What does it takes to become a good programmer ?

[ouahabix]

I did too and it was based on THE CODE LINUX documentary and REVOLUTION OS documentary too

[Falesh]

Just to reply to the first post about stamina and perfectionism. One thing that I haven't got is stamina . I've got chronic fatigue and it has only been this last year that I have had the energy to start learning web stuff. I am however a perfectionist so I strive to make my code clean, standards compliant, secure, etc. I do agree that you need to curb perfectionism if it makes you never end projects, but you don't need to curb it when it drives you to improve your programming skills.

I am lucky in that programming fit my brain perfectly, once I got over the initial "hu?" I have found it fairly easy to learn. The main things that helped me improve my skills has been to focus on best practice, security (be paranoid!) and, to start with, not using other people's code so I really learned what I needed to do without relying on props.

[ouahabix]

Originally Posted by Falesh

I am lucky in that programming fit my brain perfectly, once I got over the initial "hu?" I have found it fairly easy to learn. The main things that helped me improve my skills has been to focus on best practice, security (be paranoid!) and, to start with, not using other people's code so I really learned what I needed to do without relying on props.

When you mentioned not using others' source codes I do really belive in that, you know that every programmer has his own CODE FIGERPRINT, may be he knew that or not , but if get in touch with several programmers and befriend them, after days of changing IDEAS and SOURCE CODES, you can recognise in the future the coder from his SOURCE only, I don't know how it is , but it's a real fact.

Time to time we can't hold only our source codes and we can't create our full frame work or start researching about something from the 0 but we must continue where there others had stopped , as a result we should mix our knowledge with the others'.

Good Luck

[Falesh]

I agree with you, I meant only at the beginning of my journey into PHP. Now I feel I have a solid knowledge of the language I have started using other people's code (Zend Framework), and as you say this has taught me a lot.

[kev woodman]

It's good professional practice to use other's code although you should check that it is good quality. Ultimately every time you use a class library or a built-in function you are using someone else's code.

[Falesh]

I didn't use any class library's (like PEAR) to start with, I started making one of my own, and also a framework of my own. Maybe it is different for different people but I found this taught me a broad range of skills quite quickly. Once I had that base I could also see how people did things differently then I did which gave me other insights I might have missed if I had used their library from the start.

[ouahabix]

Originally Posted by Falesh

I didn't use any class library's (like PEAR) to start with, I started making one of my own, and also a framework of my own. Maybe it is different for different people but I found this taught me a broad range of skills quite quickly. Once I had that base I could also see how people did things differently then I did which gave me other insights I might have missed if I had used their library from the start.

That's interesting , sometimes others' frameworks are better but using yours help you to improve your skills and help you quick maintain your scripts too, you didn't need to check the manual or reffer back to bugfixed list or even the programmer itself that is very helpful in reducing time and pain.

Publishing your FrameWorks would help better , just don't hesitate if it's formal,qualify,good enough or not, just do it and wait for the results.

Good luck everybody.

[anish]

Take the course of programming. Its a nice idea.

[Falesh]

Publishing your FrameWorks would help better , just don't hesitate if it's formal,qualify,good enough or not, just do it and wait for the results.

Naa, it sucked. :p But I learnt a lot from my mistakes.

[ouahabix]

Originally Posted by Falesh

Naa, it sucked. :p But I learnt a lot from my mistakes.

How are you doing Falesh, we all have our mistakes , even Bill Gates and Linus Torvalds have their owns , but remember the today mistakes are tomorrow's experiments and knowledge
If you wouldn't fall in big very big mistakes you wouldn't improve very improve your skills , a huge BUG needs a HUGE time and work and that's the charm of programing the biggest loser is the biggest winner, so let's all be the biggest losers for once today and enjoy being the biggest winners tomorrow

Be optimistic man

[spiderweb]

Skills, passion, creative thinking are pre requisites. But good programmers exist because they have good mentors to guide them along the way.