Re: Which class

[Cheryl Magadieu <leftymagoo -at- attbi -dot- com>]

I'd have to agree with what other folks on the list have said--if you don't 
enjoy programming, don't take a programming class. Programming classes 
usually require a large commitment of time, patience, and energy. Also, a 
programming class probably won't help you during job interviews unless you 
can explain what you did with the information you learned or how the class 
helped you in your job. If you didn't do anything with the info or it 
didn't help you, then the interviewer may find it too easy to assume that 
you didn't learn much from the class or that you've forgotten what you learned.

The three classes you mentioned below are all object-oriented programming 
languages. You might find that it's easier to take a language-specific 
class such as Java *after* taking a class that provides an overview of 
object-oriented programming. Otherwise, you'll be trying to learn 
object-oriented concepts at the same time that you're learning 
language-specific material, and that's a pretty hefty load. I've taken both 
an object-oriented programming class and a Java class. I enjoyed the 
object-oriented programming class a lot more and got a lot more out of it. 
I found that there were many similarities between the thought processes 
used in object-oriented programming and the thought processes used in 
technical writing. Both tend to involve researching a problem, 
brainstorming about solutions, thinking about relationships between things, 
and determining how to combine those relationships in logical, efficient 
ways. The Java class helped me a bit with the programming chapters I was 
writing for the job that I had at the time, but they didn't help nearly as 
much as the database management course that I took.

I've never taken Visual C++, but I have studied Visual Basic on my own, and 
it has been very handy. But then, I like to write Word macros, which 
requires some knowledge of Visual Basic.

As someone else said, your best bet is to tailor your course choices to the 
goals you hope to achieve. Otherwise, it's like learning a foreign language 
and then not using it for 10 years--you forget more than you ever thought 
you could.

Cheryl

At 02:58 PM 10/22/2002 +0000, you wrote: