I did not go to school for computer science but I am getting interested in it. Now that I am learning C what other things I would need to study that is usually offered in a comp sci major? I see a lot of books on data structures, algorithyms, operating system design etc. Can someone give me a nice layout which, if you have books thats cool, how i can progress thru this programming/comp sci cycle. After I learn basic C and stuff, where do I go from there? Do I grab a book on algorithyms? What next? What have you learned to be the best method of progressing thru a comp sci degree? thx
The OBP books are nice .. and will help you through C++ Java and python (note all OOP !)
They are here...
[/url][url=http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCS/]http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCS/
without going to school for it you miss a major key point in my opinion. That mainly is learning from others and an experienced professor. I would get a algorithm book.. but i'd also look into books on software design and the whole way to planout a program before you even write 1 line of code.
The biggest thing I got out of college was software design and we didn't write 1 line of code in it till the last few weeks of class.. it was just all how you plan out a application before you start so it doesn't become a big cluster truck. I've been programming for over 10 years and i can tell by looking at code who knows good design or not.. thats I think the biggest thing to learn first as a programmer. If you don't have good design you write the application and learn that something isn't right and you have to re-write most of it.