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I learned enough C in a semester to get a (pretty crap) job writimg Javascript and PHP having never programmed before. Given that was first year university wit
by dools 14y ago
I learned enough C in a semester to get a (pretty crap) job writimg Javascript and PHP having never programmed before.
Given that was first year university with a bunch of other courses on my plate, I would say 10 weeks is ample.
EDIT: Just to add to that, in the following year I learned to program the Motorola 68HC11 microcontroller in a single semester well enough to build a 48 note midi controller (with Hyperterminal text based interface!) and the year after that learned PIC assembly language in a single semester well enough to build a miniature device to track an object in 3d space using sonar and infrared, including an integrated user interface with buttons and a little LCD screen. All of these projects were only a single university semester which is about 13 weeks, and with normal course load outside of that. I'd say the amount you can accomplish in 10 weeks if you focus solely on that in terms of programming experience would be enough to make you useful in many entry level positions.
EDIT AGAIN: I should also note that I taught a course in database design to students in Ghana with skills ranging from never have seen a computer before, to those who had used word and excel before. Most of them didn't own a computer. In 4 weeks, using only the mysql command line client and notepad, all of them were able to design and implement a basic database. A couple of them would have been useful as juniors writing SQL for reporting purposes or learning DBA stuff on the job (depending on the size of the company of course...) but they showed incredible progress in just 4 weeks.
- meaty 14y agoI get what you're saying (I designed a 4-bit CPU at university, prototyped it in basic TTL and got it fabbed and it worked (!) in two semesters) but it doesn't mean I'll ever be able to throw a useful microcontroller core out of the door or that the work I did was of any merchantable quality. Progress is good but if you throw someone into industry too early, then you're going to hurt the reputation of the education methodology (which in this case deserves it) and the company who is employing them.
- dools 14y agoYou missed the part where I said I got a job, producing code which made someone else money, after only a semester of C having never done any programming before. The other examples were there to give credence to the fact that you can learn vast amounts in a semester. Also you missed the bit where I trained people in 4 weeks who had never programmed before how to hand write SQL queries on the linux command line. There were 2 out of a class of 16 whom I would be comfortable recommending as junior DBA or reporting type folks. "Too early" depends on the industry. In neurosurgery you need an undergrad degree, then a postgrad degree in medicine, then 4 years as an intern, and blah blah (it's been a while since I watched "Scrubs" :) but for programming, particularly writing web based C.R.U.D apps, deploying Wordpress sites, maintaining existing projects, or writing internal tools for business automation, you can basically start as soon as you understand the basics of programming. Not every company in the world is a 4 person startup looking for "full stack unicorns" - there is a huge industry out there that can make use of people with a solid grounding in the principles of programming to product "merchantable" work with real value.