Re: Help getting started.. Please read!!

Hey Shawn.

Here's my two cents, and coming from someone who is in school learning Oracle, Java, C++, etc, I'm not sure if your getting ripped off, but here goes. :)

When I started learning how to code, the only experience I had was in Basic and Turbo Pascal, and those were in Jr. and H. school. They weren't any help. I do recommend learning C++ first, before you get into Oracle or PL/SQL. I say this for one main reason. Most books on PL/SQL that I've seen, assume that you have had some kind of programming experience. They make it easy to learn PL/SQL, but they don't teach you how to design code. The C++ book that I used in class was "Problem Solving, Abstraction, & Design Using C++, 3rd ed." by Friedman and Koffman (ISBN# 0-201-61277-1). Good book, helped me learn how to design a good algorithm before I sat down at the computer.

Do you have to be Spock? I'm sure it would help, but I'm not, and I've not met Spock yet (though somepeople did come WAY to close for comfort). When I started, I was overwhealmed. I looked through the book, and hung my head. First day of class, I was scared shitless to put it nicely. I had no idea how I was going to learn all that stuff. Turned out, the language was the easy part to learn. Program design was the hard part (many, many, many hours spent over the course of 4 months getting assignments done).

Almost 2 years later, I'm wrapping up my second course in Oracle. As I sat down to write this, I looked at some of my asg's and books, and realized, if I can do it, so can you. If you have a desire, and willingness to learn, you'll pull it off. You might have to invest quite a bit on time, but it can be done. Maybe pull a few classes from the community college to start off. Chk recommended buying a do-it-yourself book for C. I say the opposite. His way will teach you the language, but nothing beats having someone experienced that can push your mind in the way it needs to go for YOU to learn. A book can do that, if you grab the right one. Problem is, you don't know if it's the right one till your done. Besides, if you want to get a job afterwards, and you can get your prof to write you a good recommendation, it helps.

Good luck.
Jon

PS. As to how long it took me to get it? Well, I did 2 years at University of Waterloo, in Ontario, minoring in CS, and I didn't get it. When I started at the school I'm in now, I got it fast. Weeks. Some people get it right away, some never do, but if you want to do it, you'll get it. Received on Wed Mar 27 2002 - 10:13:11 CET