mikhail wrote: » It's very helpful during your studies at least, and if you don't take a shine to it, it'll limit career choices afterwards. That said, there are plenty of roles EEs do that don't require any programming. I struggled with programming initially, and then one day it just clicked for me. Stick with it. It'll come right.
aido79 wrote: » Thanks. It's good to know it's not the be all and end all. I have no problem so far in reading code and understanding what is happening but writing anything from scratch is what I find hard. What I am struggling most with at the moment is the software we are using(sourceboost). I hope it will all click with me at some stage.
TheBoyConor wrote: » Depends on the job you go into afterwards whether it is relevant. If you are doing any sort of research or component design and modelling then yeah it would be good to have, maybe even essential. On the other hand if you go into scheme design or contracting it would probably of little if any relevance at all.
RedXIV wrote: » If you understand it and can read it then you're not in too bad shape. At this point then, its more about just practice to get comfortable writing it. Honestly. If you write a piece of code every day, even a few lines, you'll be surprised how quick it comes together, especially if you start from scratch each time.
aido79 wrote: » My plan is to try to get into controls/industrial automation. Can't see myself looking for roles in research or component design to be honest.
TheBoyConor wrote: » In that case I'd say programming skills would be very desirable.
aido79 wrote: » I would have thought plc programming would be more useful than c though or are they both desirable?
Bikerman2019 wrote: » We have done PLC programming, c, Java, Embedded and now are learning Verilog. It all comes together in the end.
DublinDilbert wrote: » Even if your working with plcs, knowing a bit of c code can be very handy when you come across a problem. For example I was working on a project which had a very high spec encoder feeding into a control system. There was issues with the value being read in by the controller, the mech team blamed the controls guys and vice versa. After a couple of days I programmed up an Arduino to generate the pluses the same as the encoder, two nice for loops to count up to 10000 and down 0. It was less than 30mins work. I then connected the ttl outputs to the control system, and it was reading the position spot on. There was a mechanical problem with the encoder. The Arduino uses a variant of C, maybe register for tinkerCad and do some exercises there, flash some leds, read switches, will definitely help with C. I find many people struggle with C programming due to not fully getting what functions are, so I always make sure people fully understand functions.
KeithTS wrote: » I would urge you to stick with the coding based things. Every day it's becoming more and more important. I'm sure you'll get jobs without it but you'll have more options if you stick with it. I'm assuming if you're using sourceboost then you're doing something with PICs? It sounds like there are two things at play here, getting up and running with sourceboost and getting up to scracth with C. Try separating out the two problems, try a different IDE to practice C with. Once you get more comfortable with the language you can go back to sourceboost if it's a specific requirement for the course. I would suggest CodeBlocks to start with, it's free to use and very simple to set up a simple windows application, it may help you focus on writing bits of code rather than being frustrated by the IDE. There are also a lot more tutorials and things available with CodeBlocks which may help. Once you get more comfortable with writing the code or you need to flash a PIC (if you're even doing that) then you can switch back to sourceboost. If you're able to read and understand the code, you're more than able to write it, it's just practice that's needed by the sounds of it.
Turbulent Bill wrote: » Just like a spoken language, you need to practice to improve at it. From the sounds of it you've a good handle on what the code is doing, which is the main bit. The Arduino suggestion is perfect, especially for someone interested in embedded.
