I'm currently maintaining a code base that has this style;- if(a>b) DoFunction(); which I find massively annoying, when debugging and stepping through the code, as you can't put a break point on a positive condition result.:mad:

Computing doesn't have to be just pushing databases around or tweeking web pages, you can pick your field, whatever you want to do. For me it was games, I spent 15 years in the games industry which was fun, working with artists and musicians, not just us programming nerds! I got in a maths degree, then got into games via a CS Masters (conversion course), which maybe an approach for you.

I've done a lot of optimisation in the games industry where performance is critial. We use C++. To get the best performance out of any language you need to know the underlying hardware architecture to get the best out of it. I've got improvements with things such as memory alignment, parallelism, converting key areas to machine code, better language usage; like removing construtor functionality, etc you need the language you use to give you control over those points. I'd also like to say there is quite a bit of variance within one language depending on which compiler you use and even within a single compiler based on the optimistational settings you use. Slow languages are any that are interpreted like java, python, basic, scripting languages etc. Garbage collecting languages are bad performancewise, like C#, lisp, java etc as they give irratic, unpredicable performance.

Programming in the games industry a couple of amusing names came up. Well functions. Working on a flying game the cockpit recieved bullet damage with the function CockHoles()! Also you could change your flying helmet colour, decals etc the interface was called GUIhelmet. Chorkle!