POG Programming Thread?

one time?

cocaine is a hell of a drug

Seems vaguely relevant to the GTA discussion:

lolz

Checked out python, looks purrty good. The main problem I see is getting at it. With the CS50 vids, id have a clearcut way towards learning part of the c stuff, although they seemingly focus mainly on general concepts. For python, I wouldnt know how to start.

edit: "Among the users of Python are YouTube[29] and the original BitTorrent client.[30] Large organizations that make use of Python include Google,[31] Yahoo!,[32] CERN,[33] NASA,[34] and ITA.[35] Most of the Sugar software for the One Laptop Per Child XO, now developed at Sugar Labs, is written in Python.[36]"

Ok, im sold, still need a guide of some sort, any recommendations?

Really depends on what you want to do. There's some pretty good "getting started with python" tutorials around.
http://www.swaroopch.com/notes/Python (note that you probably want to leanr version 2.x and not 3 because Python3 is very different from Python2 and most frameworks etc don't support P3 yet)

Personally I think these days it's probably best to just start with some random web application and just start with django. Yeah you'll technically learn more stuff about the framework and web-stuff and not pure python programming but the python you pick up on the side is just fine.

I strongly recommend against C as a first language. It'll **** you up forever.

Python is a good general use language, PHP is really easy for web stuff, but it's also probably the easiest language in the world to **** up your life if you write anything in it. It's very susceptible to security problems if not used properly. Frameworks like CakePHP or CodeIgniter (Equivalent to Django) solve a lot of that issue for you.

Somewhere out there there's a page about getting started with Python that looked good at first glance. It's pretty widely linked, but I'm too lazy to look it up right now.

+lulz

what happens to the father's glasses between frames 2 & 3?

also this pic begs for a write-your-own treatment. i can't 'shop atm tho.

Here's the link I mentioned: http://www.python.org/about/gettingstarted/

Thanks for the link. Im not entirely sure how Ill be using it. Its mostly for fun and in the back of my mind to prep a bit for learning other stuff that I might use eventually, like matlab, webdesign or writing code for basic electronic equipment (this is both unlikely as it is far far into the future, I have this crazy idea about sensory organs that might take..at least some knowledge of programming). Aside from that, I imagine it to be a good exercise in ordering ideas and dividing of ways to solve problems.

so all you programmers out there - if you have experience with excel, a ton of free time and want to take on a massive project for free - I've got an opportunity for you.

If not, well I don't blame you. I don't want to do it.

I have a project too:

take raw razz hand histories, calculate equity on a street-by-street basis

should be fairly easy

obviously this can be done using ppt but its not so fast

Anyone else notice that Antidan hasn't posted in here in over a month?

he updated his fb on saturday so he's ok

And yeah, its been commented on before, others have noticed.

For programming websites commercially, your first three choices are php, php, and php for people and small businesses, and probably mix in some MS stuff and some Java for bigger shops.

For a hobbyist I strongly recommend Ruby. Not Rails, not that toolkit, but just Ruby.

Thanks, all, for your input on GTA. Upon reflection and consideration of what you've offered, here's what I've realized:

I was inappropriately conflating two different issues about video games that make me uncomfortable as a parent. One is the subconscious conditioning aspect of it. As I said earlier I don't know that there are hard data on this but it is easy for me to imagine that extensive play of violent games that are realistic, particularly from a first-person perspective, may condition people to be more willing or able to mimic what they have been simulating. If that occurs, no amount of discussion would obviate it, so sitting down with him and discussing how we feel about violence wouldn't matter. Grand Theft Auto, however, is not the type of game that might tend to do this, and my boy would never play it enough to be at much risk of this even if it were. Not an issue.

The other issue is about attitudes, which are the sort of thing that can be discussed. As several people have noted, GTA, if taken seriously, is disgusting. It doesn't have to be taken seriously, however, and given that I can have decent discussions with him about these things I can see it being reasonable to allow him to play the game if he makes clear (in words and deeds) that he understands what it does and does not represent.

All that said, it won't matter until summer at least because he's only here for a few more days, but when he returns I'll separate clearly the conditioning issue from the moral one.

As an aside, it's interesting that most of the games I would worry about in the conditioning sense to not reflect grossly problematic morals — the protagonist is usually shooting Nazis or monsters that are trying to take over the world or whatever. GTA, while cartoonish, is on the very edge of the genre in terms of the misdirectedness and gratuitousness of its violence.

I could not disagree more. And I have programmed both websites and web based ERPs professionally.
Do whatever you feel is good, also yeah I get why you'd want to use pure Ruby but really what makes the web-frameworks like Django so great is quick prototyping and working with all sorts of different folks quickly (most noteably designers) add stuff like the admin interface and it's really a no brainer
If you're a one man team/hobbyist...well use whatever the hell you want (I mean I'd probably use Kepler or Seaside just to have some extra fun)

For small businesses/private people performance is pretty much a nonissue and in most cases said performance issues are related to the SQL-server and/or webserver anyways

I've talked to a lot of people about this and the biggest "pro" for PHP is usually "well we can find people who can change stuff etc. quicker".
Granted this may be true but any PHP programmer who can't figure out Django within a coupl of days is very likely to write crappy code anyways and be a liability in the long run. And while there's some nice stuff done in PHP I'm willing to bet that the chances of getting crappy/horrible code from a random PHP programmer compared to a random Python programmer are extremly high

I only concider PHP if there's some stuff already out there in PHP that can/must be used (noteably: forum software)

There are many shooters set in military like scenarios. Some people may have moral obligations to solving problems with force if other options exist. There's also some rather subtle politics in a couple of shooters. I'm not sure if you can even compare beating up hookers and being part of an army and killing people because it's your job. I'd simply call both pretty questionable

I've had chicken for a long time. You can feed them literally everything.....all your table scraps. What they don't eat, they will peck and claw it into the ground. They will fight over speghetti noodles....I guess they think it is worms or something.

They aren't hard to take care of....just let them do their own thing, and you'll love the fresh eggs. Takes about 4 to 6 months before they start laying.

Play with him at first and watch how he plays. If he starts sawing people's heads off with chainsaws, put the game up. Explain/talk to him about it too.

Nice to see you back posting BEG, POG is a hard place to stay away from IMO

Doing that sort of thing is pretty much the point of GTA, which in turn was my point in being concerned.

If you hire a competent programmer, language doesn't mean anything. Same if you hire an incompetent one. Although, I will say that random guy that claims to be a PHP programmer is more likely to not actually be able to program than one that claims to be a Python programmer.

That said, something like 90% of applicants to programming jobs can't actually write even a simple program.

Also: Frameworks are very important. Unless you have a very specific requirement (read: high scalability needs), you should be using a framework. They take away a lot of grunt work that takes up way more time than it's worth. They also handle very important things that are very easy to forget. The biggest thing in that vein is security.

But, anyway, defending PHP and frameworks is something of a passion of mine, as a PHP programmer that uses a framework for everything

Those are wise words (-the PHP support ldo ;P )