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Ask HN: what are the essential courses to became good programmer?

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Re: Ask HN: what are the essential courses to became good programmer?

#11

Post by krapp »

jesusmichael wrote: post #4

Writing code is not about remembering algorithms. Its about finding the most efficient way to perform a task. If someone on SO has a good solution, use it. Good doctors and engineers consult reference material to come up with the best course of action in any situation. Like a3voices said... Build real world projects. Familiarize yourself with the concepts of business such as inventory, transaction and event managemen…

Part of understanding what the most efficient way to perform a task is, comes from understanding the optimizations which have already become commonplace.

What you say is true, but it's not either/or. Knowing how to implement something besides quicksort is important as well - the algorithms matter because they represent paths to efficiency. How can you judge what a good solution on SO even is unless you understand what you're looking at at more than a superficial level?

Re: Ask HN: what are the essential courses to became good programmer?

#12

Post by citrik »

I've felt a bit similar to yourself in my evaluation of my skills in the past. I think we are often our own harshest critic. Here are three books I'm reading that many here and in other nerdy online hangouts have recommended to become a better programmer.

Programming Pearls by John Bently

Design Patterns by "the gang of 4" Erich Gamma, Richard Helm , Ralph Johnson and John Vlissides

Beautiful Code edited by Andy Oram and Greg Wilson

Re: Ask HN: what are the essential courses to became good programmer?

#13

Post by afarrell »

kozlk wrote: post #8
aram wrote: post #5

Not a course, but what what Jennifer Dewalt did (180 websites in 180 days [0]) might help you.. http://jenniferdewalt.com/

Why is everyone so up in arms about what this girl did? How exactly are you going to learn algorithm analysis by building websites?

The phrase "up in arms" means angry, perhaps angry enough to reach for a weapon. I've never seen anyone angry about what she did.

Building websites won't work, but implementing algorithms in a book like CLRS http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/introduction-algorithms will.

Re: Ask HN: what are the essential courses to became good programmer?

#14

Post by afarrell »

The Structure and Interperetation of Computer Programs will teach you to think more clearly about the fundamentals of computation and programming. A free PDF is here: http://web.mit.edu/alexmv/6.S184/sicp.pdf It is foundational though: you won't likely write lisp in real life.

Good books to read about practical software engineering are sold here: https://pragprog.com/ I'd start with The Pragmatic Programmer.

By copy-pasting things, you've gotten yourself into a habit of just banging things until they work. Now, you should approach things from a scientific prospective: try to understand why they work, then write something to test that understanding. Build coherent and clear mental models.

Re: Ask HN: what are the essential courses to became good programmer?

#15

Post by sejje »

kjs3 wrote: post #9
a3voices wrote: post #2

The only way to be a good programmer is to work on lots of projects.

Not to disparage the value of experience, but I know a metric ton of programmers with years of experience and dozens of projects under their belt who write, day in and day out, shit code. I think there's more to being good than just cranking it out.

I don't disagree with you, but I also think cranking it out is a very, very fundamental part of the process.

You can't be a great coder without writing anything.

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