stungbyscorpion,

I would argue that most programming laguages that you'll find being used in Architectural computing are those that are compatible 'out of the box' with the tools used by architects such as the Revit api for plugins and other such extensions and scripting. 

.NET compliant programming languages for example as Revit has a .NET API.

Additionally, Python as used in Revit.

Bottom line: Of course, you don't have to entirely program only in those languages. C# and Python are good start for programming for these programs but you aren't completely bound to those languages. Web based components of your 'program' may need to be using a web based program or Java or whatever suited for that. It depends on what you are trying to achieve as an outcome. 

Now, the schools aren't going to be able to teach you for a long enough period of time to go into that too much. They'll probably focus on a specific group of languages commonly used in the suite of software programs that you will be using in the course of the degree and they will most likely be using common software used in architecture. Basically Autodesk products in a lot of programs. 

To be good with a programming language, it takes time. You can't assume to master it in 2-3 weeks or even an entire semester or two.

Other suggested languages/tools:

Grasshopper

Dynamo

Rhinoscript

...

the list goes on but it depends on the apps and tools and how you doing in-app scripting, plugins, extensions, etc. to each app. That varies.

There can be dozens of programming/scripting/markup (computer) languages you may have to obtain familiarity with to some level.

Spoon,

Yeah. If that is what the course program and the actual degree program. 

Olaf,

I never said Rhinoscript or Grasshopper were "programming languages". I said, other suggested languages.

Technically mathematics in an applied instructive form is a language used in computing as a mathematical language. In case of Grasshopper, Algorithm implies a language of sorts. Computer languages don't have to be textual. It can be graphical as well. It falls into a distinct category of computer languages from programming languages and scripting languages.

Rhinoscript is a VBScript-based scripting language/tool that is configured for Rhinoceros.

VBScript itself is a general purpose scripting language that is interpreter based. It's capabilities can fully entail the capacity of traditional PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES like BASIC including QBASIC, Visual Basic, etc. 

When is the last time you wrote an actual a commercial stand-alone software?

Yeah.

Thanks.

Just because you are a script kiddie doesn't make you capable of programming Autocad or Revit itself or your own complete custom designed BIM app. I have no interest in all that scripting crap for building design because for fucking god sake, no one is interested in blobitecture / nurbulous designs for houses and light commercial. It raises the cost of construction over the budget. 3d printing won't cut it. You have to run components and assemblies through ASTM testings for structural testing and other testings to various standards for other kinds of testings.

In order to assure the materials, components, and assemblies do in fact perform according to life, health, safety standards as well as the engineering standards. Add to that, you would have to have metallurgical/material engineers, structural engineers, etc.

All of this will add cost to the project total. Sorry, clients aren't going to be convinced to spend a million dollars in R&D for their home which they are planning to spend maybe $1 Million total if not less.

As for energy analysis coding, why would I need to write this stuff for building design. I'm not investing my software development business work into architectural/building design work because what's the return on investment for it. In software development work, that kind of work are financed by investment (either traditional VC/Investor models of funding or crowdfunding). Architecture is not one of those areas that you'll find VCs/investors clamoring to invest in.

To answer your statement, 

I'm currently working on a project in Unity that would or could be applied to architecture in nature. Part of the work being applied is for gaming. An adaption of the same work is intended for architecture in nature but I can't simply use the conventional Autocad or BIM rendering engine because it takes too much time in the rendering process for augmented reality. A real time rendering engine is needed. Unity does that.

JBeaumont,

Architects like null pointer & Olaf are amateur programmers. Sure, they can cobble together a script to do something provided through whatever interface the application allows for scripting and whatever language that it used for it. They are not "professional computer programmers and software developers". 

I AM a software architect/engineer, software programmer, software developer, video game designer/developer. I had to some degree stepped out of it 10 years ago until the recession kind of pushed me back into it. 

Why I stepped out of software development to some degree, 10 years ago, was that 10 years ago, we had the dot com bubble crash and a lot of outsourcing of programming jobs to India and add to that commercial software development was difficult to do as a sole-proprietor software developer. Especially, video games. Now, there are tools that are reopening the market for indie-software development.

When I was going into building design/architecture, I can't be really running both businesses very easily as a sole-proprietor/practitioner in both. When you are sole-owner and the only one to do the work in both businesses, you can't be doing both so I was stepping out of one so I can work in the other. The recession had kind of pulled my back into the software field to supplement. A number of them are under NDA.

Add to that, there is the architectural licensing boards and their take on titles like software architect and software engineer.

As the owner & software architect/engineer of my software business, I have to be watchful and careful to not be really connecting such title in connection with the building design business. I keep the businesses functionally separate for a reason. Although it is a small concern but not one to totally ignore and disregard. 

Software development is more than just designing and planning software. The business model of software development is like combining the role of architect, engineer, builder (an analogy for the combination of programmers, graphic artists, etc.) and developer. To have an idea of what it takes, it is essentially the combined effort of ALL these roles in one. That's what software development is like. 

