[skyhawk133]

Share your story with the rest of us DIC heads. How has Dream.In.Code made you a better programmer?

[girasquid]

One of the things that helps the most with posting your issue in a forum is giving as much information as possible - log files, error messages, and so on. Participating on DIC has helped me become a better programmer by encouraging me to develop proper debugging and diagnosis skills - in order to post as much information as possible when I have a problem.

[abgorn]

The helpful and encouraging members really helped me when I started out learning Java. Also the clear layout of DIC helped me find everything I needed.

[P4L]

For me, DIC has helped me find others like me....new programmers, as well as allowed me to get tons of help for whatever language I am having to program in for that class. It has also helped me see that programming is something that I want to do for the rest of my life.

[gabehabe]

I was actually a total noob myself when I joined.

While I haven't posted too many questions, my main learning factor has been the fact that I could learn by helping others.

Whenever I saw a basic question asked in the C++ forum, I would Google it, test it, Google some more, test another way to do it, and help them out.

When I couldn't help, I waited to read the advice given by others.

DIC has really helped me to progress~ I think, if I hadn't have found this site, i probably wouldn't have carried on programming for much longer than a couple of months~ I've always had too many fads.

It's also having a sense of "fitting in" and being able to use my super human abilities for the power of good

Everyone has always been friendly, and supporting.

[musya]

Yea the quick responce you get at times is really great!, as well as very experienced programmer, and the layout of the site is pretty simple enought that it is easy to navigate, obviosly with large amounts of data its hard to get too simple but i think its very well done, and the forum code option for syntax highlighting are really cool too.

[Delta_Echo]

<DIC> has ALWAYS been there to help me with debugging or technique questions. So to the community is say "THANKS!!! JESUS F*CKING CHRIST THANK YOU!!!"
And to the founder: "HOLY F*CK THANK YOU! YOU ARE GOD!!!!!"

[Smurphy]

Wow well you can really feel the love from him. Well for me Dic has really been an inspiration, allowing me to find other noobs of course. It also helped me get in touch with my inner geek I am proud to say now that I program and have fun writing code.

[KYA]

Yup, teaching something solidifies your understanding and that is how DIC has benefited me. The Lounge has sucked me in though, I need to crawl back to the C++ forum and hide out for a while.

[gabehabe]

Ditto. Maybe you're just following me, KYA.

You know you love me. Who can resist the charm of gabehabe?

[absynthe]

I'm positive I will catch it over this but regardless
Recently my time has been increased online due to downtime at work (between projects) and going to school. Most of that time up until the last couple weeks has been spent on Myspace and Instant Messengers. It was amazing how much time I wasted!! Then I found this place. I decided to make the effort to cut out myspace and IM's and to spend the same time here instead. It has been SO HELPFUL. I read tutorials and code snippets in between posting to some good people in the forums. I get to read through people's problems, overlooking each for the issues and then reading the replies to see how close I was to figuring it out. Hell, sometimes I even get to answer a few. I also have a couple good friends here that I can ask for guidance when I have issues. Not only do they help but they EXPLAIN. When it comes to the actual IT industry (all of it and coding), I have one person who has given me the best of advice, a very WISE Man (PBL). Overall, this experience has helped me grow as a programmer and a person. I would recommend it to anyone who is sincere in a true career in IT. My thanks to the guys (and girls) that make it possible

This post has been edited by absynthe: 30 October 2008 - 04:57 PM

[BetaWar]

When I joined I was starting to learn PHP, I already had gone through JS, CSS, HTML, and some C. Now I have obviously branched out from being a total-web guy and am able to help out in some general problems.

It has been nice to always have patient (well mostly patient) members willing to help out when I have an issue with the code I am trying to create and everything.

[no2pencil]

Dream In Code has made me a better programmer by me helping others. It's not shallow I swear.

Before Dream In Code, yeah, I could code, wooipe. I had a job, yeah fine. But that's exactly it, I was fine with that. Through helping others, I want them to understand. I want the answer to be correct, concise, & not just some fix. Dream In Code has reminded me of how to code. Standards. They arn't just a guideline, they are THE guideline. Without guidelines, everything falls apart. Yeah, a *quick fix* gets me paid. But a quick fix might get someone bad marks! Sloppy code also shows that they are getting help from somewhere other than the book. So Dream In Code has really rounded me as a programmer by forcing me to double check my work when helping others, & not accept my own slacker attitude for projects.

Now, speaking of quick fix... I think Mythbusters is on.

[RodgerB]

When I started at </dream.in.code> I already had a small amount of programming experience, a disgruntled member of a gaming community as a PAWN scripter I packed my bags and moved here. I was learning VB.NET at school and my attitude towards the language quickly changed, it allowed me to do things I thought would take forever in C++.

I initially joined to become a C++ ninja. I failed, but it took a slightly better turn imo. VB.NET gave me a firm understanding of the .NET framework, which I love programming with. I started writing some tutorials and snippets, and my knowledge rapidly grew into what it is today (not enough).

My thirst for knowledge still continues, and my experience with this site is, you can't judge something unless you've tried it.

[OliveOyl3471]

Dream.In.Code has definitely made me a better programmer!

There is always someone here to answer my questions, and a lot of the programmers
here are more knowledgable and helpful than my college professors. I've learned a lot
from them about C++, C# and a little bit of Javascript. I can even make programs in C now,
even though I never took a class in C.

Being able to answer other people's questions and get them right has not only improved
my skills in C and C++, but also given me confidence that I never would have had
otherwise.

Having a snippet accepted was the icing on the cake. It makes me feel as though
programming is something I can actually do, and maybe even be good at, someday. I
still have a long way to go, but Dream.In.Code has brought me a lot further than I could
ever have gone with my classes alone.

In addition to cementing my love of programming and helping me to decide that I never
want to do anything else, Dream.In.Code has fostered in me a love of programmers as
well. Here I find people who have, along with common interests, a similar sense of
humor to my own. It is awesome to come here and see the intelligent, witty and just
plain fun people who populate this site! And they are friendly, too. I felt like I fit right in,
right from the moment I discovered the discussion forums.

Dream.In.Code is by far my favorite site on the Web. I will always be grateful to you,
Chris, for starting this site. You are a genius!

This post has been edited by OliveOyl3471: 01 November 2008 - 09:16 PM