0. Should you be a computer(engineer, scientist)

Before beginning:

First of all, how can you decide to be a computer engineer (or study computer science) or develop yourself on coding, engineering etc. If you interested in computer or want to investigate your interest, you should test your interest. Because, this industry is develop really fast and have many different branch and also these are request much time to learn. Secondly, please aware of yourself, if you do not want to sit whole day or update yourself with technology, maybe this area are not suitable for you. However before decide this as I said you can check it out for a mile.

How can you test your interest?

You can test it with some main points on this area with less time and requirements. I have a method for this. This method have 2 steps, each step are really important for test yourself and do not forget this method is just my opinion so it may give wrong results so you can try another methods.

Step-1

You can do this step with some of computer programs or just a paper and pen.

Main topic is algorithm that is a integral for computer science.

On that step you will test your algorithm interest which is really important for coding and engineering. I will give you some important things for understanding algorithm, briefly. But if you need more information about this topic you can search it on internet or you can look algorithm books. I will give you some advice for these on the bottom of post.

You might not understand or solve some algorithms at the beginning, which is not mean you aren’t skillful at this area, this is so normal and never give up to learn and try to do. However if you get so bored and feel any enthusiasms while doing this maybe this area is not for you, but don’t decide fast and test yourself more and more if your dreams are in computer.

What is the meaning of algorithm?

You can imagine of algorithm is a path of solving a problem. It can contain calculations, conditionals ,etc. In engineering and computer science we create some algorithm for solve specialized problems. You can show your algorithm as a list or flow diagram. In my opinion flow diagram is more efficient and comprehensible way to express your algorithm. Because of this, we will use it on that blog.

What is the flow diagram?

Briefly, it is a way to express and give directions about solving a problem. While doing this we use some special shapes and arrows and of course texts.

There is a list of shapes and their meanings:

Photo From: Wikipedia

There is a list of operators and their meanings:

1- Arithmetic Operators:

(+) 🠚 Addition

(-) 🠚 Subtraction

(*) 🠚 Multiplication

(/) 🠚 Division

(%) 🠚 Modulo

(++)🠚 Increment

(--) 🠚 Decrement

2- Comparison / Relational Operators:

(==)🠚 Equal to
(!=) 🠚 Not equal to

(>) 🠚 Greater than

(<) 🠚 Less than

(>=)🠚 Greater than or equal to

(<=)🠚 Less than or equal to

3- Logical Operators:

(!) 🠚 Logical negation(NOT)

(&&)🠚 Logical AND

(||) 🠚 Logical OR

Algorithm example:

1-- Write an algorithm for divide two numbers.

Solving: We already now how can we divide two numbers mathematical, we use the same way to express us to computer, this means we should say every single step to computer.

2--: Write an algorithm for compering two number(x,y).

- If x is bigger than y, program says x bigger

- If x is smaller than y, program says x smaller.

- If x and y are equal, program says equal.

How can you test with yourself ?

I will give you a couple of problems, some of them are easy, some of them are medium and some other are hard to solve (this difficulty levels are just my opinion and just for beginners). You probably don’t get harder while solving easy ones but if you get harder while solving hard ones don’t worry about it, just try harder and harder. Don’t forget you can fail and this is not important for now, we are just try ourself for our interests. So please notice yourself while studying on this topic, if you feel enthusiasm and have fun, never mind the fails. One day you will do it if you wish.

Problems:

-The program that writes sum of two number which form user input.(EASY)

-The program that writes square of number which from user input.(EASY)

-The program that finds the sum of numbers from 1 to 100.(MEDİUM)

-The program that finds the age from the birth year inputted by the user.(MEDİUM)

-The program that finds the number of digit from the number inputted by user.(HARD)

-The program that finds whether the number inputted by the user is a multiple of 3.(HARD)

Step-2:

Last step we tested us the one of the integral of engineering and coding, and also we prepare an foundation for this step. This step we will introduce coding with using 'C'.

Why we started with C ?

In actual when you start this industry you should select your code language by your purpose, I mean if you want to develop yourself on Web, you should select JS, etc. To be honest, when I decided this I have some doubts because C is a low level language so that, in general it is hard to understand but I selected C because we can get better computer logic when we use a low level language.

Note: Low level languages means, these are much close to computer language; High level languages means, these are much close to human language. We can write codes faster and easier while using high level languages but, these languages are slower and have some limited access on some points. Of course there are more points to compare but you can understand it briefly.

How can we code with C ?

We will use an online IDE to do this but you can use other IDEs on online or not. One of the best popular IDE is Visual Studio Code. We use an online IDE because it is easy to use and fast so these makes it best option for testing.

There are many different option for online IDE but my choice for this step is this.

How can we learn coding on C ?

For this you can use some several tutorials and sites, for example Learn-C. In future maybe I can prepare an education for learning C but now you can use other sites.

What should you do ?

After basic tutorials, your tasks are same with step-1, on that point please use your algorithms for solving these problems with C.

WELL DONE!

Conclusion:

If you completed all of steps I congratulate you! You test yourself and now you should be aware of your interests. Now time to decide, if you love to be into in computer and coding and solving problems, this area can suitable for you so after that you have a long way with full of learning. If you didn't like to coding or solving problems you should try more with different methods but I believe every people who really want to get in this industry, will fell happiness when they work on it.

Finally, as I said we have a long way and I am also on that way next port I will tell how I get in this industry briefly to you. Maybe you can take some lesson from them.

If you passed the interest test, welcome to computer world! Lets learn together on this blog.

Note: If you don't like coding you can fallow this blog just for mathematic or other engineering abilities.