Print “Introduce Nombre de Materia 1”
13 Input nm1
14 Print “Introduce Calificación”
15 Input cal1
16 Print “Introduce Nombre de Materia 2”
17 Input nm2
18 Print “Introduce Calificación”
19 Input cal2
20 Print “Introduce Nombre de Materia 3”
21 Input nm3
22 Print “Introduce Calificación”
23 Input cal3
24 Print “Introduce Nombre de Materia 4”
25 Input nm4
26 Print “Introduce Calificación”
27 Input cal4
28 Print “Introduce Nombre de Materia5”
29 Input nm5
30 Print “Introduce Calificación”
31 Input cal5
32 Print “Introduce Nombre de Materia 6”
34 Input nm6
35 Print “Introduce Calificación”
36 Input cal6
37 end

[pendell]

So, I was wondering if there was anyone involved or wanting to get into programming in the playground, and just had a few questions:

• Where are you and what are you doing in terms of programming? Employment, education or in your spare time?
  

• Full time senior software engineer at my company. I report directly to the CTO. While there are other people at my level, none of them have the time in grade I do and they didn't write the fundamental system architecture.
  
  

• What language or languages are you using primarily at the moment? What's your favourite, and why?

[shawnhcorey]

Here is what I have already in pseudocode (some parts are in Spanish as I am mexican and the class is in spanish; but it shouldnt affect the read-ability of the "code") and based on this, I have to draw a flow chart.

Try this:

Spoiler

Show

# Loop to input student records

loop:

	print "Enter another record [yN] ? "
	input answer
	exit loop if answer equal 'y' or 'yes'

	create record for student

	print "enter the student name "
	input name
	add name to student record

	print "How many grades? "
	input grades
	add number_of_grades to student record

	for 1 to grades
		create record for grade

		print "Enter subject "
		input subject
		add subject to grade

		print "Enter grade "
		input score
		add score to grade

		add grade to student record

	next for

next loop

[Dusk Eclipse]

Try this:

Spoiler

Show

# Loop to input student records

loop:

	print "Enter another record [yN] ? "
	input answer
	exit loop if answer equal 'y' or 'yes'

	create record for student

	print "enter the student name "
	input name
	add name to student record

	print "How many grades? "
	input grades
	add number_of_grades to student record

	for 1 to grades
		create record for grade

		print "Enter subject "
		input subject
		add subject to grade

		print "Enter grade "
		input score
		add score to grade

		add grade to student record

	next for

next loop

Wow that is perfect, thanks

[Whoracle]

So, Dusk, without knowing in which language you're gonna have to code that exercise, it's kinda hard to help you out there. Also, you don't know what an array is or how to use one? In that case, though highly unlikely, have you heard of classes? (Don't laugh, my first programming course at university taught us classes WAY before arrays. Yes, it was a Java course. No, it didn't really teach me anything.)

Either way, in pseudocode, it'd look roughly like this (including commments, code might be a bit pythonesque):

Spoiler

Show

Uncommented blob:

int studentCount
int traitCount

traitCount = readline("Enter amount of different data sets you want to capture: ")
studentCount = readline("Enter student count: ")

string traits[traitCount]
array students[studentCount]

int i
int j

for (i in range(0,studentCount)) {
  for (j i range(0,traitCount)) {
    traits[j] = readline("Enter value of trait #" + j + ":");
  }
  students[i] = traits;
}

print(student[1][2]) 

And now, with comments:

# we need one integer to store our amount of students
int studentCount
# we need one integer to store our amount of traits, so we don't have to 
# type a line for each trait later. Might be redundant, but I like to think
# it's more elegant. Correct me, I dare you :)
int traitCount

# here we get user input (the readline part) and store it into the vars
traitCount = readline("Enter amount of different data sets you want to capture: ")
studentCount = readline("Enter student count: ")

# here we declare 2 arrays (denoted by the [] after the var name)
# usually, arrays are declared in the following way:
# data varname[size_of_array]
#
# think of one such array as a key->value pair
#
# we need two since we want to iterate over both the traits and the amount 
# of students

# traits is an array of strings, since we'll most likely store strings in them.
# note that this is really broken down to basics, since you'd either use a 
# struct in strict type languages, or won't bother declaring datatypes in less 
# strict ones.
# So now we have a nice array the size of our traits that we can store data in.
string traits[traitCount]

# next up is something interesting. We want to store our data in distinct 
# blobs, so we know each student has exactly n traits. What I do here
# could be seen as a crude implementation of _some_ base traits of classes,
# which is something I won't go into detail here, since you either already 
# know this, or won't have a clue, in which case explaining this'd take too
# long
# What we do is create an array that stores arrays and is as big as our 
# amount of students.
array students[studentCount]

# Whew. With all that magic done, all that's left is the surprisingly 
# straigthforward implementation of the loop:

# we need two counter vars for the loops
int i
int j

# run from 0 to stundentCount, incrementing i with each iteration.
# this means we go through exactly studentCount iterations.
for (i in range(0,studentCount)) {
  # run from 0 to traitCount, incrementing j with each iteration
  # this means we go through exactly traitCount iterations
  for (j i range(0,traitCount)) {
    # during each run through the inner loop, which means once per trait,
    # ask for user input and store it in traits[j].
    # e.g. traits[0] = Anne // trait 1 would be the given name
    #       traits[1] = Smith // trait 2 would be the surname etc.
    traits[j] = readline("Enter value of trait #" + j + ":");
  }

  # at this point in our loop we have a completely filled traits-array for one 
  # student, since we went through the whole inner loop before going on
  # with that said, all that's left is storing our fresh array in our students array
  # for proper usage later.
  students[i] = traits;
}

# example code for printing out student1 and his trait 2:
print(student[1][2]) 

Note that this IS pseudocode and it's viability and simplicity is wildly dependent on the language used.

