Hey, so I heard for SOFT ENG 2S03 the language used to be C but has been changed to Java - does anyone know if this is true? Would I want to use Eclipse or is there another IDE that the school uses? Also any third year or higher mechatronics students have any opinions about the changes to the program? Thermo has been moved to second year and SOFT ENG 2MX3 has been dropped for a new course, which is supposedly programming in Unix and other techniques for programming. Thanks for any replies.

Wait, what?! They dropped 2MX3? SSSShhhhhh. Loved that course.

Originally Posted by VastHorizon

Wait, what?! They dropped 2MX3? SSSShhhhhh. Loved that course.

Still there. Third year course now.

Originally Posted by VastHorizon

Wait, what?! They dropped 2MX3? SSSShhhhhh. Loved that course.

Still, if they made it a third year course -- I'm not convinced that is a good idea.
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To address the OP's question: IDEs depend on your preferences. Personally I would do all of my coding, regardless of language (Python, C, C++, Matlab and so on) in Notepad++ and then compile/test it separately.

The point is, you could code in Notepad and the professor would not care as long as you submitted the assignment.

As for the changes in the programme ... well. I feel moving Thermo to second year is a good move. Moving Signals (2MX3) to third year, not so good a move. A new course that teaches you how to program in a Unix environment -- 3F already forced on to learn that stuff, even it was rather Spartan in its implementation; though I concede that the programming techniques might be useful.

I do hope they introduce a course dedicated, actually dedicated, to Discrete Logic and such. There needs to be a precursor to 3TA4 and 3TB4. Finally (from what I saw) the new professor for 3N03 really improved the course and made it useful -- I am now in favour of getting rid of 2MM3 and keeping 3N03, provided he continues to teach it (I think it was Haddara? Correct me if I'm wrong).

Hey, I'm also going into Mechatronics next year and I was wondering if any upper years could give information on what programming languages will be taught? Also, I wanted to get started on learning a programming language this summer, so what language should I start off with? Any input would be appreciated

I'm also not a fan of 2MX3 in third year, it just seems too late to introduce those concepts.
Thermo in 2nd year is fine, you could stick that course almost anywhere and it wouldn't really matter.

As for programming languages (to answer Robgoy):
I think it's important for all trons to have a good grasp of C, I think that's probably the best starting point. C will be used heavily in 3TA4 and 3TB4 for programming microcontrollers, and many other languages have been derived from C (C++, C#, objC, Java). Also, C is more demanding of the programmer than a lot of other languages, because there aren't as many convenience features. So once I was solid with C i found other languages much easier to learn and work with. I also think assembly is important, at least just understanding what it is and the role it plays.

I'd say Sam gave a pretty good recommendation.

To echo: read up on and/or practice C (knowing C++ tends to help as well). Assembly might be a tad more specific but once you have the concepts down at the bare-bones no-meat level, it really helps with everything else -- you should be seeing Assembly (NASM) used in SFWR ENG 3F03 (which also draws on some C).

Over the summer, you can try to work on a project and have a goal. Seriously. Not only will you actually have something to strive for (say, learning C), you'll have something proper to show for you effort too ('I used C to make ______').