are there any universities that teach C# in the programming 101 classes?

are there any universities that teach C# in the programming 101 classes?

I don't think any major ones do, and I don't see why they would.

It's pretty much the same as java as far as learning programming languages is concerned, except it's much less popular. Java is taught for two reasons, it's simple and gets across the concepts, and it is still the most popular development language in the world.

[quote name='RivieraKid' timestamp='1298562522' post='4778470']
are there any universities that teach C# in the programming 101 classes?

I don't think any major ones do, and I don't see why they would.

It's pretty much the same as java as far as learning programming languages is concerned, except it's much less popular. Java is taught for two reasons, it's simple and gets across the concepts, and it is still the most popular development language in the world.
[/quote]

true, however I think C# is great for developers who want to go a little further (VB, F#, DirectX, unsafe code, linq). Granted they could download and install the express editions in their own time but it s nice to have it just there to intice devs. Java perhaps has lots of similar cool stuff but that wasnt the case when I was studying it, I found it boring.

C# isn't interesting by any stretch of imagination; all of its new "cool" features have been in other languages for decades. Java is a good choice because everyone and their grandmother uses it. Introducing people to another boring mainstream language would serve no purpose. Universities should (and do) introduce people to various paradigms, something which is far better done with Erlang, Haskell, Prolog and Lisp, to name a few; C# has no place here other than replacing Java (which I'm all for; Java is a pretty clunky language.)

I dont think the language is important. What is important is that you learn how to program and the different types of programming (eg assembly, object orientated and functional to name a few). If you learn those well you will have no problem going to whatever language you need to use, for example last year it took me all of about a week to learn action script well enough to complete a paid project (the being paid was the main motivation there ). Here in our first year we do Java (again about a week for me to learn coming from C++ ), z80 assembler and Haskell programming.

Learning stuff outside the course is highly recommend (and actually a concept my university pushes, with a semi-official project being run leaving us to learn about GUI's, image analysis and multi threading , as well as a number of projects within the computing society) and will set you apart from those on your course that only learnt what was on the course itself.

Thank you for your comments; I understand the process better now.

I have one last question though; It's obvious that I will have have to do a lot of independent learning but what if I get stuck on certain topic in my independent learning? Will people be able to assist me with my problem even though it's not actually on my course?

It's important to learn how to program, but using different languages often FORCE you to learn different techniques.

My school taught Java for intro CS classes, but then we got some C (for concurrency and OS development), C++ and smalltalk for some Object-Oriented code, Lisp for functional programming, prolog for declarative programming, and some MIPS assembly for low-level computer architecture. While I haven't used any smalltalk, Lisp nor Prolog in my professional career, they taught me different ways of thinking about programming, and, IMO, were very important.

So, I personally benefited from a wide range of languages. In fact, I know I got my 1st job in large part because I understood, at a low-level, what the processor was doing, and how instructions were executed in a pie-line RISC architecture.

I have one last question though; It's obvious that I will have have to do a lot of independent learning but what if I get stuck on certain topic in my independent learning? Will people be able to assist me with my problem even though it's not actually on my course?

In my experience no. Graduate students doing independent learning have a much better chance at getting one on one help for things they're interested in.

I recommend IRC. Gamedev has an unofficial IRC channel at irc.afternet.org #gamedev where we help people and discuss interesting problems. This forum is also a useful tool.

Depends on what you get stuck on. The best part of universities is the proximity to other people: Try and get other people interested in similar things, and you'll be able to help each other when you get stuck on problems. For specific issues, there may also be organized clubs, e.g. programming clubs. But generally, having a clique of friends at the same level as you that you can exchange ideas with is really the big valuable thing about universities if you're there for the learning (as opposed to going there just for the piece of paper they give you at the end).