So you think math is hard
So I'm back in the programming world - it's not even hardcore object-oriented programming, it's just setting up and running SQL for my database course. The thing is, my assignment is riddled with errors and it's getting me nowhere fast.
I like describing programming to people who don't code as a really hard math problem with an all or nothing solution. Typically a math problem you may approach a number of different ways. If you miss a parenthesis, you can probably still get the gist of the problem. Maybe that will throw off the answer but you'll have work to show for it.
With programming, miss putting a parenthesis, comma, or semicolon in the wrong place, forget to capitalize one letter, and huge sections of your work are rendered entirely useless. Nothing compiles and you essentially have no product to show for all of your efforts.
So it's kind of frustrating when a day after your assignment comes out, the instructor emails out corrections to the super preliminary steps necessary for 90% of the work: capitalization errors (more of these exist than he listed), what path to set in the .cshrc file - super duper very key stuff. And then the steps still don't work. A few hours later: "Oh, looks like your account wasn't set up properly, sorry, I'll have to have someone fix it."
...and I could have been snowboarding today.
I like describing programming to people who don't code as a really hard math problem with an all or nothing solution. Typically a math problem you may approach a number of different ways. If you miss a parenthesis, you can probably still get the gist of the problem. Maybe that will throw off the answer but you'll have work to show for it.
With programming, miss putting a parenthesis, comma, or semicolon in the wrong place, forget to capitalize one letter, and huge sections of your work are rendered entirely useless. Nothing compiles and you essentially have no product to show for all of your efforts.
So it's kind of frustrating when a day after your assignment comes out, the instructor emails out corrections to the super preliminary steps necessary for 90% of the work: capitalization errors (more of these exist than he listed), what path to set in the .cshrc file - super duper very key stuff. And then the steps still don't work. A few hours later: "Oh, looks like your account wasn't set up properly, sorry, I'll have to have someone fix it."
...and I could have been snowboarding today.