Self-taught computer science/engineering curriculum?

[kcaco10]

Hello all,

I am not sure if formal introductions are required on this forum, but my name is Chris and I have degrees in physics and mechanical engineering. My current job is unrelated to these fields, but I hope to get an engineering-related job soon.

In any event, I have been antsy lately to exercise my mind and advance my knowledge of computer science and engineering. Specifically, I would like to learn both the physical and theoretical basis of computers, learn about software and hardware, and coding and programming as well. I took some EE and logic courses in college, and of course calc and diff eqs, which may help a bit. I was hoping that someone could recommend a self-taught program and some good books to help along the way.

 

[TylerH]

What language/paradigm do you want to learn the most? And more importantly, what do you want to do with what you learn?

 

[kcaco10]

I suppose I am interested in process-oriented programming...I am more interested in learning how computers operate and how to build programs to assist in solving problems rather than for the purpose of developing games, applications, etc.

 

[TylerH]

I don't know what process oriented programing is. Is it something like multiprocessing or something? If it is, multiprocessing can usually be achieved in any language, given the APIs. I would suggest you learn something like C or C++, because of how ubiquitous they are.

If you're interested in problem solving for the sake of learning, you may want to try Project Euler. A whole site of problems to be solved with programming.

What do you mean by solving problems? What's an example of a problem you would like to solve?

Learning programming isn't going to teach you much about hardware though. A lot of people confuse computer engineering with computer science, when, in fact, they are two very separate fields.