A)I would like to create HUD's for games in the future, where they could show me who the weakest players are (in my team/enemy team).
With possible leaks.
B)One of the other things i would like to do is to create Simulators (Text/screenshot based)
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Hobby ^ (/dream)
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Realisticly speaking, i know coding is hard to learn, but is in need in the current job-market.


What are some big No-No's in coding?!
Any advice?


Thank u guys!

If you want to study coding, then study coding.

A big no no is that you shouldn't believe anyone who says they can teach you programming in 24 hours or some other quick nonsense.

It takes effort.

And a forum full of coders to bug as a helpful resource never hurts.

I find it's not always that easy. Having a clear goal/objective to program for tends to give you the drive to code. After all computation was basically designed to solve problems involved with defineable and repeatable steps.

You can learn all the syntax you want but if you're not coding to solve problems or achieve a clear objective, then I don't think you're really getting the value you should be out of your training.

OP, Project Euler is pretty cool and gives you some objectives to code for. Hackerrank is a similar website. Project Odin focuses specifically on Web development and I don't know if it's challenged based like the other two or if it's more step by step build a website/Web portfolio.

If you need instruction on syntax or specific libraries or language features there are plenty of freely available resources online for that. Similarly if you want instruction on how to solve problems computationally.

If you want game specific instruction there is an online video series called handmade hero where a supposedly talented game programed walks through creating a 2d side scrolling game from scratch. I only say supposedly talented because I've never seen it but have heard others say he's legit.

Well you need to do more than just code to do this. In fact I don't think that coding would be your highest priority. I think you need to understand the problem domain first.

Again, understanding the components you need to program to accomplish a solution would have a higher priority.

I would recommend studying software development for games. Challenging work and it would move you closer to accomplishing your goals/dreams. I think it is fair to say games will be around for awhile.

I'm just a hobbyist in coding, but I'll give aswering this a shot. If you are interested in coding as a profession, there are many very different job descriptions/skill sets and I dont think anyone can really say that based on the job market right now you should get into this or that. Decide what interests you and get to work on it. As Low Key said, it takes effort. Its all about acquiring a fairly wide understanding of the various tools and technologies and much of it comes down to experience and having worked on different projects. For a good software developer I think the key is knowing a wide range of tools and knowing how to pick the right ones for the job. Maybe there is stuff in, say, web development where a fairly narrow skill set can get you started (?) but generally you need to put in the hours.

Luckily there are many resources for learning. So if I were you, I'd decide what interests me (game development for you?) and I'd get to work studing and most of all building projects. As just_grindin said, if you have an idea for a project or you can join someones project, having a goal gives you a drive to keep going. Working on projects that have a real purpose is very rewarding.

Your OP conflicts with your title. If you want the best job you can get in terms of compensation and lifestyle in this job market, stay far away from game development.

I have heard this said a lot, but was wondering why? Is game programming easier than other forms of programming, or it is that games generally do not get as high return on investment as other programming projects?

Supply and Demand. There is a surplus of programmers who want to program games, thus the equilibrium price for their services is lower.

Watch the documentary about indie game devs. Forget what it's called but it has the guys who did super meat boy and braid (if you can call him indie)

Indie Game: The Movie. The Braid guy is definitely indie, or at least he definitely was back then. He's now finishing up this game that is ostensibly a MYST clone but I'm sure will have many interesting ideas behind it.

Thanks for the recommendation; I checked it out. Pretty sick some of those guys saying they would die before giving up on their game.

Hard to compete with that... I guess nobody grows up dreaming of optimizing assembly code.

What areas in terms of programming careers would be considered stable/growing or in need of programmers?

For the hardened programmers, if you were fresh out of University today, what market would you be focusing on getting in to?

Well I think you should start considering that while you are trying to obtain your degree, not after. One emerging trend I see is a lot more emphasis on designing and implementing parallel algorithms. Processor speeds have maxed out for the time being so automatic execution speed increases by doubling processor speeds is not happening. Herb Sutter calls that the free lunch and he indicates that the free lunch is over. Study concurrency in school if courses are offered. Google Herb Sutter and concurrency, he wrote a lot of good articles on that topic. For example the XBox has like 8 different cores IIRC. Every system I work with now are multi-core systems and synchronizing access to shared resources is necessary and algorithms that scale up well are critical. Even though it has been around for awhile, sometime when you get a chance, I would recommend reading about the ePoll system call in Linux. A very good example of the implementation of an algorithm that scales up well and one that was necessary.

Also I'd be remiss if I didn't mention security, both cyber and platform. I can tell you for sure that both are growing areas.

Ignore what's hot and do what's interesting/fun. Programmers are in demand which means if you're good at what interests you you can actually get paid for doing something you enjoy.

Well technology advancement has a tendency to make things obsolete including technical areas that one might really like currently. If you are stating that focus on acquiring a solid understanding of Computer Science fundamentals then sure I agree with that completely.

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If you want to be able to always get a job, learn embedded stuff like C. That's for programming electronics like routers and dishwashers. Boring as dirt to me but a lot of people like it, and the field is not changing much. Corporate IT stuff is more interesting, but what's hot changes on a dime and you can easily find yourself out in the cold and unable to find work anywhere.

Right now web stuff and mobile stuff is hot, but 2 or 3 years from now, who knows?

Mobile and the Internet of things will still be hot. I'm guessing Web front end and backend will diverge even more and basic Web page design will become a skill of the masses. Assuming no giant solar flare or other catastrophe that sends us back to the stone age or destroys the planet ;-)

One day device manufacturers will take security seriously and the IoT will need protected.

Nobody likes it, cmon man this seems like bad advice.

Generic C firmware stuff will be like generic electronics manufacturing, they will crank it out in China or wherever. This is like advising someone wanting to be a mechanical engineer to brush up on their soldering and welding.

Honestly, this is going to sound like I'm an ******* but the biggest skill to cultivate is learning new things. In like 6-12 months time being someone who is skilled at Angular 2 is going to be the hottest thing ever. If you can learn that, you will get a well paying job no problem. The bad news is, you need to have programming fundamentals before you can learn Angular 2. For that, take any internship or basic job anywhere.

LOL at all kinds of software development opportunities in writing software for dishwashers. Please elaborate on what you mean by generic C firmware stuff.

I'd totally pay someone to impose a radio-controllable password-protected program on my neighbours' dishwasher so that it don't start when I'm trying to fall asleep or just want silence.

A plethora of solid advice itt , especially:

And there seems to be no contradiction here because one needs both longterm / underpinning (major in CS) and shortterm / motivating (minor in a field that one likes and which is currently warm, up to a reasonable compromise) goals imo.