| How to become an effectual professional software | | | | communication, constant updating of skills, an interest |
| programmer? Many people use to go the "traditional" | | | | in minimizing risks and accountability. Each of these |
| path through a computer course or software | | | | affects the professional programmer in certain ways. |
| engineering education lessons and from there put | | | | Advantages of web programmer analyst |
| themselves into professional programming work. | | | | What we need to do is get our foot in the door. We |
| Some times it is viewed that people become | | | | need to get programmers to write projects and do |
| professional programmers by accident. A person | | | | so successfully. We need those projects to be visible |
| writes a small program to assist at work, and their | | | | to managers. |
| boss say, "Oh great, you can write programs! You're | | | | Web programming is the best way to get our foot in |
| our programmer now!" | | | | the door. A programmer with little experience can |
| Other people start out as hobbyists and follow a less | | | | produce a useful web application in a matter of hours. |
| traditional path, not always getting a degree, but | | | | Not just playful or interesting, but something that can |
| clearly wanting to be programmers from the start | | | | actually go into productive and live use. The only |
| and working actively towards that goal. | | | | other environment where that is possible is the |
| I've been a hobbyist programmer since I was 16. I | | | | command line -- and managers never see |
| wasn't writing anything amazing back then but I had | | | | programmers' command line tools. |
| started writing and soon found it was absorbing most | | | | Web programming is also a kind of universal need. |
| of my time. Since I never really stopped, that gives | | | | Sure, there are lots of things besides the web. But |
| me 21 years experience as “freelance | | | | unless you really try to avoid the web, as a |
| programmer” and counting. | | | | programmer you are likely to have occasional |
| At first I was into writing simple web programs to | | | | problems that are best solved with a web application. |
| know the basics of programming. Later people asked | | | | This is true no matter what field you are in. In part |
| me to write programs for them, and sometimes I | | | | because web applications don't just touch on core |
| even got paid. From this I learned useful languages | | | | needs -- e.g., embedded programming at a hardware |
| like PHP, asp .net, java that are always for | | | | company, numerical analysis at an engineering firm -- |
| something. Programs are not self contained worlds of | | | | but on any coordination needs, and everyone needs |
| their own. I had to learn something about all those | | | | to coordinate things. |
| domains in order to write programs for them. | | | | By some coincidence three languages starting with P |
| Whatever the path we follow, most professional | | | | are often grouped together: Perl, PHP, and Python. |
| programmers have in common the fact that they | | | | It's a nice coincidence, and these are the languages |
| learned to code first and how to be a professional | | | | I've thought about. Both Perl and PHP have had |
| later. | | | | tremendous bursts of growth because of web |
| The Meaning of "Professional freelance programmer" | | | | programming. |
| So what does it mean to be a professional | | | | As a PHP programmer who have tried to pick up |
| programmer? What does it mean to be a | | | | Python? The number one thing that makes PHP easy |
| professional anything? Some definitions simply say to | | | | to use is its documentation. The thing with good |
| be a professional is "to make money from a skill," but | | | | examples and user comments together with the |
| true professionals also have a set of qualities often | | | | actual API makes PHP great for productivity. I found |
| described as "professionalism." In my opinion, these | | | | it hard to use Python because the documentation |
| qualities are: trustworthiness, teamwork, leadership, | | | | wasn't organized as nicely as the PHP doc was. |