Tag Archive for 'programming'

Python is awesome

Published
by
Cody
on February 4, 2008
in Random
. 5 Comments

I’ve programmed in a couple languages, but I’ve never gotten the hang of any of them. I’ve experimented with PHP, Java, a little bit of C+…they’re all so damn confusing. Sure, I learned how to use Java some (I took an actual class on it), but the syntax was just weird. I’m sure it made sense to someone at Sun Microsystems, but to the rest of us, it’s just messed up.

I came across an xkcd comic involving Python, so I decided to take a look. I’ve only done a couple of tutorials, but from what I’ve seen, Python is insanely simple. Yes, it has its own syntax, but it’s not nearly confusing as Java. For instance, take a look at the ways you print “Hello world” in both languages:

Java:

System.out.println('Hello world');

Python:

print 'Hello world'

What’s even more, that Java snippet is useless without a class surrounding it. The Python code can run just like that (assuming you have a Python interpreter and have made the file executable). No curly brackets, no semicolons, no compiling. I’m definitely going to look more into this programming language. At least until I finally find the drawback. There has to be a drawback to a language this simple. I shall find it and then make witty comments about it to embarrass Python programmers! Excellent.

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I can haz kollej edukashun?

Published
by
Cody
on December 20, 2007
in Personal
. 5 Comments

College is fun. You can go along for a couple of years thinking you’re going to do one thing, and then you can suddenly change your mind and throw everyone for a loop (including yourself)! Great fun. Anyways, for most of my college life thus far, I was under the impression I was going to be a programmer. I didn’t really want to be one, but somehow, most of my classes ended up being of the programming persuasion. I blame it on the broad yet oddly limited major I was going after. After a rather dismal experience in the latest programming class (seriously, why they chose Java is beyond me; everyone who’s anyone uses C++…or C#…or…something else…hell, I don’t know), I decided to re-evaluate where I was going and change my major. Good thing I hadn’t yet applied for that godforsaken major, even if I do have a rather useless business statistics class in my schedule.

You may be asking, “What major are you going for now, Cody?” Actually, you’re probably asking, “Why do you think I care, Cody?” but I’m going to pretend that you’re not really asking that. Anyways, I’ve (kind of…sort of…perhaps maybe…) settled on a history major. Yes, history. Boring? Perhaps. Lame? Perhaps. Good paying? Uh, I’ll get back to you on that. It definitely seems to be something I like, though, as I’ve done the best in the history classes I’ve been taking. Maybe it’s the fact that it’s so much easier to BS a history paper than it is to BS a program. You can make things up and sound smart all you want, but if the program doesn’t compile, you suck. I mean, I suck. Whatever.

So, in case you were wondering, yes, this is a personal post. No, there’s not going to be a rant about the unfairness of grading a person down simply because they didn’t show up for four out of every five class meetings (I mean, come on, that’s so fascist and communist and stuff), and no, I’m not going to tie this in to anything remotely meaningful. It’s just me, my feelings, and you, my faithful readers. Please don’t leave me. I swear, I didn’t have anything else to write about…damn fillers.

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Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States