[wordswords]

tlhIn`toq, on 24 October 2012 - 04:16 PM, said:

School taught you the mechanics of the language. How a for loop is technically constructed and operates. But I have yet to see a school or a graduate that was even marginally prepared to actually engineer software. And the reason is simple: They can't teach experience or how to think.

I think the reason schools fail so badly at teaching software engineering, is that the academics who run the courses largely aren't involved day-to-day in developing software. They are not up-to-date with their knowledge, and they have not encountered the large problems of scale that experienced engineers have faced time and time again. Professional software engineer trainers often are also software engineers, and this seems to really help, as I've seen on the training courses I've been on. They are more expensive in general, but I think this has to be the 'way to go' if you really want to be trained to develop software. Otherwise just teach yourself, like most people do.

[Lemur]

I used school as a period of mainly free time to learn whatever I wanted to. Heck, I have a stack of technical books that's as tall as one of my friends (5'8") that I've read through.

For all of those books though, the one critical thing I learned: There's a large disparity between theory and implementation, and foregoing that fact will lead to your untimely demise. So how do I get around this? I read a book, then I implement it somehow at $WORK or at my lab at home.

[cfoley]

Quote

most people don't have two styles of writing

I do. The first is formal, using the best, most proper style and grammar that I possibly can. I use it for official letters, reports, papers, etc.

The other is close to how I speak. Notice "how I speak", not "the way in which I speak". I use it for forums, personal emails, most work emails, etc. It all started when I read a book written by a friend. At first I thought the grammar was appalling, but as I got into the book, I realised I was imagining his voice in my head reading to me -- except the "bad grammar" was just the way he spoke. It was more like he was speaking to me.

I find people more receptive in general to the latter approach. I think it comes across as more friendly.

[nujic]

cfoley, on 24 October 2012 - 08:03 PM, said:

Quote

most people don't have two styles of writing

I do. The first is formal, using the best, most proper style and grammar that I possibly can. I use it for official letters, reports, papers, etc.

The other is close to how I speak. Notice "how I speak", not "the way in which I speak". I use it for forums, personal emails, most work emails, etc. It all started when I read a book written by a friend. At first I thought the grammar was appalling, but as I got into the book, I realised I was imagining his voice in my head reading to me -- except the "bad grammar" was just the way he spoke. It was more like he was speaking to me.

I find people more receptive in general to the latter approach. I think it comes across as more friendly.

Thank you! forum/texting/talking to friends=bad grammar,not much thought put into it. School/work/emailing profs = thought out,formatted properly,proper English,read over a few times. If you write your essays the way you write on forums/texts or talk in person that's just hilarious. You would sound ridiculous if you spoke exactly according to the English languages rules. If you've taken several Univ. comm/english classes you would have learned and been shocked how improper the average person talks. That's not including slang & short cuts that you'd use for texting.

I do understand where your assumption came from I guess and that advice you suggested.It just came off the wrong way in my head at the time. I correct my friends all the time,just to be annoying lol
Me not taking more time to properly get my question or points across was not disrespect towards other members. It's just a habit when talking amongst friends,forums,phone.

[cfoley]

Oh no, please don't mistake me. I agree 100% with the Klingon. I certainly wasn't trying to make excuses for sloppiness. When I write colloquially, it actually takes me longer than writing formally. I proof read it an extra time to make doubly sure I really am making sense. For me it's about effective communication, not saving a couple of seconds or keystrokes.

Where the Klingon and I differ is that he will try to help you and offer advice. I'll just selfishly close the thread, never to return.

This post has been edited by cfoley: 25 October 2012 - 12:54 AM

[raghav.naganathan]

cfoley, on 25 October 2012 - 05:33 AM, said:

Quote

most people don't have two styles of writing

I do. The first is formal, using the best, most proper style and grammar that I possibly can. I use it for official letters, reports, papers, etc.

The other is close to how I speak. Notice "how I speak", not "the way in which I speak". I use it for forums, personal emails, most work emails, etc. It all started when I read a book written by a friend. At first I thought the grammar was appalling, but as I got into the book, I realised I was imagining his voice in my head reading to me -- except the "bad grammar" was just the way he spoke. It was more like he was speaking to me.

I find people more receptive in general to the latter approach. I think it comes across as more friendly.

Totally agree with that inline comment. I seem to have noticed that when you try and talk good English with proper enunciation and using formal words, you are treated as a nerd and written off as a boring person.On the other hand, if you talk like "yo dude, what's kicking?" and "I ain't no..." ( although they murder the English grammar), you are thought of as a cool dude and people actually warm up to you.

Even when it comes to the topic of girls, the cool dudes are preferred over the proper grammarians. God help the English language if this trend is going to continue.

[DivideByZero]

The main difference I find is that in school, if you don't implement a part of a task, you lose some marks. In a programming job, if you don't implement a part of a task, you lose your job.