Right now, my software development work is centered around castAR and similar augmented reality systems. Therefore, there is a bit of planning involved. For example: how do you control the output of UI and 3d virtual world space? You have certain content you would want outputted to through the castAR glasses via the projectors to the RR sheets when you look at the sheets. On the other hand, there is certain things you may want outputted to the screen on a tablet or laptop or desktop. How do you plan the user interface and experience. UI/UX is one aspect of software development/game design. In applications, what do you need the software to do. What is it for? Applications development implies a form follows function logic. What do you need it to do? 

These are rhetorical questions. These are just some of the kinds of questions you need to well.... ask... yourself or whoever, so the planning can be performed before a single line of code is written. There is of course various project development approaches. When you are on your own, you're likely going to be using some variation or combinations of the following: waterfall model, prototyping, iterative, iterative & incremental, spiral, or RAD........ but not likely some approaches such as the Agile model as that is suited for teams which you don't have if you are on your own because without parallelization, you downright have to use some form of serialized approach. While it is possible the multi-thread the process and task switch but when we do that, it makes progress for any single thread of tasks take longer.... especially on a large project. 

Most independent amateurs use a code & fix aka cowboy coding model. 

Although, I ration that architects entering software development would likely find the code & fix (cowboy coding) model distasteful to their architect training which applies a similar approach to waterfall or some of the other processes mentioned. Architects are taught to use some form of formal planning before designing. Thinking before penciling. This is not always the case.

When you're writing some script to automate something, we are talking about what is customarily small stuff compared to complete stand-alone software or video games. The reason I don't get into alot of the small plug in stuff is people don't really pay or at all for it. It's not meant to be commercialized and consumers don't want to pay more on top of paying for the base stand-alone program. When I tried this in the past, that was the results I was getting. 

It is this stuff that from a developer stand-point, what gain do I get for investing my time. What is my ROI for doing that.

Since the OP is taking classes in "architectural computing", my opinion is when it comes to classes and the software tools they are using in their curriculum, they determine in the curriculum what programming languages they want students to be learning. It will correlate to the tools they are teaching in the curriculum. When you depart from the planned curriculum, the instructors/professors are likely going to get frustrated. If they are being more flexible, then you would be expected to choose from the languages that they can assist you with because the choice of languages and what the instructional staff knows tends to correlate a bit. That's academia for you. Otherwise, you will need to find someone or some other source for instruction. 

REGARDLESS of any computer language, there is an underlying fundamental concepts of computer logic processing that all personal computers function under. That is the same for the Univac mainframe and PDP-8 minicomputers as it for the Tianhe-2 supercomputer. The computer science principle is the same for current generation of Intel i7 as it was for intel 4004 microprocessor. The underlying science of computer logic is the same even through microprocessors have got more and more sophisticated with its ability to do more complex operations within a single machine language level software instruction by additions of advances forms or ALUs in their evolved form such as integrated math co-processors / FPUs, etc. If you get down to the bare metal, it's all logic states that makes all the black magic of computing happen. 

For what it is worth, the underlying computer science principle if you know it and then learn any programming language enough, you can create any computer program, script, or whatever you want the computer to do within reason. If I really wanted to with enough time, I can program a sequence of programming or scripting commands, I can make one, two or more 3d models of a building modeled in AutoCAD do the tango.

To what point?

nullpointer,

Write a video game by January 31, 2016 . You have to create the graphics. You have to write the programming code for it.

I'm not going to expect you to create music or sound. You might borrow some sound effects and music files from somewhere.

Lets see what you can do.

JBeaumont, 

You too, make a video game. Same deadline.

You claim castAR is a scam. We'll see !!!! I know the hardware developer of castAR, Jeri Ellsworth. 

I'm in the competition too!

Deadline: January 31 by 11:59pm with a grace period of 24 hours. 

Read what I said above to JBeaumont. In a month's time, as a single individual, I wouldn't expect it to be AAA level but something.

Yeah, yeah, I am GOD, too! (sarcasm)

Because, I don't need 10 years to learn things that can be learned in a single day like you slow turds that think at the speed of frozen molasses.

You don't need a law degree and a law license to read the architectural licensing laws. It is what it says. When someone says something totally the opposite of what the law says that any reasonable person can infer from the statutory definition and even dictionary definition of words, they are flat out wrong. 

Every software that is thought out and planned systematically and therefore has a software architecture and the title of the role of planning software architecture is called a software architect. The deeper nitty gritty application of computer science of the components is called software engineering. The software architect role is the role of taking the components of software and bringing it together into a system with a plan and layout. Software engineering is the focus of the component level of software or software system. It's the shift from a holistic macroscopic view to the more microscopic perspective. Just as engineers of multiple disciplines in buildings, you have multiple disciplines within software. The software architect role brings the different disciplines of software together in a coordinated fashion.

As a software developer and programmer and software architect & software engineer, I carried the role and functionality of these roles with every software project from small projects to larger more sophisticated projects.

Software architecture and software engineering are inextricably linked and essentially part of one occupation. The software architect role evolves from the foundation of software engineering and it is most distinguished by the focus and spectrum of duties and task. These titles or roles as they are, are what they are labels. They label a person's role and responsibilities in a multi-person team like you see in corporations. In a one person business, these titles are just labels to the roles and responsibilities. Which means, every title in a software business is my title in one person business. Unless someone else does something that I am not doing myself. 

