SEC-S20W1: Who is a Programmer? What should you have done before to become a programmer in the future?

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Programs are like the digital owner builders of our world, just imagine using any mobile app to order food. Someone has to write the code that makes this app work. Programmers are the people behind these creations. They take ideas and turn them into reality by writing instructions. Our computer follows and works with ease.

Example:

For example, you see a web developer creating the websites that we normally see in our daily lives. Like Facebook or Amazon etc. And so a software engineer builds an operating system like Windows or a video game. These are people who don't just write code. Rather, they also resolve issues between them and ensure that the app does not crash. It should not have any kind of error and it should load quickly.

Being a programmer means that you work on different projects for example if you do web development. You can spend any of your days building any new features of a website. Suppose you were given the task of creating a login system, your job would be to write the code that would include allowing users to access your website securely. And takes permission from him by entering his name password etc.

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As a software developer, you can work on software development for an application that helps doctors manage patient records. Your task will be to write its code. And its data you have to manage and also ensure that they are easily accessible and secure.

A data scientist is a different type of program that uses code to analyze large sets of data, for example, if you're working for an e-commerce website or company. You can write a program for them to help them understand the company's purchasing trends. As they can see which products are being bought most often.

Programmers spend their time solving problems, such as imagining you've created a weather application. On which you give users weather updates. But you are getting the complaint from Sarfin that it is giving us wrong temperature readings. As a programmer, your job is to find out where the error is. Or maybe your application is pulling data from the wrong sources. Or it is not refreshing your application frequently. So you need to debug the code to find the error and fix it.

Example:

For example, say you've written a piece of code. Which estimates how much change a customer should receive at the store. But instead of giving 5.76$ in change, it keeps showing 5.73$. You need to review its code to fix it. And its math error has to be found and adjusted so that it displays correctly.

An important task for programmers to learn if you've built an application in Python. But new technology is emerging to make this application work faster. You have to spend time learning this new technology and updating your code.

What should have been useful to learn early, I will explain with examples.

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Early Exposure to Problem-Solving:

As a child, we used to solve puzzles or play games like chess which was helpful for us. This allowed us to figure out how to break down our big problems into smaller parts. Similarly, when a programmer works in his program, for example, when coding a game, you don't have everything at once. You first write the code for character movement, then enemy movement, and so on.

Curiosity About Technology:

It will be better for you if you have researched anything beforehand to learn it. As you must have understood how any website works. Even with a website creation tool like WordPress, if you have experience, it will help you create the basic elements easily.

Basic Understanding of Computers:

This means that we need to understand how our operating system manages files. Or how our internet sends data. This will make it easier for us to programmatically understand how a computer stores files. This can save time and confusion before we write code that interacts with the file system.

Mathematics:

Suppose you are coding a program to calculate interest on a loan. You should have a strong background in this math as you will need to write various formulas in it. Which will calculate who owes how much over time. Programming involves a lot of logic and calculations, so having a strong math background is a big plus for you.

Building a Routine of Learning:

Learning new languages and regularly challenging yourself to solve different problems will be in your favor. And so starting with a simple program like a calculator or basic to-do list app will build your confidence.

Collaboration And Communication:

There are many coding projects where you have to work with a team, such as working on an app with several other programs. One person is working on the front end and the other is working on the back end so you have to write a clean and organized code. So that others can easily understand it and build something more on top of it. So early exposure to team projects will help develop these skills even outside of programming.

Programmers are not people who know how to write code, but they know how to solve problems. And they think critically and adapt to different new challenges. For example, suppose you are assigned the task of any one website. You have to improve the loading speed of the website which is used by millions of people.

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So you first need to take a look at what is causing the delay on this website. You will notice that there may be too many images or the server is overloaded. You will then come up with solutions to improve its speed. As you would compress images or optimize how the data is retrieved.

Programming is not easy but it is fulfilling. There is a great sense of accomplishment when something you create is working perfectly. And that application you build or coded by you is live and millions of people use it in daily life.

To turn into a decent software engineer, beginning with an outlook of interest and critical thinking is vital. If you start right on time by learning fundamental math, investigating how things work, and fostering an everyday practice of learning, you'll be more ready for the difficulties of programming. Models like structuring a basic site, figuring out how PCs store information, or troubleshooting a little application show that the abilities required are a mix of rationale, innovativeness, and constancy.

Turning into a software engineer is an excursion, and keeping in mind that a few things could have been useful to learn before, it's never past the point where it is possible to begin. The main part is keeping up with interest and an eagerness to ceaselessly learn.

Invitation:

@ewela, @neelofar, @rumaisha

Cc:
@sergeyk

_{Dated: 14-09-2024 About Me}