Besides the general, "What is OO?" question, I want to understand how one transitions from a procedural-based programmer to someone who gets OO. I'm anticipating the winning answer would contain thoughts on SOLID, as well as some practices/drills for increasing our skills in design and development that fully leverages OO. Books/classes...
It seems that the next major transition / fad will be towards Functional Programming. What resources / experiences are you finding necessary to grok functional programming?...
If you could go back and give yourself one piece of advice at the start of your programming life/career to help you on your way what would it be ? ...
Are advanced degrees such as Master's degrees or PhDs beneficial for software engineers? Should they be compensated for their advanced degree? There are plenty of programmers that don't have a degree that are better then programmers with advanced degrees so by which metric do you rate programmers? KLOC is not a good metric. For many area...
I wondered if there is a common sense of a "minimum age" or at least a certain period of time before a developer is thought of as a "senior". Do you think, you can't be a senior developer before an age of 35? Or with less than 10y of professional experience on the market? ...
When you are learning a new programming language, what are some good projects that can be done across a spectrum of languages? I'm familiar with programming puzzles and read the other related question, but as I think about how I learn a language, I go through stages. First, I learn the basic syntax, then I learn the more advanced (and o...
I'm working toward a software engineering major, (business) management minor, and technical communication minor, and I was wondering: What kinds of non-technical courses should I try to take before I graduate that I might not get as part of my major or one of my minors? If you prefer to think about it this way, a more general question w...
What would be good books and websites to read to become an software architect. And just basic tips and tricks are also welcome. ...
I am a student studying software development, and I feel programming, in general, is too broad of a subject to try to know everything. To be proficient, you have to decide which areas to focus your learning and understanding. Certain skill sets synergize with each other, like data-driven web development and SQL experience. However, all t...
Wikipedia: An esoteric programming language (sometimes shortened to esolang) is a programming language designed as a test of the boundaries of computer programming language design, as a proof of concept, or as a joke. There is usually no intention of the language being adopted for real-world programming. Such languages are often popular ...
My goals are focused on software application development, and maybe web application development, but most likely desktop applications. I'm embarking on a path to becoming more familiar with C/C++, but should I go much lower than that, into assembly? Or would I not have a benefit for my long-term goals? ...
For example, let's say I'm working in the field of physics. How concerned should I be about the latest and greatest things in the field of physics in addition to the latest and greatest things in computer science and software engineering? Is it OK to just have a passing familiarity with the domain in which you are working? Does it depend...
There are now several places that offer free audio or video tech talks/presentations online: I'm thinking of Google Tech Talks, IT Conversations, as well as some of the sites recommended in the answers to this question. So: are there any specific presentation(s) that you consider as "must-see", either in your area of interest or for all...
There are a large number of software development conferences held around the world every year, but I've yet to find a website that contains anything approaching a comprehensive list of them all. Does anyone know of one? I'm particularly interested in conferences held in the US or UK for Microsoft products or technologies, as well as co...
Reading source code is a good way to improve as a programmer, but I've never seen a great explanation of how to do it. We often read textbooks & novels linearly, perhaps taking notes along the way. What do you do when trying to understand how a program works? Try the user-facing version of the program with your own inputs Read the API ...
Should software engineers and computer scientists know the fundamentals electronic engineering such as circuits, capacitors, VLSI and other important concepts? Do you think that training in this area makes for a better programmer? ...
When I return to university in December (I'm on an internship now), I'll be taking a course in Computer Science theory. However, I'm not a very theoretical person, and abstract concepts have been difficult. This course will cover topics such as regular, context-free and computable (recursive) languages with finite state machines, pushdo...
I'm doing research on which grad school I should go to in the Washington DC area. I'd be going part time as I have full time employment as a software engineer in the metro area. ...
Something I think Jeff & Joel touched on in an early stackoverflow podcast, though I don’t remember if they reached a conclusion: which curriculum is better preparation for a career as a developer and software entrepreneur, computer science in the liberal arts college, or software engineering in the engineering school? or, put another ...
To What Degree (pun intended) has your College Education Attributed to the Success of your Development Career? ...