How many people here are software developers

[walfin]

Hobbyists included.

I'm sure this has been done before but I was just wondering.

What do you like coding in? My current poison is Quasar (https://quasar.dev).

 

[Puffy]

I can develop websites using javascript and node.js but I'm a bit rusty and probably of a junior-level at this point.

 

[Ex-User (14663)]

Mostly R for ML and statistical stuff, C and C++ for more computationally demanding stuff

 

[Black Rose]

I want to build a cognitive architecture like the Star Trek computer or Iron Man's Jarvis.
Unfortunately, it takes an exceptionally high IQ to understand Rick and Morty and this brain wave program was all I could come up with.

@Serac I was wondering if you could give me any advice. (IBM Watson is too expensive)

 

[Inexorable Username]

Hobbyists included.

I'm sure this has been done before but I was just wondering.

What do you like coding in? My current poison is Quasar (https://quasar.dev).

I was almost a hobbyist but then I went to college. Does that count?

 

[walfin]

I was almost a hobbyist but then I went to college. Does that count?

Everything counts. What did you do in college?

 

[Kormak]

maybe this is a good place to ask. I'm going to attempt to become a full-stack developer in the next year (not for employment purposes, just personal interest )... but I hate typing and sitting in front of the computer e_e prefer to walk up and down and talk... is there a software that can reliably be used to communicate with the computer to write? voice to text

Dragon?

 

[Inexorable Username]

I was almost a hobbyist but then I went to college. Does that count?

Everything counts. What did you do in college?

I did a bit of C, a bit of C++, Java, and I tutored in Python but then promptly forgot it all when I dropped out....I didn't really learn anything. I learned that the way college teaches coding language sucks.

If I'm being honest, I never understood why I was learning C, and to this day, I still don't understand. In college, we started by learning C, but when I asked...the teacher told me that I would never use C - we just had to learn it because "It's the language used to write other languages". I think she wanted me to go away. My professors hated that I asked questions.

We never made anything interesting, either. There were things I really wanted to learn. I was particularly interested in writing apps that could perform basic functions on my computer...but...we didn't get to do that. We had to write programs that didn't allow for creativity. Even when we got to play with programming a little robot guy in Java, the projects would be something like "move him 5 squares to the left and then 3 squares down". I had so many other classes I had to take, like Calculus (which really screwed me because I accidentally tested out of Pre-Calc and then wasn't able to get a proper education in it), I just didn't have the time to really work through the kinks of the programs I was trying to do on my own time. I'd get 40% of the way there, and give up, because I'd get lost.

So, in short, I guess I was never really good at programming. I love it to death. It thinks the way I think. I especially loved learning machine language (not sure why. I'm weird like that.)...But in the end, I got so desperate to just at least TALK to someone who was interested in computer science (since I wasn't able to nurture my interest alone, for lack of time and skill), that I eventually got interested in hacking, and then I got involved with the hacking community. I never got INTO hacking though, to clarify. I ended up doing some volunteer work to help high schoolers learn how to do defensive computer security...Also something I'm no great shakes at. Lol!

It was my "exploratory computer phase" in life.

 

[Inexorable Username]

maybe this is a good place to ask. I'm going to attempt to become a full-stack developer in the next year (not for employment purposes, just personal interest )... but I hate typing and sitting in front of the computer e_e prefer to walk up and down and talk... is there a software that can reliably be used to communicate with the computer to write? voice to text

Dragon?

Oh...No...I really don't think so...I do contracting and I use dictation software, but what you're suggesting would be an utter nightmare. Dictation software is a wee bit of a nightmare when it comes to syntax, spacing, and making new lines. It will misunderstand you and sometimes type out what you're saying (like typing period, instead of .)
You also have to say "space" if you want a space and you're not talking in a consistent flow. It has trouble recognizing weird syntax sometimes, and if you were to say things like "int" or "bool", it's likely to get those words wrong, because they're not words in the English dictionary.
Alignment would be an issue for you - tabs and such.

Aside from all of that though....I would say it would take a VERY unusual person to actually be able to dictate code. Dictation is something of an art, and very few people realize how mentally challenging it can be. You grow up writing, and learning how to speak in common tongue so listeners have high retention rates. Even though someone once told me that I sound like an audiobook when I speak, I'm still trying to find my flow with dictation, and that's just dictating normal English.

My suggestion for you, if you're not a "sit down" person, is to get yourself a white board and practice designing programs on that. You can do a lot visually when it comes to programming and you're using something like a whiteboard. It has some advantages over straight text. For instance - the ability to see your variable values at a glance, rather than having to scroll up and find them. That helps you to leave a project and come back to it - whereas normally, you might have to sit and focus for hours. (I usually write English notes to one side while I program so I don't lose my place if I get distracted.)

By using a whiteboard, you can also abstract programming concepts you know how to write well. For instance, you can draw functions as boxes, and show relationships between them. Once you whiteboard out your concepts (which you can store by taking pictures of with your phone), you then have two choices. You can go sit outside in the nice sun, or wherever you please, and write your code on paper, by hand, or you can go straight to the computer.

IF you choose to write your code by hand, it will not only be massively quick for you to type - but theoretically, you can also pay someone else to type this if you wanted to hire a contractor on a platform called Upwork - OR, you MAY be able to use a PDF scanning program to detect your handwriting and convert it to text. I've never tried that, so I can't promise that will be an efficient way of coding.

If you do use this last solution, I recommend you also go online and look up a good free online code cleaner which can point out errors to you and tidy your code.

Hope this helps!
I'm sorry if I disappointed you about dictation software. FYI - if you have Mac, dictation software is built in, and I believe it's also built into the Chrome browser. You have to pay for Dragon. I remember it wasn't cheap. I do not, however, recommend Braina.

