Not everyone needs to be a software developer...

...but everyone should learn to code. I have friends who are pharmacists, lawyers, police, firemen, military, mechanics, and musicians who also write code to help them out in their jobs. Software is a tool, a versatile and powerful tool, that can be applied to any occupation or industry. Learning to code is a 21st century skill that should be required in every middle school and high school in the country.

I'm not alone in this belief. There are lots and lots and lots of organizations dedicated to helping people learn to code. Even the Prime Minister of Singapore posted a Sudoku Solver that he wrote while an electrical engineering student as encouragement and an example to the world that we need more people who can code.

I think that code may have been more approachable when I was learning. The video games we had were blocky and you could understand how they could worked with a minimal amount of instruction or none at all; how many versions of breakout and lunar lander must have been written by enthusiasts. Today, it takes a small army of developers and artists to create even the simplest console video game. But mostly, I think that there are so many problems that are already solved, and that they are too easy to get on the internet; what's the point of doing something that takes thought and creativity when more complete solutions are available at the click of a mouse for free? The point is in the joy of discovery and creation.

So, I sat down with my son and we wrote a Sudoku Solver in C#. I've put the source code on a Github gist. Feel free to use it for any purpose you want. My goals were to make it compact, easy to read, and efficient.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Database Projects, SQL Unit Tests, and TeamCity

Image
Continuous Integration  is a really good idea, especially when you are working with a team of developers. There are lots of tools out there that can help your team build better quality into your application. TeamCity by JetBrains is one such tool that has been around for awhile; specifically, it is the one that my company uses. Visual Studio has Database Projects   SQL Server Data Tools  to address some of the inconsistencies that developers face when using a database as a storage layer; Things like version control and consistent deployment. It also includes SQL unit tests , which fills a huge gap if any  of your logic is in the database. Many organizations moved away from logic in the database years ago because it was tricky (at best) to verify logic on the data tier, of course, they were also making changes directly to the database itself... but I digress. If you are using SQL Server Data Tools, and run your unit tests locally, it is a joy to behold. Your data...
Read more

Building nice XML from SQL Server Tables

The XML functionality of SQL Server is vast, however, the best subset of that functionality that I've found may be demonstrated in the following example: Unfortunately, the example result is listed before the code. Join all the desired tables together Set the desired root element Set the path to an empty string to avoid an extra XML element at the root of each resulting row Provide an XPATH name with attributes for each of the desired columns (select * doesn't work well) Keep all the selected columns together by XPATH name or you'll split your xml attributes See my next blog entry for my best way to shred the xml
Read more

Brent: Programmer. Gamer. Cheapskate. All around good guy.

So... not being one that can leave a sore spot alone, when Brent Brown sent me an email Brent his "preferred" blog link so that I could update the link I had created to Stubenville , I naturally couldn't just update my previous blog entry. I needed to take the opportunity to pour lemon juice, salt, and vinegar into the wound until it became a pulp of agonized flesh. It may be because that's the way I am, but it may also be because Brent really needs this kind of opposition in his life. After all, he has a wonderful wife and cute kids, but as far as I can see, nobody that really gives him the harassing that he needs to keep his life in balance. That's where I come in. I don't know what the big deal is... after all, I liked the Stubenville (not Stupid-ville, that's a whole other wound that needs opening from time to time) thread. However, since he isn't there any more, I suppose that it has a limited shelf life. So, if anyone actualy reads my blog, you...
Read more