Suggested Topic

Ben Pfaff pfaffben@msu.edu
25 Jul 2000 18:14:07 -0400


Edward Glowacki <glowack2@msu.edu> writes:

> My advice to anyone who is serious about programing is to take some
> formal classes, or at least do a lot of reading about programming
> technique, not language-specific stuff but general theory.

A few bits of advice, as a programmer, to others interested in
becoming better programmers:

	1. Read lots of other people's code.  There's so much
           well-written free software out there these days that
           there's no excuse not to.

	2. Write lots of code.  Write it using different
           programming languages and paradigms. C, Perl, Lisp,
           PostScript, and Smalltalk solutions to a given problem
           will look very different.  Even in C, you can write
           code in procedural and object-oriented styles.

	3. Read theoretical textbooks.  Buy everything by Knuth
           and read it until you understand it.  Get
           _Introduction to Algorithms_ by Cormen et al.

	4. Choose a language.  Become an expert in it.  Buy a
           copy of the language standard (if one exists) and
           become intimately familiar with it.  Lurk on
           newsgroups related to the language, then participate
           actively in them as your skill and knowledge improves.

	5. Write some useful software.  Put it up on the net
           along with source code.  Document it.  Maintain and
           improve it.  Respond to bug reports.