Subj : Re: What things should successful programmers-to-be learn right now? To : comp.programming From : dj3vande Date : Wed Jul 06 2005 05:15 pm In article , Rick D. wrote: >Hi all, > >What are the most important things successful programmers-to-be should >learn right now, to have a shot at a great career ? Communication skills, especially for communicating with nontechnical people. Problem-solving skills and project planning skills. Domain-specific knowledge in the area you want to work in (preferably in at least two or three wildly different areas) Philosophy, theology, history, or some other discipline that requires strong non-analytical critical thinking skills. Discrete math, linear algebra, and/or calculus (which one is best will depend on what type of programming you want to do). At least one of: Scheme Haskell SML CAML At least one of: Forth Prolog Postscript At least one of: Smalltalk Java Objective-C At least one of: Perl Python sh+awk+sed At least two of: FORTRAN C C++ (You'll probably want to start your programming career before you finish this list and work on that in parallel with learning these.) None of this will actually directly make you a good programmer, but the skills you'll pick up learning these things will both be helpful in becoming a better programmer and enhance your career options beyond what merely being a good programmer can do. dave -- Dave Vandervies dj3vande@csclub.uwaterloo.ca I'm trying to imagine an admin-related scenario in which I *wouldn't* be worried, and failing. --David P. Murphy in the scary devil monastery .