Things that piss you off

[YCobb]

C++ isn't a bad language. I'm a bit bothered by the fact that there doesn't seem to be any 'official' or 'de facto' compiler for it, I'm a bit frustrated by how little design consistency it has, and I definitely don't like how prone to segfaults it is compared to Java, but that doesn't make it objectively bad.

It does make it an objectively terrible choice for my college's CS department to teach for the 202 course. We've got a bunch of students who just learned Python last semester being forced to learn OOP principles on the messiest language I've ever seen. I was in this class last year, when it was taught using java - absolutely nobody had as hard a time as the students this year are having, and everyone who passed that class has gone on to C++ in higher-level classes without a problem. This semester? It's a mess. Hardly anything is explained by the TAs (because surprise, surprise, students don't actually make very good teachers most of the time) even though lectures skip over subjects specifically for the TAs to go over them, and there's very little intuitive documentation on the language.

If I hadn't come into this course already extremely well-versed in Java, I'd have dropped my major by now. I can't believe the professors thought this change was a good idea.

And however well I can believe I'm stuck in this course a second time because the school's linux server ate my final project last year, I'm still fucking rustled about that too.

[D-vid]

The only reason java exists is because the creator was rustled off at C++, so you definitely got a point.

[YCobb]

Really? Interesting, I had only ever heard about it's portability as a reason for being.

But yeah, it's not like I hate C++, but it's a terrible choice for beginners. Especially if they want to teach students OOP, since half the stuff they're telling is to do is just regular old C.

I also feel personally that C++ just has too many arbitrary oddities for students to learn concepts from it, because they have to spend so much of the time trying to memorize the odities. Doesn't help that our professors didn't go into things like pass-by-reference nearly enough for people to grasp it.

I'll stop posting about this, sorry y'all. I just got a heck of a bone to pick with whoever made the decision to switch

[Ersatz]

I'm in a similar boat.
We used Python through the first two semesters, and now we're learning OOP with Java and data structures with Visual C++. I have no problem with OOP and Java is alright, but C++ is frustrating and ugly. We have to use Visual Studio, which can't even close brackets or indent properly or analyze your code without compiling it and keeps shitting itself and losing track of your files. At least we're not expected to do anything concrete with it. For seven weeks now we've be reusing the exact same template the teacher made for us and changing the implementation of a couple functions so that it uses a different data structure every week.

Speaking of which, a few weeks ago I complained here about a teacher being the worst and not actually teaching anything and how I wanted to report his booty. Well I ended up finding excuses not to do it for a week, but it worked out well because then the whole student council had an extraordinary meeting just to complain about that teacher and figure out what to do. I was the only vocal one prior to that meeting but it turns out everybody shares my opinion. It was glorious.
What little documentation he gives us is always the first result on Google. According to students who had him last year (in the OOP class, *shudder*), his exams also come from some website that also sells the answers. Last week was week 7 and he showed us a PowerPoint he stole.. err adapted from the Internet which was titled "Week 3" and was about very basic stuff he had never talked about before but breezed through nonetheless because he thought we already knew it. We had three weeks to do the first assignment he gave us (a full-blown Android application, at the point where nobody including him had a functional SDK), but after a week he realized this was insane and changed it for something else without changing the deadline to make up for the week we just wasted. And last week he changed his mind again and pushed the deadline back a week but only told us at the very end of the three-hour class, when only a third of the students remained, and eventually sent a PM to everybody to make sure everybody knew... 2 days later.

[D-vid]

Really? Interesting, I had only ever heard about it's portability as a reason for being.

But yeah, it's not like I hate C++, but it's a terrible choice for beginners. Especially if they want to teach students OOP, since half the stuff they're telling is to do is just regular old C.

I also feel personally that C++ just has too many arbitrary oddities for students to learn concepts from it, because they have to spend so much of the time trying to memorize the odities. Doesn't help that our professors didn't go into things like pass-by-reference nearly enough for people to grasp it.

I'll stop posting about this, sorry y'all. I just got a heck of a bone to pick with whoever made the decision to switch

That's at least the story our professor told us.
And Python exists because its creator was bored one Christmas so he made a programming language in like 2 weeks or so.

[YCobb]

Heh, I can believe that of Python too. It's a nice language, and I especially appreciate how quickly you can get a program running; it's just not really useful to me at my current stage. I don't need to learn the concepts Python is useful for teaching and I'm not yet engaged in programming enough to keep it around as something to fiddle around with.

Edit: also this post isn't at all about being rustled off, so I'll kindly back out of the thread. Whoopsies~

[Boler]

If your professor is lazy just write the most complicated spaghetti code you can think of and maybe he'll think it's OOP or be too lazy to check.

Triple nested For loops and GoTo paper trails and nobody will stop you

This is also terrible advice

[Brekkjern]

You could write the assignement in lolcode or Malgolge

[Boler]

Everyone knows that Arnold C is the only real programming language.

Code: Select all

HEY CHRISTMAS TREE myVariable = 0;
GET TO THE CHOPPER isFunny = True;

BECAUSE I'M GOING TO SAY PLEASE(isFunny == NO PROBLEMO)
{
myVariable GET UP;
}

BECAUSE I'M GOING TO SAY PLEASE(isFunny == I LIED)
{
myVariable GET DOWN;
} 

I'LL BE BACK myVariable;

EDIT: I can't even write with no syntax errors on the first try in a parody programming language, what am I doing with my life.

[Reyo]

For the one programming class I had, I'd get the theory down pat (where I was getting 80-90% on any quiz and exam that was handed to me, including macro level questions like would be in the labs), but then I'd get to the lab and have to babysit my code between writing and compiling. I'd get full credit for the lab anyway by writing out the code, but then writing an addendum to the submitted assignment that included what the code was supposed to do, and my theory on where in the code the disconnect is between the code and the finished product.

Example: "Well the code says this, which is supposed to produce this, but it's actually producing this, which means it's most likely a disconnect between these two 'if' statements. There's also likely a problem with this loop since this problem presents itself here but doing things to try and fix it seemed to just make it worse/cause it to freak out in relation to this other loop over here."

[Tatzel]

Kind of in the wrong thread, because I am simply so devastated I don't know where I am anymore.

Today I heard how much I missed at job school last week, but most importantly that I'm writing my first exam tomorrow - leaving me only a couple hours to study.

Most importantly though, I finally got a letter from the job center about the extra cheddar for my apprenticeship - they didn't approve it. Which means, if roomie insists on the calculated part of rent, I will have only 20€ per month I can call my own.
I am in tears, because there's nothing I can do. Except live with those 20€, or move back to my parents.

[Boler]

Hopefully it gets better; on the bright side you at least have a place to stay at, and maybe one to fall back on depending on if your parents are good people though (obviously if they're not, try to stay on your own). It's tough to be hanging that close to the line though, been there and might be there again soon if I'm not careful.

[SaintCrazy]

I have been in the "too overwhelmed to do anything that might actually prevent stress" state for like the past week and it's only getting me more and more behind.

[Rinoko]

Twitter gem today in light of another school shooting in Washington state: "Not a coincidence it's always men and boys committing mass shootings. The pattern is connected to ideas of toxic masculinity in our culture."

Thanks for using a tragedy to push your bullshit feminist agenda. Absolutely sick.

[AquaBat]

Speaking of using a tragedy to push your agenda, has the NRA planned its annual giving-the-finger-to-massacre-victims rally yet?