 

[Ex-User (14663)]

maybe this is a good place to ask. I'm going to attempt to become a full-stack developer in the next year (not for employment purposes, just personal interest )... but I hate typing and sitting in front of the computer e_e prefer to walk up and down and talk... is there a software that can reliably be used to communicate with the computer to write? voice to text

Dragon?

Lol I don’t know if you’re serious but even in the hypothetical scenario that a speech to text interpreter would parse every word perfectly it would take you ages to write even a trivially simple program.

 

[Ex-User (14663)]

I want to build a cognitive architecture like the Star Trek computer or Iron Man's Jarvis.
Unfortunately, it takes an exceptionally high IQ to understand Rick and Morty and this brain wave program was all I could come up with.

@Serac I was wondering if you could give me any advice. (IBM Watson is too expensive)

I think I saw some of your code for that a while back on this forum. If I recall correctly you used multi threading and stuff, pretty cool.

Not sure what advice you’re talking about though. How to understand rick and morty?

 

[Marbles]

I want to build a cognitive architecture like the Star Trek computer or Iron Man's Jarvis.
Unfortunately, it takes an exceptionally high IQ to understand Rick and Morty and this brain wave program was all I could come up with.

@Serac I was wondering if you could give me any advice. (IBM Watson is too expensive)

I think I saw some of your code for that a while back on this forum. If I recall correctly you used multi threading and stuff, pretty cool.

Not sure what advice you’re talking about though. How to understand rick and morty?

On the off chance you haven't seen this..:

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty. The humour is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical physics most of the jokes will go over a typical viewer's head. There's also Rick's nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation- his personal philosophy draws heavily from Narodnaya Volya literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these jokes, to realise that they're not just funny- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Rick & Morty truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the humour in Rick's existential catchphrase "Wubba Lubba Dub Dub," which itself is a cryptic reference to Turgenev's Russian epic Fathers and Sons. I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Dan Harmon's genius wit unfolds itself on their television screens. What fools.. how I pity them.

And yes, by the way, i DO have a Rick & Morty tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It's for the ladies' eyes only- and even then they have to demonstrate that they're within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand. Nothin personnel kid

 

[Black Rose]

Not sure what advice you’re talking about though. How to understand rick and morty?

The rick and morty reference was meant to convey that I am limited in my programming skills and that I am unable to make an operating system based on a.i. - That was why I mention cognitive architecture at the beginning. I want to create an a.i. architecture and that is what I need advice for.

 

[Kormak]

Lol I don’t know if you’re serious but even in the hypothetical scenario that a speech to text interpreter would parse every word perfectly it would take you ages to write even a trivially simple program.

-.- damn. Will try Vim then with a standup desk so I can walk around and think.

 

[Inexorable Username]

Lol I don’t know if you’re serious but even in the hypothetical scenario that a speech to text interpreter would parse every word perfectly it would take you ages to write even a trivially simple program.

-.- damn. Will try Vim then with a standup desk so I can walk around and think.

Like I said - I think you should consider white boarding.

 

[scorpiomover]

Lol I don’t know if you’re serious but even in the hypothetical scenario that a speech to text interpreter would parse every word perfectly it would take you ages to write even a trivially simple program.

-.- damn. Will try Vim then with a standup desk so I can walk around and think.

Nah. You only need a macro.

The problem with programming using voice dictation software is that software uses a combination of words, letters, numbers and punctuation symbols. While most languages have short sounds for letters, numbers and words, English doesn't have any appropriate sounds for a lot of punctuation symbols, including several of the ones used commonly in programming. E.G. in code, you'll see something like write(a). But the word for "(" is "open brackets" and the word for ")" is "close brackets". So it actually takes a lot longer to say than to write.

Invent your own words for each punctuation symbol. Make sure that the words are easy to say, weird and unique, so there's no chance that the dictation software could confuse them with something else. They will be converted into their equivalent words.

Then run a macro that converts those words into their equivalent punctuation symbols. All you need is several simple find and replace operations for each symbol and its audio word. Hey presto! Instant coding.

You'll also benefit from a simple audio editing command program, i.e. a program that can not only receive dictation, but where you can also do things like find words, select words, replace words, etc. More complex for the audio software. But you'll find it a boon during editing.

 

[walfin]

The problem with programming using voice dictation software is that software uses a combination of words, letters, numbers and punctuation symbols. While most languages have short sounds for letters, numbers and words, English doesn't have any appropriate sounds for a lot of punctuation symbols, including several of the ones used commonly in programming. E.G. in code, you'll see something like write(a). But the word for "(" is "open brackets" and the word for ")" is "close brackets". So it actually takes a lot longer to say than to write.

Invent your own words for each punctuation symbol. Make sure that the words are easy to say, weird and unique, so there's no chance that the dictation software could confuse them with something else. They will be converted into their equivalent words.

Then run a macro that converts those words into their equivalent punctuation symbols. All you need is several simple find and replace operations for each symbol and its audio word. Hey presto! Instant coding.

You'll also benefit from a simple audio editing command program, i.e. a program that can not only receive dictation, but where you can also do things like find words, select words, replace words, etc. More complex for the audio software. But you'll find it a boon during editing.

Sounds like a readable programming language would be a good idea. Like perhaps some sort of variety of VB.NET that is even more English like.

It's a bit sad that the tradition of English like languages, e.g. COBOL, BASIC, Macromedia Lingo etc. are going away. Maybe they will be revived one day when we all start to code through speaking.

That said there are usually special terms for punctuation sequences that can be used in a spoken programming language, e.g. shebang for #!. And programming languages can be read out as well - e.g. Linux Radio.

This would be a cool challenge for INTP forumers - invent a purely spoken programming language! It would probably have to be really similar to a natural language.