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[ma9nu2]

Hello, I am 16 years old, and i come from Norway I am currently going on high school ''Advanced course 1'' I think it is called in English, I'm not sure And in ca 2 1/2 years i have to choose what i want to do with my life I was thinking to study biology, but 5 weeks ago i found out that computer programing sounds cool. About 3 weeks ago I had some cool game ideas, so i started to play with ''Construct 2'' if you don't know what it is. it's a game making program (without advanced scripting). today i saw some videos on YouTube. they were using Unity3D and it looked like fun to make whatever you want, but i didn't understand nothing about all the scripting. SO.. My question is, I don't know how hard it is to learn and work with programing on an daily basis. so i hope some of you may know how it is to work with programing, and can tell me how it is

1. Is it hard to learn to program? (to script)

2. What kind of jobs can you work you do, if you study computer programing? (I know you can program games, but there is no huge/many game developing companies in Norway)

3.Do you have to be very good in math? (advanced) I don't like math very much, but my school offers 2 types of math (easy and hard) and i am currently going on the hard one. Just so that I have more to choose from later if i need advanced math.. My grades is around C in math.

4. IT IS NOT THAT IMPORTANT, but i'm just curious Do you earn much money if you choose this line of career?

-Ma9nu2
Sorry if this is not the right place to post these kinds of posts (sorry for my bad English )

[Michael]

Not sure if I will be a good resource to ask.. but I'll try..

1. Depending on previous knowledge, how easy you learn, and how much you are willing to try; also depends on the language and if you know a programming language already.

2. Any kind of applications for computer really, but you can also do that for household appliances ( I think ), and robots. This semester in my school we're going to do some robot programming, can't wait.

3. Uhh, somewhat, depends on what you are trying to achieve in what you are doing. Just a simple game application shouldn't take too much math stuff, but if you want to get into more advanced stuff, not sure then.

4. This information is relative:

• Most programmers will make between $40,000 and $120,000.
• Junior prgrammers, or people starting out in smaller cities can expect to make around $30,000-$50,000.
• Most average programmers are bringing in around $60,000-$85,000 a year.
• Senior programmers will typically reach $100,000.
• And highly valued senior programmers can easily make $120,000-$150,000+.

==== Extra Information ====
I found this game back in August 2012, and it inspired me to become a programmer (because I wanted to make mods for it). This game is made in Java, a cross-platform language (if you don't know, it can be coded once and work on every type of computer). I am 13 now, barely over a year later, I'm still not on the top, but I know a lot more than I used to..

I know this information isn't the best, but I hope this information helps you somewhat.

[ma9nu2]

Thank you for replying No.. i don't know any programing lanuages maby i will try to learn JAVA or somthing like that.. was the game Mine****t?

[pspeed]

1. Is it hard to learn to program? (to script)

Some take to it naturally.  Others find it completely frustrating.  Neither are necessarily an indicator of success or failure.

2. What kind of jobs can you work you do, if you study computer programing? (I know you can program games, but there is no huge/many game developing companies in Norway)

The world today is run on software.  I find it difficult to think of an area where programming hasn't touched these days.  In my career, I've worked on everything from telephones/telemarketing software, Geospatial software, and Microwave network planning software to Medical Transcription services.  These days I do a bit of everything but mostly data processing and visualization.

3.Do you have to be very good in math? (advanced) I don't like math very much, but my school offers 2 types of math (easy and hard) and i am currently going on the hard one. Just so that I have more to choose from later if i need advanced math.. My grades is around C in math.

Well, you have to understand the core concepts of algebra for sure.  Most programming uses a very narrow subset of logic and discrete math... some of which many don't even think of as math.

That being said, in most of my lines of work, that lack of advanced math has made my life harder.  Especially in 3D graphics, I waste a lot of time trying to understand advanced algorithms that would come more easily if I'd finished advanced math like calculus and such.

4. IT IS NOT THAT IMPORTANT, but i'm just curious Do you earn much money if you choose this line of career?

Software contracting can be very lucrative depending on where you live.  Regular corporate programming jobs aren't bad either.  A lot depends on your country and town, etc..

In the U.S., near major cities, software development is a very decent way to make a living.

[ma9nu2]

1. Is it hard to learn to program? (to script)

Some take to it naturally.  Others find it completely frustrating.  Neither are necessarily an indicator of success or failure.

2. What kind of jobs can you work you do, if you study computer programing? (I know you can program games, but there is no huge/many game developing companies in Norway)

The world today is run on software.  I find it difficult to think of an area where programming hasn't touched these days.  In my career, I've worked on everything from telephones/telemarketing software, Geospatial software, and Microwave network planning software to Medical Transcription services.  These days I do a bit of everything but mostly data processing and visualization.

3.Do you have to be very good in math? (advanced) I don't like math very much, but my school offers 2 types of math (easy and hard) and i am currently going on the hard one. Just so that I have more to choose from later if i need advanced math.. My grades is around C in math.

Well, you have to understand the core concepts of algebra for sure.  Most programming uses a very narrow subset of logic and discrete math... some of which many don't even think of as math.

