[Tutor] Exercise suggestions

[Alan Gauld]

"michael scott" <jigenbakuda at yahoo.com> wrote

> don't need a person walking me through it, a simple, "build a 
> program that asks
> a user to give you a name and create permutations of it" is great. 
> Of course
> that example is elementary, but that is the gist of the responses 
> I'm looking
> for.

So have you done it yet?
And then added a GUI?
Or generated a group of random letters and let the user guess the
longest word they can make up using those letters - and compare
the result that the computer found based on a dictionary of  valid
words?

Then add a second user so it becomes a competition with the
computer validating the two results and declaring a winner.

> I just have no idea of what kind of programs to build, my ignorance 
> is
> holding me back in my opinion.

Your suggestion was a good start then use imagination on how to
improve it. Then go looking for things you do manually on your
computer (or in a notebook) and automate them. You need experience
and the more relevant and real your programmes are the better.

The one problem with Opensource projects compasred to
professional/commercial coding is that there is nearly always
a dearth of design documentation. Moost commercial software
shops will produce architecure and design documentation that
helps you find your way aropund a project. There are probably
exceptions (Linux is one which has several books written about
the design) but thats my experience of Opensource code. You
just have to wade in and start reading.

Playing with a debugger and grepping for likely strings in functions
is a good starting point - and asking questions on the devel mailing
lists too.

> Any response is welcomed, but I do ask if you are critical of me

Your aspirations are good but remember that most professional
programmers are college or universitry trained. Its not an easy
job to market to crack without professional qualifications. You
need a lot of experience to evidence your competence.

HTH,


-- 
Alan Gauld
Author of the Learn to Program web site
http://www.alan-g.me.uk/