How to be a good ProgrammerBy Elvis Lesha

Bad Programmer

• Writing code without thinking

• Poor understanding of the programming language model

• Lack of Critical Thinking

• Not being able to write a program from scratch

• Messy code• No comments• Random indentation

Good Programmer

Problem Solving

• Analyze the problem

• Divide into sub-problems

Algorithms

• Have a good understanding of algorithms

• Know how to use them

Language

• Pick a Language• Ensure you have a good understanding of

it

• Once you’ve learnt one language you can apply the same concepts to another language

Practicing

• Constantly keep programming• Set yourself small tasks

• Help others with their code• StackOverflow

Debugging

To be good at debugging, you also need to practice.

When you have lots of experience, it’s easy to formulate hypothesis about what’s wrong

Quality Code

• Simple code• “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job.

Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”

Bill Gates

• Understandable code• Well structured (indentation etc..)• Write Documentation (comments)

Coding contest

• International Collegiate Programming contest

• topcoder

Working on project

• Work on small piece of a large project

• Start your own project

Apis and libraries

• You don’t always have to reinvent the wheel

• Read documentation

Things to think about while coding

• Testing• Bugs• Don’t leave the testing until the end

• Design• Interface• User experience

To be a good programmer:

• Think logically

• Practice

• Help others

• Experiment

• Practice

• Practice

SUMMARY