Re: programing with science jobs
- From: "hhc314@xxxxxxxxx" <hhc314@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2007 23:30:11 -0800
On Nov 10, 3:15 pm, artem <ParTizanPuP...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi all,
i am a senior in high school and next year will be going to college. i
want to major in either physics and/or mathematics or electrical
engineering. i was wondering if i will be working in one of those
field will programing be helpful or not. do i need a basic knowledge
of programing or a deeper knowledge of programing.
thank you all,
Artem
In an undergraduate course in physics, mathematics, or electrical
engineering you will be required to obtain some degree of proficiency
in computer programming. Better to learn some elements of programming
before you enter college, because when you are studying your major
subjects, you will not have much time on your hands.
Fortunately, with the availability of today's PCs, you likely have a
tool available for you to begin with. Stick to classic programming
languages that are platform and operating system independent.
Depending on your chosen career path, you will likely need to know how
to program in assembly language, 'C', and possibly Fortran or Basic.
If you chose electrical engineering, you likely will need some
knowledge and basic skill in programming in assembly language. This is
the basic level of programming, and allows you to write simple
programs instructing a processor how to perform the desired operations
in things like embedded progrogramming where there is no operating
system. Assembly language is generally called a "low level"
programming language where each programmed instruction results in the
execution of a single instruction cycle on the processor. You use a
program called and "Assembler" to compile programs written in assembly
language and convert them to machine language (binary) instructions.
What are know as "high order" programming languages allow you to
program more complex instructins, which in turn result in the
generation of a multiple instruction sequence to the processor for
each instruction that you program. Program language such as 'C',
Fortran, Basic, and many others fall in to this category. You use a
program called a "Compiler" to create these programs. The compiler is
somewhat of a complex beast that first parses the commands that you
program, then generally converts them to assembly language, and
ultimately converts the assembly language to machine language
instructions.
Usually programming languages are platform and operating system
independent, although the assemblers and compilers aren't.
Consequently if you are writing a program to execute on one machine,
it may be assembled or compliled on a totally different platform than
the one on which it will execute. Except for people programming
embedded systems, this is unusual, and most programmers execute their
programs on the very same platforms (computers) on which they were
programmed.
Today I do a lot of embedded programming applications, so I typically
program on a PC and then transport or download the instruction code to
the target device, be it a cell phone or a turbine controller. Today I
program primarily in assembly language and 'C' usually using either a
PC running Windows or a Unix system. The operating system of the host
machine is essentially transparent to me today...something that comes
with experience.
Still (and my undergraduate degree is in physics), when I had to do
serious number crunching in a hurry, as a student I would whip up a
simple program in Fortran, or (God forbid) even GW Basic. These
worked for me and are very easy to learn. It is simply not worth the
effort to write a number cruncher in assembly or 'C', although it is
readily possible to do so.
In my work today, I mostly program in 'C' and assembly language, and
use Microsoft's "Visual C++" to do so on a Windows XP development
platform. I occasionally use "GW Basic" for quick computations, not
for product development. Also, to be perfectly honest with you, I have
absolutely why Microsoft calls the product "Visual C" because the only
parts of it that I ever use are its assembler and 'C' language
compiler and linker. For embedded software applications, I mostly use
software development tools from Franklin and others that are targeted
to specific processors.
If you are new at programming, my suggestion is that you get a copy of
GW Basic and play around with it for a while. It's capable of doing
some amazing things and is free. After that, purchase a copy of
Microsoft's "Visual C++" and play around with that for a while. A
little advance knowledge of this stuff may help you in college quite a
bit, and certainly will not hurt you.
Good luck in college!!!!!
Harry C.
.
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