I can hammer out a python implementation if you like somewhen tomorrow.
Also, bask in the glory that is commented code. You won't be seeing much of that in the wild, unless you manage to get hired by a GOOD company.

Also: It was hard to write, it should be hard to read

Edit: curse you, shawnhcorey! Also, bump so the board acknowledges my post :)

[Neftren]

So, I was wondering if there was anyone involved or wanting to get into programming in the playground, and just had a few questions:

• Where are you and what are you doing in terms of programming? Employment, education or in your spare time?
  
• What language or languages are you using primarily at the moment? What's your favourite, and why?
  
• Where do you hope to go with your programming? Any plans for the future, or just waiting to see if anything of interest comes along?
  
• Any projects, personal or otherwise, you're in the middle of? Anything you're really focused on?
  
• What environment do you work/prefer to work in? Netbeans/Eclipse/Command line and a text editor?
  
• Any problems that are driving you mad? A piece of code not compiling right, or being off by one, or one little syntax error in a sea of code? Not quite grasping the logic of a particular piece of code?
  

Squeee! This looks fun!

I'm moving towards a dual degree in Computer Science and Game Design (and I might add a third in Cognitive Science, just for fun, but we'll see). I primarily program in C/C++, and I do web and game development in Python. I actually hate programming with a burning, fiery passion, but it's a means to where I want to end up, so I'm living with it.

Projects! I'm currently working on a blog platform built on Google App Engine. It's basically a WSGI environment with a Google High-Replication Datastore atttached to it instead of using MySQL.

Hmm... favorite development environment... Sublime Text reigns supreme methinks, for a Text/Code editor. For more advanced programs, I typically turn to XCode for an IDE, though you'll probably have to A) buy an Apple computer, and B) fiddle with the settings if you want to do any language other than C/C++/Obj. C.


As for things driving me nuts... well, I put together a basic WSGI application on Google's App Engine SDK; it runs excellently on the local (emulated/virtual) development server, but totally flops over when deployed on a live server. The datastores don't seem to interface in exactly the same way...

[Knight13]

Oh, okay. So you're just using user-generated input to calculate output. Heh, I'm flashing back to high school. Well, if shawnhcorey's pseudocode is what you need, then great. Let us know if you need help with the actual coding. I still think an array is your best bet, they really aren't complicated to set up and use.

[Lensman]

So, I was wondering if there was anyone involved or wanting to get into programming in the playground, and just had a few questions:

• Where are you and what are you doing in terms of programming? Employment, education or in your spare time?
  
• What language or languages are you using primarily at the moment? What's your favourite, and why?
  
• Where do you hope to go with your programming? Any plans for the future, or just waiting to see if anything of interest comes along?
  
• Any projects, personal or otherwise, you're in the middle of? Anything you're really focused on?
  
• What environment do you work/prefer to work in? Netbeans/Eclipse/Command line and a text editor?
  
• Any problems that are driving you mad? A piece of code not compiling right, or being off by one, or one little syntax error in a sea of code? Not quite grasping the logic of a particular piece of code?
  

Gulp. I feel old.

I started programming on a BBC Microcomputer, in Basic. I wrote programs for fun and as aids for roleplaying. No "environment" - just direct program writing, with line numbers and "RUN" at the command prompt.

Then Windows came along. I got Visual Basic 4 - it was amazing! I could write really sophisticated, impressive-looking programs. I really, really liked VB4. It was simple, the dialect was close enough to my old BBC basic that I could handle it with ease, and it had so much additional material and opportunities.

I never bothered to pay to upgrade to VB6 - my programs worked, and were really quite sophisticated, tying into Access databases for all the material I used for character and creature generators. If it works, why change it?

And then I upgraded my computer. The new machine had 1gb RAM. VB4 said "Hunh? This machine has 0 memory" - and died. It couldn't cope with that much RAM.

I looked to upgrade to a Basic language that worked with modern machines - the only option was VB Studio.

And I really loathe it. No Control Arrays any more. I loved Control Arrays. Why did they scrap them?

And so much extra verbiage and (to me) unnecessary complications. "Namespaces." "(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)". "Imports System.Web.UI". What is all this verbiage FOR? This is no longer Visual Basic - it's Visual Hideously Complicated. It is no longer a language for the amateur programmer doing odd sequences and bits and pieces in his spare time. The error messages alone need a PhD in computer science to understand.

But the three core programs I wrote in VB4 have been, after much heart-ache and effort, updated to work in VBS-2010. I'm too old and have too little spare time to start learning a completely different language. And I need something that will work with databases. So I guess I'm stuck struggling with VBS.

Sorry - reads like I was ranting. Actually, I was. Anyone got an alternative to Visual Studio that a dumb amateur programmer can cope with?

[shawnhcorey]

Sorry - reads like I was ranting. Actually, I was. Anyone got an alternative to Visual Studio that a dumb amateur programmer can cope with?

Try a modern scripting language: Perl, Python, Ruby, PHP.