[Zuelajindi]

I understand a broad course covering the fundamentals of digital design is just the beginning of the CS field. I was wondering what you all thought about the course (or a similar version of it). Regardless, I am considering changing my major to a more mathematics-oriented program and instead teach myself additional programming skills (this program I will be taking still consists of some CS classes).

[KBoogle]

I don't think anyone knows anything about what program you are talking about, or any "similar version of it" without you linking to it. And what exactly are you asking help with? "what do you think about the course" in what way? Please be a bit more specific if you want a good answer

[jjl]

Quote

I am considering changing my major to a more mathematics-oriented program and instead teach myself additional programming skills (

That attitude signifies that maybe you are in the wrong major to begin with. The computer science field is constantly changing, it's one of the few majors that requires you to keep learning rapidly after you graduate. If your not willing to learn VHDL or whatever hardware descriptive language, you might wan't to reconsider where you wan't to be when you graduate.

With that said, I have taken several digital design classes. From what I have learned is that hardware descriptive programming is not like writing software, actually your not writing software at all! I see CS majors hate digital stuff because of this, and EE majors hate it because they think it's CS material. I am a computer engineering major and I have a biased opinion about the material, but if you can get over the "hump" of being comfortable with VHDL (or whatever), then you will find yourself enjoying digital design in the end.

The point in which I flipped the switch and said "I like this digital design shit!", is when my partner and I developed a soft-core on a FPGA, and then wrote the assembly instructions for the game "snake" for a CPU that we created.

[Zuelajindi]

jjl, on 02 November 2012 - 05:59 PM, said:

Quote

I am considering changing my major to a more mathematics-oriented program and instead teach myself additional programming skills (

That attitude signifies that maybe you are in the wrong major to begin with. The computer science field is constantly changing, it's one of the few majors that requires you to keep learning rapidly after you graduate. If your not willing to learn VHDL or whatever hardware descriptive language, you might wan't to reconsider where you wan't to be when you graduate.

With that said, I have taken several digital design classes. From what I have learned is that hardware descriptive programming is not like writing software, actually your not writing software at all! I see CS majors hate digital stuff because of this, and EE majors hate it because they think it's CS material. I am a computer engineering major and I have a biased opinion about the material, but if you can get over the "hump" of being comfortable with VHDL (or whatever), then you will find yourself enjoying digital design in the end.

The point in which I flipped the switch and said "I like this digital design shit!", is when my partner and I developed a soft-core on a FPGA, and then wrote the assembly instructions for the game "snake" for a CPU that we created.

Currently we are programming seven-segment displays to be used by development boards (Spartan 3E, in this case). It is intuitive, but I would have to skyrocket my GPA to even get in the program (I was about .10 short of getting in the CS program). This semester has been hard on me due to professors basing grades entirely on exams (not the best test taker), so either I will have to really step it up from now on, or settle with the secondary program I was assigned to (more math-oriented, though the upper-division CS courses sound incredible to me).

[MattDelly]

My teacher for Digital Design had a doctorate in theoretical physics so he was pretty hard to follow lol. I mean for some people 1 + 1 = 1 is hard to fathom haha