That being said, in most of my lines of work, that lack of advanced math has made my life harder.  Especially in 3D graphics, I waste a lot of time trying to understand advanced algorithms that would come more easily if I'd finished advanced math like calculus and such.

4. IT IS NOT THAT IMPORTANT, but i'm just curious Do you earn much money if you choose this line of career?

Software contracting can be very lucrative depending on where you live.  Regular corporate programming jobs aren't bad either.  A lot depends on your country and town, etc..

In the U.S., near major cities, software development is a very decent way to make a living.

Thanks for replying! I am almost totally new to this kind of stuff. (but i think it sounds fun) You are experienced in this, so how do you suggest to start? Java? learn from YouTube? did you start by going to collage? or before that.. I need to do this in my spare time (because I do not learn anything like this on my school) I am good in algebra.

[Michael]

Haha, when I said my reply wasn't good, I was indicating that Mr. Paul Speed was going to swoop in with his wisdom and make my information seem like nothing.

I think TheNewBoston is decent for his tutorials, not very interesting, but very informative. I would probably say try out java because of it being able to be written once and work the same on every platform, but you can choose any language you would like.
http://thenewboston.org/tutorials.php

[pspeed]

Haha, when I said my reply wasn't good, I was indicating that Mr. Paul Speed was going to swoop in with his wisdom and make my information seem like nothing.

I think TheNewBoston is decent for his tutorials, not very interesting, but very informative. I would probably say try out java because of it being able to be written once and work the same on every platform, but you can choose any language you would like.
http://thenewboston.org/tutorials.php

I thought your replies were good.  I tried hard not to stomp on them in fact.

To the OP, I think the longer you do something the less able you are to easily tell someone else how to start.  I mean, I got my start programming extremely simple computers in BASIC and then I had to save my programs to a cassette tape.  At this point, someone your age is pretty worldly if they've even seen a cassette tape before.

"Getting started" is one of the areas where Shzylo may actually be uniquely qualified to give really good advice... considering he similarly started from "nothing" very recently and has been working hard at it since.

A lot of it also depends on how you learn best.  Whether reading a book, running through video tutorials, or just banging against "trial and error" work best for you is sort of a personal thing, I guess.  Personally, I like to take working code, try to understand it, change something until it breaks, and then figure out how to fix it again.  Unity may be a pretty good environment for that if you can find some sample scripts to play with.

[pspeed]

Another interesting thing is to start thinking about the world differently.  Think about all of the assumptions you make about the things you interact with every day.  What happens when you press a button?  Or turn a door knob?  What parts of these things are modular and which are unique?

When people try to understand what I do for a living I used to fall back on an old computer programming exercise they used to make us do in school: create a flow chart for creating a sandwich.

Me: "Ok, I'm a computer.  Tell me how to make a peanutbutter sandwich."

Them: "First get the bread."

Me: "Where's the bread?"

Them: "In the cabinet."

Me: "Which cabinet?"

Them: "Get the bread from the tall wood cabinet by the side door."

Me: "I can't reach it."

...you can see how this goes downhill fast.  From doing algebra to change location to how much torque to apply to the jar lid... you can have a lot of fun with it.  You can even start to talk about how you can tell the "me computer" that "walk to x,y" has special meaning and implies a bunch of looping algebra and so on.  Now you're even thinking in subroutines.

I really wish Logo was still around.  It was a lot of fun to play with back then.  Maybe it is still around in some form but I haven't looked.  Making the turtle draw pictures and use subroutines was very inspiring in the early days.

[Sempor]

Well, I see that other people have already provided their answers, but I might as well throw in my two cents.

I don't work for a company, I just program as a fun little hobby. The way I see programming as, is programming in itself is not hard. Sure, it might be hard to remember how to implement a for loop or create a method (or function or whatever) at first, but after a while, it becomes nearly second nature. As Mr. Speed already said, and provided a rather brilliant example for, programming is basically all about issuing a series of instructions to the computer. The computer is like a tool, and you need to use it properly.

The real hard part of programming never really ends. It's really just a logic game with the computer, with some tedious hours of debugging thrown in. No matter how far you go, there's always something that can stump you in the end or the computer will just throw 42s randomly at you.

So I guess, to sum it all up, learning to program in itself is not that hard. At it's core, it's just learning a new set of rules and instructions. The hard part is conveying those instructions properly to the computer. It's like a really, really, really fun yet evil addicting toy.

[ma9nu2]

Thank Paul Speed,shzylo and Sempor ! I will try to do as you guys told me I know alot more about how and what i should do to learn the basic it really means alot to me that experienced and people who just do programing as their hobbie can share their knowledge with me  

[theamericono]

I would like u to check out codeacademy.com type in in google and I would also like to say I think Kentucky has issued a law saying that coding is know considered a foreign language and u can get credit for learning it just thought it was kinda interesting


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[Michael]

I would like u to check out codeacademy.com type in in google and I would also like to say I think Kentucky has issued a law saying that coding is know considered a foreign language and u can get credit for learning it just thought it was kinda interesting

Same here in Oklahoma