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<p>Yeah, from what I’ve gathered, MATLAB is a language that I should hold off on until later. I’ll also keep that in mind about data structures and algorithms. That seems to be the consensus on other forums too.</p>
<p>Allow me to clarify the course I’m taking…It’s part of my requirement for transferring into UIUC as a math major. The course is called “Computer programming for math and engineering.” Here’s the course description.</p>
<p>“The syntax of a high-level programming language is studied and applied to problems in mathematics, science and engineering. An emphasis is placed on the structured development of algorithms to solve these problems. The programming language features that lend themselves to problems in these areas such as special variable types, library and user defined functions, and subprograms are dealt with in more detail. Applications involving methods of finding roots of functions, numerical techniques of integration and differentiation, vector and matrix operations included.”</p>
<p>The prerequisite for the class is Calc I…but I won’t be taking the course until my last semester before transferring, so I’ll actually already have completed Calc I, II and Diff EQ…and I’ll be taking it at the same time as Calc III.</p>
<p>The book for it isn’t posted anymore, because they only have it at my school during spring semester. I forget the exact book title, but it was a C++ book. It may have been this one [C++</a> for Engineers and Scientists: Bronson: Amazon.com: Kindle Store](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/C-Engineers-Scientists-ebook/dp/B00B7L0GFU/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1369540102&sr=8-9&keywords=c%2B%2B+science+engineering]C++”>http://www.amazon.com/C-Engineers-Scientists-ebook/dp/B00B7L0GFU/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1369540102&sr=8-9&keywords=c%2B%2B+science+engineering)</p>
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<p>I believe that’s the basic structure of the Intro to CS course that I’ll be taking at UIUC. It’s kind of unusual how that will work out…because I’m required to take a course that is devoted to C++(as far as I can tell) before I transfer, and then I’ll be taking an introductory course that touches on several languages after I transfer. I’m taking another computer class as part of my associates, but it’s more of a word processing, excel, multimedia, security type class…part of the requirement for my associates(they call it a “personal development” class). </p>
<p>On the Physics Forum, I got some links to start teaching myself some languages, because they recommended that I get some experience in before I take a C++ class. Given that I won’t be taking that class until spring 2015, I should have plenty of time to work on some. They recommended Python as a good introductory language, and I was pointed towards this book as a good self-teaching guide. [Think</a> Python: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist](<a href=“http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython/]Think”>Think Python, first edition – Green Tea Press)</p>
<p>Anyone have any thoughts or input on that? Any good self teaching resources to recommend?</p>