When you are an independent software developer that is a sole-practitioner with no employees (or anyone under contract to perform any part of the work), you, the owner, are all the roles and has ALL the responsibilities. You wear all the hats. There is no delegation of tasks to other people. You do EVERYTHING yourself.
 

These roles or titles comes out of corporate culture of giving titles to roles that are divided from a one person that does all tasks into a delegated form where you divest the tasks to other people with defined role and responsibilities. When you have employees, like a typical software corporation with dozen or hundreds or thousands of employees, that is what you do. When you are just ONE person business then as ONE person you do everything.

As said, ALL these roles are my responsibility. I don't have employees. My only choice is: Do the work myself. Plain simple as that.

archiwutm8.... *PLONK*

Olaf,

David Rutten didn't create Grasshopper in Grasshopper. He had to learn to become a professional programmer to create Grasshopper. Grasshopper is a tad more than what I mean by the kind of mini-programs or scripts that you write. Grasshopper is somewhat a stand-alone program much like Kerkythea. It's design to interoperate but it is more stand-alone.

For most architects, you couldn't create anything that sophisticated or able to really operate as a stand-alone program. That's because anything with sophistication would be overwhelming for you guys when it comes to software development / programming.

This is because you don't have the depth of understanding computer science as a software developer would. That would take more time then you want to invest in. It isn't that architects can't learn to be software developers. It is that architects don't have the will or desire to. Learning to be an architect of buildings is enough for most people in this profession. Add to that, a vast majority of the people who apply and enter architecture school are not complex math wiz. They aren't into advance calculus. They choose architecture because it doesn't have a high math requirement (in quite a few architecture programs) compared to some of the other degrees like engineering. 

I never said that. You took a response I made out of context. I never said what I made from my software work from the 1980s and 90s.  I never responded to that question with all businesses combined over the entire history. That maybe more or less with the building design business given the horrible recession. As far as software since re-engaging in the software, the capital revenue doesn't start rolling in until I either crowdfund in some form, or until a product is released. It's like writing a book. You don't make money on the book you are writing until you publish the book. That's the 'sweat equity' that you invest prior to releasing it to people to fund or purchase.

As for resume, I am not presenting that to you guys due to your ill intent as well as others.

Regarding Jeri Ellsworth:

What is your basis on your comment about Jeri Ellsworth?

spoons,

As for architectural education, JUST GO TO THE COLLEGE / UNIVERSITY WEBSITE of a particular program, read the course description and where possible the syllabus of their programs. It should spell it out for you. Oh wait, I don't need to attend an architecture school to get the course syllabus. Most of them put them online for anyone to view around the world.

BTW: What the hell are you going to need to be a programmer to design a building?

What do you want to do, play Turtle all day?

kjdt,

I used the quotes to emphasize the words. Perhaps, I should have used bold instead. First Clatsop Community College is a real college. It is an accredited college as well.

I had been programming software for a long time before I attended the college. I actually didn't need to take the degree in the first place. It is what it is. It really means nothing much in the tech industry because it is your experience that matters not the degree. 

Architectural computing or computational design as it maybe called these days, I understand they are using computer algorithms to compute structural forms like honeycombed wavy nurb forms and other complex parametric calculations.

Yet, have you asked yourselves, are the clients asking for or demanding such design? Is this what the client wants? Is this about your own crazy ideas or is it about solving a real solution.

I am not sure what the point is but when it comes to academia, what languages you should learn is kind of depend on the program your in and read the syllabi for the courses because you really don't get a lot of choice over the course offering. You get what they offer to choose from.

I have occassionally found a few uses for programming in the past for building design but not often because there already is an array of programs out there for doing that. If I am going to spend time writing a program for building design use or otherwise, it has to be something that there isn't an adequate or existing solution for.

What is the point of all this computational design in architecture?

Olaf,

okay okay.... yeah, I used Turtle / Logo a long time ago. It was interesting. However, I'm just curious what is the point of computational design in architecture? 

I'll be fair, I maybe over criticizing it but how are you using it in architecture in built architecture like residential and light commercial? 

On the C64, I had a variant of it on a cartridge called Turtle Graphics II. It combined features of LOGO an PILOT.

no_form,

While I rather have a little shred of civility between me and Olaf and a few others, you just don't help any. I have nothing more civil to say to you so just don't reply to my post.  I have nothing nice or civil to say to you. 

I did enjoy using Logo so I can see how Logo may have in some way influenced  Olaf's interest in computational design.

I have a fair question for him so how does he use computational design in architecture especially in designs of residential and light commercial?

My question wasn't directed at you in the first place. I'll put together my software projects. I don't need your approval. 

Despite my dispute with a number of individuals here on this forum, I can care less about your opinion. My issue with some of the individuals here are between me and them so stay out of it.

I'm not going to reply to you anymore. I've replied to you enough. Unless you use a real name, I won't reply to your posts. 

Oh yeah, do you kiss your mother with that mouth?

PS: Please clean your mouth or butthole (whatever it is) with some soap.