Logic Discrete mathematics Programming language (take a part into the different programming paradigms, starting from sequential/procedural to object oriented, after functional and logical programming. Preferable Ruby/ Python/Pascal for beginners and after some good understanding go deeper into C++/C#/Java )
MS Access DB V Fox Pro Paradox MySQL is a good database to learn because it’s free, commonly used, and databases are commonly accessed with SQL queries
Web programmer Desktop application programmer Operating system (OS) oriented programmer(tied to a single operating system or set of operating systems) Platform-independent programmer Distributed applications programmer Library/platform/framework/core programmer System programmer Kernel programmer Driver programmer Compiler programmer Programming scientist
HTTP FTP POP3 SMTP TCP IP protocols HTML XML Coldfusion ASP JSP PHP ASP. NET
Corporate presence sites (commercial corporations, not-for-profit corporate/organizations, governmental organizations) Web indexing engines (search engines, meta search sites, specialized search engines, directories) Data mining sites Personal sites Informational/encyclopedic pages (wikis, data sheets, technical specifications, and manuals listing directories, blogs and journals, news and news agencies sites, yellow pages, etc. ) Social sites (social portals, bookmarking sites, note-taking sites) Collaborative sites (this includes other categories mentioned above, such as wikis and blogs)
Base Web services protocols (HTTP, FTP, SMTP, and POP3 or IMAP4) Web server software (preferably, one for the platform you will be working on mostly) Web browsing software. Email server and client software
Inputting and outputting information to users of a program. The logical flow and the execution flow of programs in procedural languages. Declaring, assigning and comparing variables. Branching programming constructs such as if. . then. . else and select/switch. . case. Looping constructs such as while. . do, do. . while/until, for. . next. Your programming language syntax for creating and calling procedures and functions. Data types and manipulating them. User defined data types (records/structs/units) and their use. If your language supports overloading functions, understand it. The memory accessing methods of your language of choice (pointers, peeking, etc. ) If your language supports operators overloading, understand it. If your language supports delegates/function pointers, understand it.
Logic programming paradigm. Functional programming paradigm. Object-oriented paradigm.
Taking simple samples of your early work in the first programming language and re-write it using the second programming language. Creating a new project and try implementing it using both languages. Sometimes, depending on your choice of project and languages, you might not be able to implement the project in one of the languages! Writing a cheat-sheet or summary-table comparisons between similar constructs in the two languages and features unique to each of the languages. Try finding ways to mimic features that is unique to one of the two languages using the other language.
Get an introduction to event-driven programming. Most visual programming relies in some level on events and events handling (using the programming language you choose). Try as much desktop software as you can and understand what the software does. Most software development companies offer beta-testing versions of their products which you can use to test the software. Keep up-to-date on user interface advancements. Read some articles or tutorials on graphical user interfaces.
It is supported by almost any scripting host in any operating system (Windows Scripting Host supports JavaScript by default, most Linux distributions has a package for JavaScript scripting console support). It is considered to be easier to learn by many developers. It has an ALGOL derived syntax which familiarizes you with much more other programming languages when you need to choose a second programming language (C, C++, C#, Java and J# all have ALGOL derived syntax). By learning JavaScript, you familiarize yourself with client-side scripting of web pages which is a bonus side-effect!
They are object oriented programming languages which shields programmers in large teams from implementation details as they both supports components (units of code, pre-compiled, that perform a certain task and can be used in other programs). They support event-driven programming, as well as OO and procedural programming at some level. The framework that the language is built upon is distributed by nature (in the case of Java). The availability of many ready-made packages that deal with networking, both as open-source code and framework built-in packages; this makes it easier for programmers to build upon the work of others.
Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) . NET Remoting XML Web Services
Usually, library/package programmers tend to think recursively and/or iteratively of all problems they are presented with. Try to think of each problem as a collection of smaller problems (a sequence of simpler tasks) or as a repeated process of reducing the problem’s scope to smaller scopes and then piling those scopes upon each other. Library/package programmers tend to generalize. That is, when presented with a simple specific problem, they usually think of a more general problem and try to solve that general problem which will automatically solve the smaller one.
Getting an idea on how operating systems are installed. Learning how to install different operating systems on one PC (optional, but recommended). Installing more than one operating system. Do not install any helping packages on the systems; instead, use the bare functionalities provided by the operating systems.
Trying to recreate small tools that are already there on your system. Trying to port utilities available in other operating systems to yours.
Restricting the first language to C and C alone is because systems programming requires that the programmer be familiar with the following concepts: Real and full compilation of source code. Low-level object output files. Linking binaries. Low-level machine-language/assembly programming. The C language is said to be a disguised/easier to learn assembly by some. It also supports inserting assembly language code in code whenever you please and it is only procedural (like assembly).
Taking an actual academic degree (which is what usually happens). Getting the courses’ outlines for such a degree from one of the modern universities and taking the courses either by self-study or as separate courses. This could be achieved theoretically, but the recommended path is the first.
Algorithm design (searching, sorting, encryption, decryption and error detection in communications are some examples) Programming languages/compiler design/optimization Artificial intelligence fields (pattern recognition, speech recognition, natural language processing, neural networks) Robotics Scientific programming Super computing Computer aided design/modeling (CAD/CAM) Virtual reality Computer graphics (Computer graphics is usually wrongly confused with graphical design or graphical user interface design. Computer graphics is the field of studying how to represent and manipulate graphics in computer systems. )
