A question about programming languages teached in universities?

Question

I'm currently a high school student,15 years old to be exact.After building my first custom pc,I have learnt much about hardware and I believe I can't learn anything else regarding that aspect of computers without going to a university.As a result I am thinking of trying to learn a programming language like C# or Java.I wonder though,are programming languages teached in the appropriate universities?Furthermore,if yes,wouldn't I be bored in class if I knew them by the time I go to these universities?
Side question:What would you suggest as my first programming language?(In case your answer is:It depends on what you want your first programme to be,I'd like to make a cpu stress test which will use a complicated algorithm.Something like Intel Burn test.

Answer 1

Before you attempt college, learn basic spelling and grammar. "taught", not "teached", and "learned", not "learnt".



Here's a little hint for you: The day you say you can no longer be taught, that's the day you lose!



As far as learning a language, universities teach programming skills. They may use this language or that language, but they are not teaching a language, per se.



For instance, you may know how to loop through a series of instructions x number of times, but that doesn't teach you how to sort a list of names and addresses. And among the numerous sorting algorithms, it doesn't tell you which would be best for any one particular situation!



One instructor told me that just knowing a language (or languages, as the case may be) doesn't make you a programmer, any more than knowing math makes you a CPA (Certified Public Accountant)! That was probably one of the hardest lessons I ever had to learn when I went to the university!



Learn Assembly/Machine language first. This will give you an appreciation of everything else the computer has to do to process instructions. And take a course in engineering that teaches the internal operations of the CPU, in which you "dissect" a CPU (not literally) and learn how those binary values actually cause the CPU to solve problems, such as grabbing information from memory, adding some values together, etc. by tracing the circuit paths. (Yup - I had to do that with the ancient 8080 CPU.)



And don't limit yourself to one language. That's like a carpenter limiting himself to one tool. If all he has in his toolbox is a hammer, then after awhile, all problems begin to look like nails! You also need screw drivers, crescent wrenches, etc, etc, etc.



Programming is a lot like being a carpenter - you need to have a lot of tools, you need to know each tool well, and you need to know how to use different tools for different situations. In computers, "one size fits all" just isn't realistic.



Good luck, and "happy programming" :-)

Answer 2

It's actually "the day you can't be taught is the day you died".



You don't learn programming by learning a programming language, you learn programming by learning programming. Start with http://www-old.oberon.ethz.ch/WirthPubl/AD.pdf Once you've learned programming (which will take about 6 months if you have enough time to devote to it), you can start learning programming languages. A stress test will be written either in assembly or a C dialect (C or C++, most likely). But that's about your 100th project. Start small and work your way up. You didn't learn how to write a 10 page composition when you were starting first grade, you learned how letters go together to form words. That's how you learn programming - you start with the basics.



Universities teach programming and they teach languages. Will you be bored? Yes. If you've learned programming well enough that taking the course won't teach you anything, most universities allow you to take a test and, if you do well enough, get credit for the course without taking it.



But it you start by learning languages, by the time you get to university and think that you've got it all down, you'll be in for a big surprise. You won't know a thing about programming, so you'll have to start from scratch. You WILL be bored by much of your language courses, but you won't be able to pass the tests for them, because they require a knowledge of programming.



So do it the right way from the beginning.

Answer 3

Learn XHTML I am currently in high school as well and this is a great programming language to get you started and it is somewhat easy to learn. You should try and find out if your school offers programming classes and if not you can always take a class out of school through colleges. And if you did already know all the programming languages by the time you went to college you still wouldn't be bored because there is always more to learn.

Answer 4

You said you want to improve your speaking skills in Korean, and for that, I'd go to Sogang Univ. I've attended Yonsei Univ.'s program and back then, it was very grammatically geared and oftentimes, a non-Korean foreigner failed Level 1. Seoul has many universities offering instruction in Korean, you might want to shop around, BUT Sogang is the best for learning to speak Korean better.

Answer 5

JavaScript and PHP are very good programming languages for beginners. Python and Ruby also, but I recommend the others.

http://w3schools.com/ is a very good place to start.