nest0r Wrote:It's one of life's great mysteries. I'm sure William Gibson is responsible, somehow.

Actually, it's funny but if I think about it I can actually trace back my Japanese interest to William Gibson. Anime is what got me interested in the Japanese language and what got me into anime was Bubblegum Crisis. . And I watched it only because I liked cyberpunk thanks to Gibson's novels.

It may be a little far fetched but in a way William Gibson is responsible for me learning Japanese

(and by the way, I'm also a programmer but did I need to say it at this point? )

One way to look at it is that programmers are already effectively polygots. Sure, most of the languages we know are far simpler than natural human languages but it means we're not easily scared by grammar etc. We also probably tend to be serious and seek out effective ways to learn rather than just taking it easy and hoping it clicks.

I remember when i was just starting out mapping 彼は背が高い to he.height = tall;

Well, i started programming and I quite sucked at it. Nothing worked and I realised my brain's not made for programming stuff on the computer but rather just using intelligently for learning languages, like Japanese. Fits perfectly into my triglot-being, haha

[ファブリス]

This thread reminds me:

Quote:Japanese is the perfect language for nerds. There are just a bunch of standard interfaces to learn, which you string together like so many nested functor objects and voilà: fully-formed correct Japanese sentences!

kuro5hin: Japanese for Nerds

wccrawford Wrote:I think it's for a few reasons:

1) RevTK is a programmer's answer to learning Kanji. We don't make flash cards, we have the computer make them for us.

I am a non-programmer. I go for the non-programmer's explanation of RTK: Share your own kanji stories and steal those of others! I see it as me making (or me stealing) the flashcards rather than the computer.

jcdietz03, the computer is enabling your sharing and/or stealing with others

I'm also a programmer... in the gaming industry.

zigmonty Wrote:I remember when i was just starting out mapping 彼は背が高い to he.height = tall;

rofl

zigmonty Wrote:One way to look at it is that programmers are already effectively polygots. Sure, most of the languages we know are far simpler than natural human languages but it means we're not easily scared by grammar etc. We also probably tend to be serious and seek out effective ways to learn rather than just taking it easy and hoping it clicks.

I remember when i was just starting out mapping 彼は背が高い to he.height = tall;

Kind of funny, I always thought of は as "using namespace <whatever>" in C++ or "using <whatever> in C#

FooSoft Wrote:

zigmonty Wrote:One way to look at it is that programmers are already effectively polygots. Sure, most of the languages we know are far simpler than natural human languages but it means we're not easily scared by grammar etc. We also probably tend to be serious and seek out effective ways to learn rather than just taking it easy and hoping it clicks.

I remember when i was just starting out mapping 彼は背が高い to he.height = tall;

Kind of funny, I always thought of は as "using namespace <whatever>" in C++ or "using <whatever> in C#

Yeah, i mean the analogies are never perfect and we do know that. But at least I wasn't trying to understand japanese in terms of english, which simply doesn't have anything equivalent to は. Same goes for seeing particles as kind of like named arguments to a function call. The verb is the function and is always fixed in place, but the other stuff can be in any order as long as it is tagged correctly. Or seeing it as an xml tag with attributes (<go dest="school" with="friend" at="9am"/> anyone?).

I wasn't continually translating back to code, it just helped once when the concept was first explained to me. I know several languages that aren't SOV, so learning another wasn't hard. At no point was i terribly surprised by japanese grammar. I think that's a major advantage that we programmers get.

To all the programmers out there, Ive decided to take up learning the C programming language more so out of a common interest than for school or a job. Im currently using a Mac and I downloaded Xcode which seems to be the most recommended compiler for using C on the mac but the download package is over 10 gigs. Are there any other options out there or am I stuck with this behemoth on my poor little macbook air?

