SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Getting started the right way as a developer is tough, so I wrote you a letter I'd love to have received some ten years ago.
Getting a diploma does not mean the end of studying
Holding that shiny piece of paper you worked so hard for in your hands? Congrats!
In reality, you are just getting started. While your official studies are over, it does not mean that you do not need to learn new tricks anymore. Quite the contrary, actually: modern software evolves so fast that you need to learn new things every day to stay current. It's a good idea to come up with a daily routine of checking what's new in your field. For developers, Hackernews and Proggit are good for this. Ask what your colleagues read.
The real gems – and most satisfying lessons – lie in the comments section. When browsing Proggit, I recommend reading the comments before committing fifteen minutes to reading a nicely titled (or click-baited) article. Do this. Do this daily. Even on the weekends. You will thank yourself in a year.
Sound advice?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Snotnose on Monday December 05 2016, @12:05AM
Lucky enough to be 20 in 78, when I bought a TRS-80. Learned Basic, coded up Conway's Life, couldn't figure out why it didn't run, went to pee, came back to see a generation had passed. So I learned Z-80 assembly.
At work I was an electronic tech working on an 8080 based system. Started writing my own routines to troubleshoot problems. A co-worker and I started working on Space Invaders. Marketing found our game (at that point you could shoot aliens but they weren't dropping bombs yet), and used it at trade shows. Engineering found out about it and brought me over. They offered to bring Steve over as well but he declined.
This is when I learned 8086 assembler. They had a PDP-11 with some oddball OS (RSX-11?). Started working with bit-slice (AMD 2900 family). The compiler ran under Unix on that PDP-11, so when I need to do a build we rebooted it (there were maybe 3 of us using that PDP). Learned Unix. Company got a Vax with Unix. Learned C.
Around 85 I realized that if I ever wanted to get another job I'd need a degree. So I spent the next 8 years working full time, taking 2 classes a semester, to get a piece of paper. IMHO, huge waste of time and money except for the getting a job thing, YMMV.
All this in maybe 7 years (78-85). Those were the days.
Anyway, in this field you have to keep learning. You also have to learn what might be useful (Python, Perl) and what is BS (agile, peer programming, CASE).
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 05 2016, @12:16AM
what is BS (agile, peer programming, CASE).
Learning to work well with others lasts a long time. Process is not about the process but about working well with the other kindergartners. If it becomes about the process then you have failed already.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 05 2016, @12:43AM
You can find out exactly what OS it was and get back to us :)
More seriously though, if you have any old books, documents, whitepapers, etc, check if they don't already have them and consider scanning and making a contribution!
It is really good to hear stories from some of you greybeardy types and the stuff you got to work on back when I was still in diapers.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Monday December 05 2016, @12:48AM
Wait, what? You think Agile is BS? Lot of aspects of programming change awfully fast. How better to keep up than with an Agile mindset?
For example, how to write a graphical app has changed immensely since the 1980s. In the early 80s, you targeted a platform, perhaps CGA graphics on the PC, or the Apple II graphics, or maybe a Commodore 64. Might do ports to whichever ones you didn't work with first. By the late 80s, there was VGA graphics on the PC and a plethora of graphics cards and drivers for them. The DOS operating systems of the times weren't much, very simple and limited, hardly more than loaders. And today, all that knowledge is very obsolete and useless. We moved from direct manipulation of graphics hardware to libraries such as xlib, which is now also obsolete. Today it is GUI libraries such as Gnome and KDE. For game graphics it is OpenGL or DirectX, or not even those, would go higher level yet with something like OGRE or OpenSceneGraph. Meantime, the OS has expanded mightily and is no longer a mere loader of binaries that can be readily brushed aside once finished loading your code.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Monday December 05 2016, @03:43AM
Technology-wise, this sounds extremely similar to my path, but I actually think agile development and pair programming work (or at least better than waterfall and poor programmers hiding in their offices [producing nothing).
Well, actually, I'm not a fan of Perl or even Python that much either. I prefer Go, Rust, and even Java/Groovy. If you have a hate for Java's requirement of template code, you should seriously check out Groovy.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 05 2016, @05:05AM
agile development and pair programming work (or at least better than waterfall and poor programmers hiding in their offices [producing nothing).
You're totally right. Snorting coke off a hooker's ass is more productive. Programming doesn't ever require quiet contemplation or abstract thought.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 05 2016, @08:51AM
Arrrggghhhhh!! You complete and utter BASTARD
I could have gone at least another 5 or 10.years without being reminded of CASE tools. *sob*
Why. Just why. Did you have to bring it up?
I am going to go sit under my desk and not think about balancing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @02:39AM
Have some XML Web Services with that.