Make Me a Programmer

In today’s job market, many of you look for ways to improve your employability and earnings potential. And you may have noticed articles pointing out the apparent shortage of programmers, along with information on the amazing salaries and benefits they receive. Combining all these things, you may be one of the many people who are now trying to break into programming. And for those of you who are trying to break in, one of the most popular questions revolves around degree requirements. Mainly, you want to know if degrees are required. And you want to know if the degree has to be in a specific field of study. Today we’ll…

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: “Programmers only use Linux. PCs and Macs are for noobs!” Yeah, no. Linux is a tool. Windows is a tool. MacOS is also a tool. Each is an operating system (OS) that you need in order to make a computer useful, and each has its advantages and disadvantages. The problem is that, just like many other tools, these popular OSs have tribes. If Windows is DC Comics and macOS is Marvel, then Linux is Dark Horse. Uh, What Is Linux, Anyway? Let’s start at the beginning. (It’s one of my favorite places to start.) If you’re asking whether you should learn Linux, you…

I know, I know. You’re here looking for the best programming book for beginners (if you came here from Google). The one book to rule them all, as it were. I wish I could give you that. I wish anyone could. But here’s the thing. Programming is so involved—so complex—that anyone offering a book like that is selling you snake oil. There are bootcamps and four-year CS degrees dedicated to preparing you for a programming career.  No one book is going to stand in for that. And that applies even if you’re looking for a hobby, rather than a career. So, what I’ll do in this post is make some…

Recently, an outsider to the programming world offhandedly asked me a question: “why are there so many programming languages?” This gave me pause for a moment.  When you’re steeped in the programming world, you just kind of take this for granted.  In that sense, it’s like me asking you right now, “why are there so many spoken languages on Earth?” But I reflected a little further on it.  And I decided it would make good fodder for this blog—one that answers questions asked by newbie and aspiring programmers.  We answer questions about whether software engineers are happy and whether programmers should blog.  Why not this question? So let’s look at…

Let’s talk about learning today.  Specifically, let’s talk about learning a programming language.  What’s the best way to learn C#? For the most part on this blog, we’ve answered questions that non-programmers might have about the world of programming when they’re thinking of breaking in.  And while I suppose learning a programming language could fall into this category, it’s a little more specific. But I wanted to examine this topic with a blog post for a specific reason.  I happened to Google “best way to learn C#” and find that something was consistently missing from the results. Don’t get me wrong. The results are helpful.  It’s just that they seem to focus…

On this blog, we’ve taken on some questions that seem as though they’d be too general to answer.  For instance, we looked at what programmers wear to work and whether programming is hard.  And now, in that same vein, I’ll answer the question, “are software engineers happy?” Of course, you must understand that this involves painting with a broad brush.  How could it not? So the idea here isn’t to peg every software engineer on the planet, nor to speak in absolutes.  Rather, it’s about taking a look at the most common case for those of us in the field. I’ll give you a short, quick answer.  Then I’ll list…