North - 6 Things About Programming That Every Computer Programmer Should Know

By manner of introduction, I have been a professional computer programmer and, software project manager for about thirty-five years. I was fortunate to have begun that career when the personal computer had not quite yet arrived on the scene. (They were still, for the most part, a tantalizing future curiosity, then found only in the pages of Radio-Electronics and Popular Electronics magazines.) Computers either filled air-conditioned rooms or, more recently, were about the size of a breadbox. Although integrated circuits, including microprocessors, were a standard part of electronic design, computers at that time were neither small nor fast. Computers, also, were devices that other people owned: companies who could afford to buy the boxes and the air-conditioned rooms to put them in. It was in this context that I first got my start.

As you well know, the subsequent years have witnessed dramatic changes. Moores Law continues to hold true, as semiconductor manufacturers continue to astonish us all with how much more computing power they can somehow cram into a single tiny piece of sand. Builders of flat-screen and touch-sensitive displays also continue to astound us with what they can do, as have the builders of sound-chips and nearly-microscopic digital cameras. We live in interesting times that certainly show no sign of slacking off.

Into this whirling dervish of a technological world, then, comes you, Gentle Reader. Tasked not only with keeping up with the hardware technology that will never allow itself to fully be kept-up with, but also with the task of computer programming itself.

It has been said, by some, that computer programming is an innate ability. That you either have it (whatever it is ), or you dont. But, I dont agree. I never thought of myself as being a natural in what became my career. I was merely naturally interested in it, as I still am. I was interested enough, and found it to be engaging enough, that I persevered to learn how to do it. But I made a lot of dumb mistakes along the way which I would like to try to help you avoid.

Most of all, my experience has shown me a list of fundamental technical skills of a professional programmer, which I have now sought to reduce to a succinct list of six items. The actual list is longer maybe, much longer but after some reflection, here are the six that in my humble opinion are key. These are the things all of them technical abilities, procedures and perspectives which you will use on the job most every day. These are six things for which, in my opinion at least, your command of these skills will make the greatest difference in your success and longevity in the craft.

Computer programming, by the way, still is a craft. At this writing, it still requires skilled work and the product of experience. But we should recognize that this aspect also is changing. Thanks to the influence of open-source programs and cooperative development, computer programming is tilting in-part toward the assembly of new solutions based substantially on pre-existing components that the programmer(s) in question did not themselves develop. This, itself, constitutes a new fundamental technical skill that is one of the six that you will now find in this book.