General Discussion

Topics that talk about general programming principles

The Main Method Is a Conductor, Not a Member of the Orchestra

As many of you already know, I am a regular mentor on Dream.In.Code. With that I see common mistakes and design issues more than most people will probably ever seen in their full career. One design issue I would like to talk about today is the role of the main method and why it should be treated more like the conductor of an orchestra than 10 different band members. The ...

6 Helpful Tips on How to Learn Programming

Undoubtedly if you are new to the computer programming scene you have been overwhelmed by the number of other people telling you how to go about learning a new language. These people might be saying things like "Go to Codecademy.com" or "Check out this online tutorial". But what many of these programmers really miss is that people should use multiple resources in tandem when it comes to learning. In this ...

Tips and Tricks for Staying Motivated With Your Programming Project

Do you have a project that you were really excited about in the beginning but now your lack of motivation has you saying "Not that project again, bleh"? I think we all suffer from that once in awhile. Especially on those projects where we are not the lead or never thought of the project to begin with. How are we going to get excited about making a program to track ...

Myth: There is a “right” first language to learn.

I can't even count how many times I have seen someone new to the programming scene ask the question "I am new to programming and want to know which is the right language to learn first." Then of course there are a ton of veteran programmers that jump in there and start recommending every language under the sun and all sorts of ways to go about learning them. "No learn ...

JavaScript and PHP – Just Take the Red Pills and Be Happy in Wonderland

First I want to say Happy 2015 everyone! It seems to me the more frustrated programmers get with their code problem domains the more likely they are to take it out on the languages they are using. Naturally JavaScript and PHP both take the brunt of the abuse because of their popularity, sometimes necessity and of course their numerous implementation oddities. A lot of programmers working with these languages == ...

A Beginner Tic-Tac-Toe Class for Java

Around this time each year we mentors on Dream.In.Code see a bunch of students and beginners, attempting to do there final programming projects, come on the boards asking for help with coding problems. Some even come on asking for ideas to help them out and a large majority want help with simple games they can do like connect four, "the snake game" or even Tic-Tac-Toe. Then each year we throw ...