Can programming screw my computer

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21 comments, last by Hraefn 10 years, 5 months ago

Short answer: No

This!

Programming isn't any more dangerous than everyday usage. You can't break it, unless you do s.th. inherently dangerous, like deleting system files or using it under the shower.

It isn't more dangerous than everyday usage, but that doesn't mean it is not dangerous. As you said - you can delete your files by accident.

But of course you can delete them even in Windows Explorer, Total Commander, the command line window etc., without any programming at all.

But all the posts in this thread are a good answer to the question. You just need to read them all and understand it corretly and you'll be fine :)

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If you're not logged in as a super user the chances of doing anything really bad to the computer/operating system itself is vanishing. This is good practise even if you're not writing your own programs. You could screw up your own files, but that risk is there anyway. As others have said, you should be making backups.

You're probably more likely to make such mistakes as an experienced user than a beginner, I think. I've had no major disasters yet, but I've come close a few times, and I've deleted some stuff which I certainly didn't mean to.

I've programmed for over 6 years using C, C++, Java, Lua, Phyton, and many others, and never (ever) seen this happen to anyone, anywhere.

With Phyton you would have an even smaller chance of doing that (I'd probably take some time to do it if I wanted to, not to mention doing it by accident).

Still, if you think it's better safe than sorry, even with a ridiculously minimal chance, you can use a virtual machine to program or, even better, a linux distro that you can program without giving your own applications root access (like Ubuntu).

It is very unlikely that any permanent and significant damage is done to your computer by coding or more specifically programming.

1) Leave your computer system settings alone unless you know for sure what you are doing.

2) Use only trusted applications, software, and libraries to avoid malicious software which is found sometimes in pirated or criminally created scripts.

3) Make a system image backup and a boot system recovery disk just as standard operating procedure that everybody in the industry should do to backup all their hard drive and everything in it. I can call on these and be back in action within 2 hrs. at the most and well worth the investment. If your hardware breaks or a malicious software hurts your system, then you will have a previous backup and laugh at the temporary setback. The best professionals do this and want their team members to do the same. Some company team leaders verify or schedule their team members to do this.

I calculate that the mathematical probability of programming being the cause of harm to a computer at about 1 to 2,896,345. wink.png

Programming will not hurt your computer if you are in the habit of doing normal things and know what you are doing.

Personal life and your private thoughts always effect your career. Research is the intellectual backbone of game development and the first order. Version Control is crucial for full management of applications and software. The better the workflow pipeline, then the greater the potential output for a quality game. Completing projects is the last but finest order.

by Clinton, 3Ddreamer

There were reports of overheated/fried GPU's for Star Craft 2 a while back.

They were drawing lightweight graphics and 2D menus at uncapped frame-rates that caused people's graphics cards to overheat. Most of the issues were probably due to cooling issues like terrible air flow or dust clogging things up.

Those aside, a computer component being pushed to the max will disable itself if it approaches damaging operation. Writing some heavy software and running your hardware to the max for long periods of time will probably reduce the life of your hardware, but otherwise you've got nothing to worry about. The worst thing that could happen is that you thrash some memory and lose data. Even if you have to re-format your computer, the computer itself will be fine.


Thank you all for your answer i don't know about programming but i think i should keep away from words that have any connection to my system or hardrive(Actually i'm a bit of afraid now but still i want to programming).I have one more question if i'm installing python it would using my RAM even i don't run it or it only using RAM when run it cause i have an old computer it has only 1GB(This computer is almost 4 years old)

As long as you don't write or delete a file that is important, you should be fine. Loading and writing files local to your game shouldn't worry you.

Also, no - programs only uses RAM when they are running.

I don't think a python editor will need too much memory anyway. (idk though)

Yes,i think python wont use so much RAMsmile.png

Good programs only run and use resources when they are used. Sadly there are more and more bad programs with autoupdaters uselessly phoning home every few seconds the whole time your computer runs or preloaders that are supposed to make a single bloated program start a tiny bit faster (in the rare case you would want to use it) in expense of always slowing down booting and all other programs.

As for the danger. There are stupid things you can do like making an "rm -rf *" shell script, but normally your computer should survive.tongue.png

What is "rm -rf *" it is a code to deleting system?blink.png


Yes, it can. I screwed up my system a few times, once by accidentally erasing my boot sector while playing around with raw disk access.

That's why i use vmware now to program and test those sort of "dangerous/unsafe" applications laugh.png. That way if you screw up, you only screw a virtual disk.

I will check vmwaresmile.png

Yes, it can. I screwed up my system a few times, once by accidentally erasing my boot sector while playing around with raw disk access.


If you just started with hello world programs in python, I think your PC stands a significantly greater risk of being thrown out of the window during a tantrum, than dying to malfunctioning raw disc access or other forms of kernel hacking.


Short answer: No

This!

Programming isn't any more dangerous than everyday usage. You can't break it, unless you do s.th. inherently dangerous, like deleting system files or using it under the shower.

Thank you,you're giving me a couragesmile.png

Short answer: No

This!

Programming isn't any more dangerous than everyday usage. You can't break it, unless you do s.th. inherently dangerous, like deleting system files or using it under the shower.

It isn't more dangerous than everyday usage, but that doesn't mean it is not dangerous. As you said - you can delete your files by accident.

But of course you can delete them even in Windows Explorer, Total Commander, the command line window etc., without any programming at all.

