Now, when I got into programming there wasn’t much available in ways of guides, or good teachers around on whom/which you could depend upon to teach you skills that would be needed in the coming years. Sure, you had your reference books, cookbooks, and so on; but, nothing like a guide (book or mentor), to hold your hand, and walk you through the programming world until you felt like you belonged. Heck, the most prestigious jobs, at that point in time, in the programming industry involved managing the AS/400 mainframes using COBOL, and working on the Enterprise with SAP.
Today, it’s a whole different landscape in entitreity; it’s a whole different world entirely. Code is everywhere; from your digital watches, to the ECU in your car. Yep, we’re as close to the Matrix as we ever were. And because of that, there are as many kind of ‘programming jobs’ as the amount of times you can refactor the same code to do the same thing in different languages. Which is to say that, there are many roles that a programmer can fit into - from a full stack web developer to a robotics guru. The options, and opportunities available are bountiful. Even if they don’t pay much.
As close to the Matrix as we ever were...
How To Be A Programmmer: Community Version
The post was prompted by Robert L. Read’s long, lengthy, tenuous, and fully loaded version of “How to be a programmer” (and yes, there are as many versions of “How to be a programmer” out there, as the number of IPv4 addresses).
I was super awed to find out that this community version of How to be a programmer, it hits home. It deals with facts, and figures outside the part of writing programs, the process of creating, and generating code. It talks about skills needed, apart from the ones that make you think we’re programmers.
What’s brilliant, is the fact that this guide, it’s maintained by a community. Yes, you got it right, on github. It’s also very well structured, with clear demarkations for Beginners, Intermediates, and Advanced programmers; each of them being sub-divided into topics that pertain to their respective levels. All these topics that are covered, are in the form of How to’s - for e.g. How to Deal with I/O Expense, How to Analyse Data, How to Choose What to Work On, and so on; it’s yet another brilliant touch, and if I may - it’s bad ass!
As close to the Matrix as we ever were...
How To Be A Programmer: Community Version is, by far the most excellent guide for anyone, at any level, who calls herself a programmer. It’s probably (not sure), the only guide of its kind that’s made by the community, for the community of programmers. And, if you can add to it, feel free to pull, and push. It’s definitely worth the fork.
