Python Programming & other inferior programming languages thread

C++ is one of the first object-oriented languages. It is difficult to find a more powerful language that is in widespread use, but the learning curve is very steep. You WILL learn memory management, or else you won't survive C++.

to say it is "Not intuitive" is kind of an understatement IMO. It would imply that intuitiveness was ever a design consideration in the first place. But then some people out there like to write assembly.

i don't use it because i don't need to extract maximum performance out of the things I do. It is a good language for people who design things like 3D engines for video games. It won't run "on the web", but it is what the most common web server (apache) is written in.

 

i want to be his friend. that's amazing.

 

Javascript was originally a sort of 'community standard' rather than an actual programming language. Mainly because it was interpreted by the browser. So each user's version of Internet Explorer, Chrome, Opera, etc., all have their own unique ways of interpreting the Javascript sent by the webserver. Historically that meant Javascript was a HUGE clusterfuck that required a developer have intricate knowledge of 5 or 6 different sets of browser quirks to be useful. That said, in modern days that is not a problem. Javascript has matured into a network of API's, meaning that there is a ton of pre-written code out there that deals with the browser quirks so the average developer doesn't have to. Google created "v8" which, as I understand it, breathed new life into Javascript -- and it now dominates the web. So the MEAN stack is, in reality, 4 different pieces of software that serve different roles.

Java is totally different. It is an actual product, developed by Sun Microsystems. compiled by a java compiler into something called "Bytecode." Back in 1995 this was revolutionary. It meant you didn't have to write a Linux version, a Mac version, and a Windows version of the same code. It could run inside a browser applet or on your desktop. However it was always slow as fuck, and required the user to download a Java runtime, something your average grandma struggles with. Today it is showing its age, nobody really "wants" to code in Java, and its the sort of job that would typically involve wading through old legacy code for some corporate monolith.

i'm not sure about scalable. That's a bit beyond my level of expertise, but my understanding is that Java has its share of bottlenecks.

Java is 'portable' by the standards of desktop software development, but you really can't compare it to a browser-based language like Javascript.

 

What are you trying to do?

 

Mostly Front-End web development with occasional coding of the back-end. I work with ASP.NET right now but very interested in AngularJS and NoSQL like the MEAN stack mentioned earlier.

 

apparently they use it to weed out the weak in computer science programs

 

I'm not a CS major. I'm a Mech E major.

The class is called "Programming for Engineers" and is the only CS class Mech E's are required to take. (I'll be taking more as tech electives though)

I don't have enough experience to know why they chose C++.

 

C , being a language from the early 70's, runs very well on embedded systems. After all these years it is still the standard choice for small devices with limited RAM and limiting processing capability. C++ is newer (early 80s) and has concepts that make it slightly easier to learn than C, and more suitable for desktop software.

C++ (as opposed to C) seems like an odd choice for mechanical engineering, so my guess is that your university has chosen C++ as a sort of 'intro to programming' for a curriculum whose end goal is to be able to write C for embedded devices.

Or, like Joe Pesci said, it may actually exist mainly as weed-out course.

 

It's a good one to learn, I wish they would have taught us C or C++ but instead chose Matlab which, while useful, is not really a programming language and is extremely easy to learn on your own. You'll likely never have to use it again unless you are working with really really big datasets and/or doing a lot of complex calculation on that data. My company develops massively parallel computational physics software so our solvers are written in C/FORTRAN, but the users (me) usually default to Python or bash to post process data.

 

The interview was all business, no tech stuff discussed at all. Questions about how I'd prioritize features, strategy to get a certain product to market, how many pounds of dog food are sold each year, etc...

 

We actually spend the last 3 weeks on MATLAB. I'd never even heard of it before this course.

 

Most programs choose either C++ or Java to teach object oriented design. They also like to use those as "first" languages because they teach structure thats applicable to lots of other languages. Its easier to go from Java to something like Python than the other way around.

 

I feel like C++ is very rarely taught as a first OO language now. Hell 10 years ago when I took my first programming course, Java was already widely taught.

 

I'm trying to write a program that pulls xml data from the web. This program will pull the data every x seconds and I want the program to run for only 24 hours. Is there an easy way to add some final code to the program that terminates it 24 hours after it is called?