But all the posts in this thread are a good answer to the question. You just need to read them all and understand it corretly and you'll be fine smile.png

If you're not logged in as a super user the chances of doing anything really bad to the computer/operating system itself is vanishing. This is good practise even if you're not writing your own programs. You could screw up your own files, but that risk is there anyway. As others have said, you should be making backups.

You're probably more likely to make such mistakes as an experienced user than a beginner, I think. I've had no major disasters yet, but I've come close a few times, and I've deleted some stuff which I certainly didn't mean to.

I hope i don't have any major disasterblink.png

I've programmed for over 6 years using C, C++, Java, Lua, Phyton, and many others, and never (ever) seen this happen to anyone, anywhere.

With Phyton you would have an even smaller chance of doing that (I'd probably take some time to do it if I wanted to, not to mention doing it by accident).

Still, if you think it's better safe than sorry, even with a ridiculously minimal chance, you can use a virtual machine to program or, even better, a linux distro that you can program without giving your own applications root access (like Ubuntu).

Thank you for informationsmile.png

It is very unlikely that any permanent and significant damage is done to your computer by coding or more specifically programming.

1) Leave your computer system settings alone unless you know for sure what you are doing.

2) Use only trusted applications, software, and libraries to avoid malicious software which is found sometimes in pirated or criminally created scripts.

3) Make a system image backup and a boot system recovery disk just as standard operating procedure that everybody in the industry should do to backup all their hard drive and everything in it. I can call on these and be back in action within 2 hrs. at the most and well worth the investment. If your hardware breaks or a malicious software hurts your system, then you will have a previous backup and laugh at the temporary setback. The best professionals do this and want their team members to do the same. Some company team leaders verify or schedule their team members to do this.

I calculate that the mathematical probability of programming being the cause of harm to a computer at about 1 to 2,896,345. wink.png

Programming will not hurt your computer if you are in the habit of doing normal things and know what you are doing.

Thank you very much for the good information and tipssmile.png

There were reports of overheated/fried GPU's for Star Craft 2 a while back.

They were drawing lightweight graphics and 2D menus at uncapped frame-rates that caused people's graphics cards to overheat. Most of the issues were probably due to cooling issues like terrible air flow or dust clogging things up.

Those aside, a computer component being pushed to the max will disable itself if it approaches damaging operation. Writing some heavy software and running your hardware to the max for long periods of time will probably reduce the life of your hardware, but otherwise you've got nothing to worry about. The worst thing that could happen is that you thrash some memory and lose data. Even if you have to re-format your computer, the computer itself will be fine.

Thank you for all your answer it really help me a lotbiggrin.png

I would recommend the latest version of Python 2 (currently 2.7.6) rather than Python 3, simply because most of the libraries you might be likely to use still support the older version, and because there are still currently more resources available for learning 2.7.

I prefer the opposite perspective: use the latest Python 3 version because the language and standard library are improved, and you don't want to depend on third party libraries that are demonstrating obsolescence and lack of maintenance by not having a Python 3 version.
Enough time has passed since the introduction of Python 3 to give library maintainers a fair chance, and important libraries like Numpy and PyOpenGL have been ported without trouble: libraries without a Python 3 version are either abandoned, developed by someone too clueless to care, or legacy software that should only be used for maintenance of projects from the Python 2 era.

Omae Wa Mou Shindeiru

Not in ways you would expect. However, in order to program you will find that you will require the herbal drug known as caffeine. This drug usually manifests itself on a programmer's desk in the form of coffee. Many a sorrowed soul hath spilled the blood of this drug, this divine gift from the firmament, onto their instruments of logical implementation (i.e. you can easily spill shit like food and coffee on your keyboard, and that is wayyy more likely to fuck it up than Python).

I would recommend the latest version of Python 2 (currently 2.7.6) rather than Python 3, simply because most of the libraries you might be likely to use still support the older version, and because there are still currently more resources available for learning 2.7.

I prefer the opposite perspective: use the latest Python 3 version because the language and standard library are improved, and you don't want to depend on third party libraries that are demonstrating obsolescence and lack of maintenance by not having a Python 3 version.
Enough time has passed since the introduction of Python 3 to give library maintainers a fair chance, and important libraries like Numpy and PyOpenGL have been ported without trouble: libraries without a Python 3 version are either abandoned, developed by someone too clueless to care, or legacy software that should only be used for maintenance of projects from the Python 2 era.

i really confusing now but i will try python 2 first and when i getting used to it i will check python 3

Good programs only run and use resources when they are used. Sadly there are more and more bad programs with autoupdaters uselessly phoning home every few seconds the whole time your computer runs or preloaders that are supposed to make a single bloated program start a tiny bit faster (in the rare case you would want to use it) in expense of always slowing down booting and all other programs.

As for the danger. There are stupid things you can do like making an "rm -rf *" shell script, but normally your computer should survive.tongue.png

What is "rm -rf *" it is a code to deleting system?blink.png

it is a unix/linux command, rm is the remove file command. (similar to the "del" command in DOS and the windows command prompt), -rf are flags, r is for recursive (remove subdirectories and their content as well) and -f is for force (no yes/no promts, just do it) and * means all files in the current directory.

the really bad command(That wintertime were probably refering to) would be rm-rf /*

/ is the root directory on a *nix system so everything (included mounted secondary or external harddrives) will have their files deleted (assuming your user has the right to actually delete all files).

[size="1"]I don't suffer from insanity, I'm enjoying every minute of it.
The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!

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