regards
shanky jauly
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regards
Enya tin
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Have a nice day
danny deqsta
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respect
james hampe
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I started programming in Basic on a Dick Smith Wizard – a computer game console which happened to have a Basic interpreter. I wrote text adventure games with which I bored my family. The fun soon ran out on that, though and I did not touch a computer again until my mid twenties. It seems inconceivable today but for a decade or so I did not have any access to a personal computer. Then a brand new Osborne 386 with Windows 3.1 was dumped on my desk – without so much as a manual. I was quickly hooked.

Paradoxically, I did study Computer Science in that time – but never touched a computer! It was perhaps the most boring subject I have ever tried to study, and I failed it miserably.

Like you, I feel the tension between engineer (code monkey, architect) and craftsman, although I usually couch it in terms of being a tradesman. I think trades are very creative – in fact I think most jobs have a creative element; it just takes someone special to bring out that aspect and perhaps to recognise it when it does happen.

I now eschew the term software engineer – I don’t think it accurately describes most of the people who write software. Perhaps NASA programmers are truly software engineers but the vast majority of us are crafts or trades-people. It’s also true that I don’t want to be an engineer, and perhaps can’t afford to be. My customers want working applications at minimum cost in minimum time – they don’t want the Eiffel Tower or some other engineering marvel.

"I just don’t bother memorising the API". Few things irk me more than language bigots; the types that memorise even the most arcane parts of a language and know the relative efficiency – in nanoseconds – of a for-loop versus a while loop. There are many ways to do the same thing – in life as in programming – and while there are sometimes very strong reasons to do something one way, usually the decisions are not that cut and dried. Beware the pedant.

"Go and study Art or Philosophy. It will do more for your ability to create than any Computer Science course ever will". I would give the same advice for almost any career. I don’t know any career that could not benefit from exposure to the aggregate wisdom of human history. Too often we lose sight of the wisdom and benefit of experience.

Some of the other things I would pass on to would-be programmers are below.

I would advise all developers – new and experienced – to read widely and often. I am continually surprised at how few of my colleagues make the effort to delve into the broader community, especially when information is so easy to access!

Don’t fixate on a single language – learn three or four, at least. You don’t have to be a guru in all or any of them, but the knowledge you learn from one will be transferable to other environments. You are also better able to serve your customer’s best interests if you have a more extensive toolbox. If you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Don’t believe the hype. Critically analyse anything and everything that is said to you – including this.

Ultimately, I think it’s all about continuous learning and taking responsibility for your own learning. Wisdom does not come from pretending to know everything but from knowing when to shut up and listen.

Thank you for a well written, honest and thought-proving article.

(I have also posted this response on my blog: http://transmittechnology.blogspot.com/).