This is in python, btw

 

I don't really know Python but assuming it can pull system time, just pull it at the beginning then as you loop through check it against the current system time?

 

I think I got it by doing pretty much that.

I was getting overwhelmed by all the ppl on stackoverflow that were utilizing seemingly complicated solutions to similar questions. I've begun to notice that a lot of the answers on there seem overly complicated...is it just me?

 

i agree

 

Some of my developers were talking about this. I wonder if they overcomplicate things on there to come off smarter.

 

I mean you might want something more sophisticated and robust if it's part of a bigger solution, but if all you're doing is this one thing then who cares what the solution looks like.

I assume there's a sort of timeout or interval function in Python? Maybe wrap your logic in that and then have it called every X number of seconds and stop after a certain number of iterations (24 * 60 minutes * 60 seconds / X number of seconds)? I'm also assuming that Python has a way for you to call something like System.exit(0).

 

One of my scripts runs an external program (vdat) and I have it terminate after 100 minutes

Code:

       
        vdat = '/home/shelf8/Software/Vdat/vdat_latest'
        timeout = 6000
        poll_period = 10
        p = subprocess.Popen(vdat)
        p.poll()
        while p.returncode is None and timeout > 0:
              time.sleep(poll_period)
              timeout -= poll_period
              p.poll()
        if timeout <= 0:
          p.kill()
        else:
           pass

 

While not the one writing it, but have interns developing a pretty large rating tool in python. Will have a sql backend and a Web interface. Rate various shipment from packages to trucks to whatever the mode.

Have had my interns write me 2 programs so far in pythons to complete repetitive tasks. it.

Need to get python the hard way and knock that out. Done with Coursera, but need more in depth shit. Job should slow down a bit and I can focus more on python learning.

Walt Disney we use a lot of the D3 graphics. The are pretty sick.

 

D3 is the tits. I was able to use a custom Angular Directive library that lets you easily make nvd3 graphs for AngularJS.

https://github.com/angularjs-nvd3-directives/angularjs-nvd3-directives

 

Anyone used pandas much? I'm trying to learn how to use it with some simple tracking data but do not find it all that intuitive. Either that or I am way more sleep deprived than I thought

 

Workers Comp? I am familiar with this. No experience with Argentinians though.

 

Yes, Workers' Compensation. Are you in the insurance industry? We can talk FROI's/SROI's all day if you want

 

Yeah, I work for a large insurance service org... my code has probably parsed your flat files.

 

My team uses two 3 separate ways to transmit to the various states.

2 of them are vendors. One being HeathTech which scrubs our data and sends it off automatically without data entry, the other being Ebix where my team manually enters the data. The last is an internal process we created to not have to pay a vendor fee. The internal process is for high profile states that fine heavily for late transmissions

 

We are a vendor, but also contract with a few states to handle their data collection.
I manage our SFTP server and some ruby code that routes files to the proper location.

 

so, anyone else use ruby? tried elixir yet? looks pretty interesting.

 

How did you get involved in the area of the insurance industry?

 

First job out of college was with a small EDI vendor. Started out doing web development (still do some, but mostly internal apps)

 

Anyone who knows SQL pretty well want to make a little money? I have an aptitude test tonight and I don't know SQL at all.

 

I would definitely take advantage of this if I wasn't loading up a UHAUL tonight. Do you have to take it tonight?

 

Yeah, they're trying to get the position filled next week and I already committed to getting it done tonight.

 

Not to be a complete dick but does the position require you to know SQL pretty well? Are you concerned that you don't know it at all?

 

All good. How'd it go?

 

No, they're hiring a QA person too in a few months. The SQL stuff is a nice to have for them as a stopgap until they get the QA person hired.

Well. There were only two SQL questions and they were both really simple. Other than that I had to write requirements for simple things. That was most of it.

 

so yeah fuck C#. Having trouble with validation and not sure how to code email addresses since my damn book doesnt even give a damn example or even discuss the option in general. Any help?

 

Sorry I haven't been able to get to your message sooner, been super busy at work these past couple weeks.

 

you're fine. i always appreciate any help

 

concatenate and count

 

never used C#

but what do you mean by 'code email addresses' ? is it an issue with character literals?

 

im supposed to add code to parse email addresses into two parts but split the address into username and domain name in a message box.