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Ask HN: What overlooked class of tools should a self-taught programmer look into

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Re: Ask HN: What overlooked class of tools should a self-taught programmer look into

#21

Post by redisman »

m_fayer wrote: post #16

https://dataintensive.net/ I can't recommend this book enough. I have a CS background, and still had quite a few "I can't believe this thing has been hiding in plain sight!" moments while reading it.

It's great. Incredibly dense with useful information and it just blows my mind how much knowledge Martin has about the topic. I recommend watching this talk from him to give a little glimpse of the book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZjhNTM8XU8 This is just about a little part of one of the chapters.

Re: Ask HN: What overlooked class of tools should a self-taught programmer look into

#22

Post by mettamage »

It depends on what you want to achieve. I can tell you to read about security but that is only relevant if you want to secure your software. I can tell you about pub/sub, but that is only relevant when you need it.

The things you’ve learned were mostly covered in my computer science curriculum. So I am going to second Robin_messsage his message.

Skim through a CS curriculum.

Re: Ask HN: What overlooked class of tools should a self-taught programmer look into

#23

Post by zoomablemind »

I'm not sure if 'hoarding' such knowledge would be practical.

Sometimes, having a limited toolset would better focus you on the problem at hand. Then, once the challenge is clarified, the search for alternative ways to architecture and implement it would become practical.

If just for fun of exploring something new, pick whatever interests you in general, language, framework, a domain. Async processing and idioms?

Re: Ask HN: What overlooked class of tools should a self-taught programmer look into

#24

Post by vosper »

Your IDE, its refactoring tools, but especially its debugger.

VSCode or PyCharm (assuming you are still a Python developer) could be a good place to start. I'm always surprised when I see professional developers coding in Sublime Text and debugging with print statements (or their equivalent). Usually you have better options than that, especially for statically-typed languages - but even for JS and Python.

Re: Ask HN: What overlooked class of tools should a self-taught programmer look into

#25

Post by politician »

copperx wrote: post #17
m_fayer wrote: post #16

https://dataintensive.net/ I can't recommend this book enough. I have a CS background, and still had quite a few "I can't believe this thing has been hiding in plain sight!" moments while reading it.

I'm now torn between reading this one first or the Architecture of Enterprise Applications.

If it helps, IMO "Designing Data-Intensive Applications" is a better bang-for-the-buck. Enterprise-scale applications are a world unto themselves.

Re: Ask HN: What overlooked class of tools should a self-taught programmer look into

#27

Post by [deleted] »

politician wrote: post #13
mfatica wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think a self-taught programmer might never encounter SQL?

Speaking as a technical development manager, I can say that many people have far less than adequate exposure to SQL, and that training people to use SQL effectively and safely is all too often a common requirement before letting them loose on the database. There are so many ways people misunderstand and misuse SQL and relational databases, it's honestly staggering. So, I second the OP. Learn SQL, and you'll stand out…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What overlooked class of tools should a self-taught programmer look into

#28

Post by nerpderp82 »

Debuggers and property based testing. It is a select few people that can actually productively (not their own metrics) use print statements for debugging. Learning how to craft repro scenarios and adequately capturing state in a debugging session can enable junior devs to easily surpass senior devs.

Property based testing aren't quite formal methods, but I think they are a good stepping stone. And they also somewhat force your code into an algebraic/functional style which also make it amenable to refactoring, better testing and is easier to understand.

Design tools like Swagger can help one think through services w/o diving into code. Code itself is a liability and should be thought of as "spending" not creating. Code is a debt.

Refactoring and code understanding tools, if you use PyCharm (you should, it is free in all senses), learn how to navigate into your libraries. Read you libraries.

Re: Ask HN: What overlooked class of tools should a self-taught programmer look into

#29

Post by brianpgordon »

Don't go too overboard with message queues. There's nonzero development and operational overhead incurred when part of your application takes its input in a weird binary format, and when the data in your queue is thrown away after processing, and when you need to think about scaling of workers and concurrency. If you're not working with real "big data" – and, let's be honest, almost nobody is – I would advise using an HTTP-based service (REST, SOAP, whatever, take your pick) for communication and a SQL/NoSQL/NewSQL database for state.

Re: Ask HN: What overlooked class of tools should a self-taught programmer look into

#30

Post by amrox »

Learning the basics about how programming languages work - parsers, interpreters/compilers. I've heard good things about Writing An Interpreter In Go [1]. Related, I've enjoyed Martin Fowler's DSL book [2].

  - [1] https://interpreterbook.com
  - [2] https://www.martinfowler.com/books/dsl.html
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