Despite the number of programmers, this really isn't a programming community. You will probably get better answers posting a question like that on Stack Overflow or some such site.

dusmar84 Wrote:To all the programmers out there, Ive decided to take up learning the C programming language more so out of a common interest than for school or a job. Im currently using a Mac and I downloaded Xcode which seems to be the most recommended compiler for using C on the mac but the download package is over 10 gigs. Are there any other options out there or am I stuck with this behemoth on my poor little macbook air?

The Xcode package is 4.1 gigs or thereabouts. Download it from here.

Then when installing, you'll see a you have the option of which components to install. There is a package called Essentials, which you can expand and choose not to install the iOS dev package and some other things. It's discussed here. The eventual install should be a couple of gigs.

I don't know what you plan on making, but if you're just starting out, you can do fine by using any text editor and gcc, which comes pre-installed.

Save your helloworld.c, open up terminal, do
gcc -o hello helloworld.c
./hello
to compile your file into a file called "hello" and then run it.

But, if you already know how to program, and you need to move onto bigger and better things, then looking at an IDE like xcode might be a good idea.. but I think it's a bit overkill for just learning to program.

You don't necessarily have to begin with a huge IDE. Projects with only one or a handful of files are easy enough to manage using a text editor and a simple build script. I think you might also get a better understanding of what's going on using the latter strategy.

I'm definitely not a Mac expert, but this might be relevant:
http://developer.apple.com/tools/gcc_overview.html

EDIT: Asriel got there first.

Chalk up another!

I just graduated with a degree in CS, and was hired on as a Software Engineer! I'll mostly be working in C#, but I have experience in Java, Perl, and C++.

Programmers FTW I started studying japanese b4 i wanted to be a programmer tho but i love doing both

Lol, I'm a developer / programmer too.

Although I only know one programmer-girl who learned Japanese, many other programmers I know do love watching anime and are somehow interested in learning Japanese but they don't. Where as non-programmer friends don't like japanese tinted stuff.

I don't want to become a programmer as such but I want to be able to program! I was right into it when I was about 14/15 though I had no instruction/good books to self-study with and I got nowhere and it fizzled out.

Still, after seeing the epic win that programming brings through the good community here at RTK It's inspired me to want to learn the art.

Cool. I didnt realize people responded to my question. Thanks for the advice. Will give it a shot

mezbup Wrote:I don't want to become a programmer as such but I want to be able to program! I was right into it when I was about 14/15 though I had no instruction/good books to self-study with and I got nowhere and it fizzled out.

Still, after seeing the epic win that programming brings through the good community here at RTK It's inspired me to want to learn the art.

Pick a problem you want to solve, and a language you want to learn, and start working on it. That's the best way to start. Google is your friend. Avoid posting on Stack Exchange until you've exhausted Google.

Don't worry about doing it the 'best' way. There probably is a best way, but you won't find it. Most experienced programmers don't find it on their first try. They rewrite and rewrite until they do.

I'm also a programmer . Though I actually studied chemical engineering in college, now I'm working at a software company and I am programming. I definitely think that RTK is more likely to appeal to people who like programming than other methods. It's very logical!

Edit:
mezbup -- Not only is there no "best" way, even if you do figure out a better way to code something, often the other duties of your job won't allow you to go back and redo it! Depends on how fast-paced your company is and the release cycle. It's a bummer, but that's unfortunately how the real world works. And a lot of the time, as long as the code works that's the important part, doesn't matter how pretty it is . So having a plan before you program, and editing as you go, is crucial if you code in your job and want it to be as nice-looking and clean as possible. I'm still learning how to do that well....

Just a quick question by the way. I would prefer to be a game programmer specifically in the future, so which language(s) do you all think I should dedicate to?

Games for which platform?

PC - C/C++
Android - Java
iPhone - ... What does IOS use? Objective-C or something?
Web (Facebook) - Python, PHP or Ruby.
Web (HTML5) - Javascript

wccrawford Wrote:Avoid posting on Stack Exchange until you've exhausted Google.

Good advice, which I wish was understood by more. Many seem to see StackOverflow as their first port of call.