[smacdav]

The template contains a lot of personal information. Here's my abbreviated version. :-P

Name: Scott MacDonald

Location: I'm lived in the Seattle, WA area until about a year ago. These days I'm in New Haven, CT.

Age: 40

Sex: M

Education: I actually have a B.S. and an M.S. in Mathematics and spent 17 years teaching community-college level math. I left that career a year ago and I'm currently pursuing a M.S. in Computer Science with an emphasis in Software Development.

Programming Languages: I know Java and C pretty well, though I haven't done much with GUIs. I'm learning C++, Python, Ruby, VB.NET, VBA (for Excel), and PHP.

Years Programming/Designing: That depends on how you define it. Either 10 years (mostly as a hobby) or 4 years (actually taking courses, teaching Java courses, and doing other programming).

Employer: I'm a student at the University of New Haven

Hobbies/Interests: Ice Hockey--I play in a local house league as well as follow the pros.

Favorite Movie: Ghostbusters

Favorite Number: 17

Favorite Sport: Ice Hockey

Last Good Book I Read: "The Gun Seller" by Hugh Laurie

I hope to be able to both give and receive help here. :-)

[kewlkreator]

Welcome to DreamInCode! We have experts on all your mentioned languages and many more. However, it sounds like you may be one of them!

Welcome to DIC!

[PsychoCoder]

Welcome to Dream.In.Code

Thanks for joining Dream.In.Code, hope to see you around the forums someday

You have just stepped into the greatest programming community on the Internet, we have experts for just about every mainstream language, and even some languages that aren't so mainstream, so the level of expertise is second to none. All will be more than willing to help, as long as you too are willing to put forth the effort to solve your problem, and to go along the road to becoming a better programmer smile.gif

I would like to ask that when making a programming question that you first place your code inside code tags like this . This makes it much easier to read through large pieces of code, and keeps your post a little more organized.

When posting a programming question first make sure you're in the first forum, then make sure you provide as much information as you can think of that would make it easier for a 2nd pair of eyes to help you debug your issue.

If you happen to get bored (I know, it's real hard to do here) you can check out our Off Topic Caafeine Lounge, the Corner Cubical, dedicated to industry talk, or the Student Campus, dedicated to all things for students.

If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact myself or another staff member, and we will be more then happy to answer any questions you might have.


-Richard

[OliveOyl3471]

Hello Scott MacDonald. Welcome to Dream.In.Code.

A B.S. and an M.S., and then another M.S.? You must be pretty smart!

You are learning C++, Python, Ruby, VB.NET, VBA (for Excel), and PHP, all at once? Dang, and I thought I was ambitious, trying to pick up Java in a few weeks!

So why do you like 17? Any special reason?

[smacdav]

OliveOyl3471, on 31 Jul, 2009 - 11:23 PM, said:

Hello Scott MacDonald. Welcome to Dream.In.Code.

A B.S. and an M.S., and then another M.S.? You must be pretty smart!

You are learning C++, Python, Ruby, VB.NET, VBA (for Excel), and PHP, all at once? Dang, and I thought I was ambitious, trying to pick up Java in a few weeks!

So why do you like 17? Any special reason?

I don't know about smart; I just really focus on what I want to do and have a tendency to want to learn as much as I can about it.

As for learning all those languages at once, it's slow going. The only ones I'm working on actively right at the moment are Python (in order to help my wife with some stuff), PHP (for a school project), and VBA for Excel (for a personal project). But the others I have started on and come back to when I can. Ruby's pretty easy and, given that I know Java and C, C++ isn't exactly a big change, either. Once you know a couple of languages, others get easier to learn.

As for the number 17, that started as a joke when in grad school for mathematics. The idea was that given any sequence of numbers, whether there's a pattern so far or not, the next number could be anything. (Just because the first four numbers are 3, 6, 9, and 12, for example, doesn't mean the next one has to be 15.) I always chose 17. Now it's always the number I wear when I play hockey (except in the rare instance where I don't have a choice).

[OliveOyl3471]

smacdav, on 1 Aug, 2009 - 09:54 AM, said:

Once you know a couple of languages, others get easier to learn.

Yes, that is true, thankfully. But I think there's more to C++ than the others, unless I just haven't studied the others enough yet. Once you know C++, I think the others will be easier to learn.