Do you have any programming "exercises" that you do in order to hone your programming skills? Anything from FizzBuzz to more complicated problems to get you thinking about real-life scenarios that you may encounter? ...
Since the keyboard is the interface we use to the computer, I've always thought touch typing should be something I should learn, but I've always been, well, lazy is the word. So, anyone recommend any good touch typing software? It's easy enough to google, but I'ld like to hear recommendations. ...
When you to develop web applications from scratch, what are the skills needed, to produce usable and interaction-rich products? Do you do UI Prototype first? Do you use User Stories? Some agile methodology or best practice you'd recommend or actively advocate? In short: What skills make you transcend from requirements gathering to A...
Coming from a Mac background, I've never really spent much time tinkering with / assembling / tweaking my own computer beyond occasional RAM upgrades and swapping out hard disks. I feel like I have a good grasp on how a computer works at a conceptual level, CPU, bus, memory etc, but I haven't really got much practical experience in putti...
What is a good challenge to improve your skills in object oriented programming? The idea behind this poll is to provide an idea of which exercises are useful for learning OOP. The challenge should be as language agnostic as possible, requiring either little or no use of specific libraries, or only the most common of libraries. Try to i...
Hi All, I am currently learning VB and C# and have been for the last two and a bit years but I would really like to broaden my programming skills a little bit. I was just wondering what people would recommend learning? I have looked into ruby a little bit but haven't really dug my teeth into it, I have also looked into F#. I can't r...
Looking back at my career and life as a programmer, there were plenty of different ways I improved my programming skills - reading code, writing code, reading books, listening to podcasts, watching screencasts and more. My question is: What is the most effective thing you have done that improved your programming skills? What would you r...
I am currently a Software Engineering undergrad and recently began my senior year. I see on the horizon a choice that must be made: choosing a career path. For the past several months, I have been of the mindset that I should: Find a language and maybe a web app framework that I like Learn it Build some web apps to learn it better Try...
Hi everybody, looking at the question about "What was your first computer?" I realized that most of us have a very long history of computer usage long before formal training set in (academic or vocational). This reminds me of tennis professionals who often have a history of playing tennis from very early on in their life. So my questi...
I've read that an effective approach to improving your programming skills is to learn new languages and frameworks. How do you approach learning a new language/framework? Even with the wide range of information available online, I often find myself looking for a good book on the language I'm interested in. With the basics understood, I...
At a previous interview I have been asked the question: 'From 0 to 10, how do you rate yourself as a programmer?' I found it a very hard question to answer as I am not aware of a metric to measure how good my skills are. Moreover, knowing how well you perform would be useful to understand what you need to improve to be a better programm...
Is there a meaningful correlation between spelling and grammatical ability, and programming ability? ...
For me, I've always wanted to finish the O'Reilly "Mastering Regular Expressions" book. When I need a Regexp, I manage to get the one I need eventually, but it takes more effort than it should. Learning a specific technology or language always seems to bubble up ahead of this. ...
I really enjoy browsing StackOverflow. I've learned quite a few things just from perusing the questions. But, I have to admit, it's really bruising my confidence when I realize how much I DON'T know. Anyone else feel the same? I suppose this will probably get voted down since it's not really a programming/development question. ...
There are many facets to being a programmer (e.g. communication, pragmatism, etc.) but what technical skills do you think separate an average programmer from a jedi programmer? Here are a few on my list: Know/understand a system level programming language like C/C++ Know/understand a managed programming language like C#/Java Know a co...
Any answer is fine, but focus on actual coding, rather than management or entrepreneurship. Inspired by this question at Reddit. ...
As a follow up to "What is the one programming skill you have always wanted to master but haven’t had time?", what is the single hardest thing related to programming skill, concept, tool, language, etc. that you have learned or mastered? Not necessarily as a beginner, but all throughout your career. ...
I'm what I think would be considered an 'advanced' programmer. I have years of experience doing reverse-engineering, kernel/compiler/emulation/game development, many programming languages under my belt, etc. Up until about two years ago I felt I was continually learning about coding, and I was a good coder but my overall development (d...
I just realized that the ability to express ideas in writing is an important skill as a programmer. With a good writing ability, we can write blogs, technical paper, comments, or documentation better. I have poor writing skill, limiting me in expressing my ideas clearly. Is there any book which can help improve my writing skill? Edit: ...
I'm looking to do a masters in computer science on the east coast of the US in the next couple of years but I'm one of those people who's mostly self-taught. I graduated in 2005 with a law undergraduate degree (in the UK) so i have several questions: Is professional experience useful in my masters application, or do they value 'formal ...