Hi im Alex
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Hello, my name is Alex, i am originally from Moldova but i'm currently studying in France on a scholarship. I'm in my second year of Computer Science, i had no previous coding experience prior to my admission at the university.
After my knowledge, i am the only user that codes in Ocaml on codeabbey, i am a mere beginner with functional programming but i hope to get better as time passes by.
I'm aiming for the top 100, wish me luck!
Hi Alex!
Thanks for sharing info about you :)
If it is not a secret, what made you to go to university for CS if you have no previous experience in programming? I know it could be hard sometimes and some people get frustrated when they go study coding without trying it first... Though it seems your case is different and you are quite passionate coder (which in my opinion is the main factor for success) :)
BTW, am I right assuming that your classes are conducted in French, so that you know at least two foreign languages besides your native one?
And yes, I heartily wish you a good luck - the more talented people here - the better! And also I'd say I've tried to learn Ocaml a year ago or so - so your solutions would be a valuable reference if I return to these attempts... Well, and for any other person who will decide to try this language :)
BTW, why had you chosen it? I know that nowadays people wanting functional language more often prefer Haskell or Scala (though Ocaml looked more sane to me, ha-ha)...
Hi, good to be here!
Well my initial plan was to study Math-Physics, because they were my strong point in highschool, but at the same time i wasn't particulary fond of beeing a teacher or a researcher. So i decided that i'm going to learn CS as it is still related to those 2 fields (one might argue) and it provides more prospects for a future job.
Sure at first it was quite frustrating, i was competing with people that were coding since they were 8-10 years old, people that grew up in this country, but there were also people like me, who were new to the field so i wasn't discouraged.
And yes you are absolutely right, all classes are conducted in French, i took some french classes when i was younger so i wasn't a complete profane but it was still tough. (i also speak/read/write/speak russian but on a basic-intermediate level)
As for my solutions, they are quite sloppy to be honest, i don't have a lot of experience with Ocaml :)
It's a long story but to keep it short, i was having some problems thinking recursively (still have for that matter :D) so what better way to advance that to take a functional programing class. Ocaml is taught at my university, beeing a language developped in France and all, so i went for it.
Some might say that Ocaml is outdated and lacks a good standard library and modern features, and that learning Haskell or Scala is a better idea, but i think that at my stage learning the concepts are far more important than the language itself.
P.S (I'm a C enthousiast at heart, so the imperative side of Ocaml appealed a lot to me )
Hi Alex!
You're right that the important thing is the concept of functional programming rather than the actual usefulness of Ocaml. When I was an undergrad a decade ago, we used Scheme (Racket, to be specific) which is a Lisp variant.
To this day, I've never written a line of production code in Scheme, nor seen a line of production code in Scheme. I've seen Lisp, and I currently am writing sections of my PhD thesis using Haskell. But never Scheme. Nonetheless, I'm thankful for that course that used Scheme extensively because thinking in tail-end recursion will unlock certain problems quickly. The dynamic programming topic here is a great example of this phenomenon.
Anyways, cheers to you and good luck in your studies. If I can ask, where in France are you? I've travelled extensively in Brittany, Ile-de-France, and Provence and enjoyed it very much.
Hey Matthew!
A while ago, i read some articles on functional programming and i stumbled upon Lisp/Scheme, i even played a little with a online interpreter and i must say that i'm not a fan of the prefix notation or the multitude of paranthesis so my experience pretty much stopped there.
I'm actualy in Île-de-France - La Ville Lumière where all the magic happens :) This is one beautiful country, i strongly agree with you.
Thank you for the kind words and good luck with your PhD! You are doing a titanic work from my point of view, i admire the courage because i could never see myself having the will to do it.