The original post is http://trinisoftinc./2010/02/19/so-you-wanna-be-a-programmer/ That link also features on or two interesting comments.

Programming is anything but easy. Programming is hard work. Programming is one of the most difficult things you will ever do in a life time. Programming is not trivial. On a scale of 1 to 10, programming is probably on 8 or 9 as far as difficulty is concerned. The geeks are also not making things easier, they have all these terms that are just there to make you as much more confused as you can be. An example SaaS, XML/RPC, REST. A closer look and a better understanding will reveal that those three terms are so closely related that some other profession could have just named them all as ONE. But not so here, you must be confused, you must know the distinction between a plus and a positive sign!!

Programming has a mystic quality that makes almost everyone wants to do it, or at least wants to be identified as a programmer. Programming has a mystic quality that makes everyone think they can do it. Programming has a mystic quality that makes everyone think those who do it are super humans on steroids. gods like Linus Torvalds aren’t making it easy at all.

Programming can not be learnt in 24 hours, nor can you grasp it in 7 days. Think of learning programming, think of a 10 year course! Even medical students spend 7 years learning the profession. And I am saying 10 years if you started early, if you started late? we are looking at say 15 years or more. You can not do programming as a part time job. You can not learnt it as a part time study. Most programmers I know don’t have a life outside the programming box.

You can not afford to make mistakes here. It’s like an incantation that must be said precisely as it is. Else the magic won’t work. Your code won’t compile, if they do compile, they won’t run, if they do run, they will have bugs. You talk of debugging? you are looking at a job that will cause you more headaches than a troublesome wife, especially if the code belongs to someone else. You won’t be happy all of the time, most of the time your code will depress you. You will sit at it far far late into the night, only to find out that you have spent 6 to 7 hours looking for a misplaced comma, or semi colon.

Code monkeys will come at your code while you sleep, things that have been working before you go to sleep will suddenly stop working. At times you won’t even know where the error is. And you will be forced to waddle through the code from the beginning. At times your codes will have ideas of their own, different from what you intended. You will be frustrated at times. You will spend the better part of your life not developing applications like Monster Truck, or GMail, or Facebook. The better part of your programming life will be spent writing, testing and debugging codes that may never make it out of your box. If you are lucky, you might have one project that will be widely used.

So you wanna be a programmer? These are few of the things they won’t tell you in college. Things that I think you should know before you start on this path. Things that “learn this and this in 24 hours” won’t tell you. Things that books won’t tell you. You want to be a programmer? Think again!

@all. I'll recommend everyone read this post above. I've been tempted to take peoples cash when they come up to me asking that i should teach em programming but i end up not taking it cause they have this weird idea that it'll be over in no more than a year and some think 3 months at most. I say just like aladdin, 'if u wish to be a geni be prepared to have it and everything that goes with it, including the bottle'.

Wow! I love this article, it gives me deep feelings about programing.
The passion is too strong to be seperated, i love programing.

@ dueal,
Can a c/c++ programmer develop a mobile app?

@i-guru. Can a C/C++ programmer develop mobile apps? YES & NO. Let me start with the 'NO' part. Programming languages are like this: a language designer creates a specification 4 a programming language and then creates the first working implementation of it. Then companys and various other individuals may choose to create there own implementation of that language following the specification as far as they can for separate devices. Now, if there isn't such an implementation of that language for a device then that language can't be used directly. Secondly, c/c++ isn't a language built with an automatic garbage collector within it and mobile devices have limited resource. So, if a programmer using C/C++ isn't careful enough u could crash the system. Now the 'YES!' part. C/C++ has a friendly extension language/library called LUA, that provides a garbage collector and is small in terms of memory used to run it. The library is cross-platform even on mobile devices. So,  yeS u can and nO u can't. Isn't programming great fun!

Yes

This is the most discouraging comment i've ever encountered since i started learning programming

dueal:

c/c++ isn't a language built with an automatic garbage collector within it and mobile devices have limited resource. So, if a programmer using C/C++ isn't careful enough u could crash the system.

As an aside ,

Does automatic garbage collection ensure more resources are available in a constrained system ?

Also the Symbian OS' native programming language is C++ ,

@ghenghis. An auto garbage collector doesn't ensure that more resource(memory) is available to an app in a limited environment but that the available resource is handled more effectively without the total reliance on the programmer to take care of house keeping. Yes C++ is symbian os's choice dev language but is scaled down and uses memory management technics like memory protection and reference counting when u dev with the symbian framework/sdk. Now adays u can also develop with the python language as well which i see as an effort to include garbage collection facilities within symbian os which it lacks. Same can be done using LUA and since the core of lua is small(less than 1.4MB) it will fit as a better alternative.

Good people, please I want to know why hardware programmers make C programming language as their first choice. This is because, i am currently studying digital systems and computer engineering; hence we are studying c as part of our course. What i have learnt so far about C, there is no much different with java(which i have known before now) except that it is a structured language while java is object oriented language.

Before now, my opinion about c is that it is a low level language associated with machine codes(0s and 1s) which makes it more efficient to program hardwares with it, but what we have done so far, I am yet to see that.

C professionals in the house please educate me on the capabilities of C so that I will regain my interest in it.

Thanks in anticipation!

@chuxy. C and Java are a far way apart. Yes they look syntatically similar and some minor similarity in sematics yet they differ greatly. Java is what u could call a managed/safe language cause it runs on a virtual machine while C is ur assembly language looking 'prettier'. U have to use something low-level to do systems programming and C/C++/C# is the choice in that area with C leading the 3. Java was not made for that kinda job though it has JNI(java native interface) which u can use to get to the gritter part of the hardware but few core people use it. I'm sure when u get to pointers and see stuff like unsigned char* or typedef void * (pfT*) (void *, void*), u'll see the difference.

@dueal. Thanks for the clarification. I also want you to give me more insight on why one should make c the first choice among other languages in terms of hardware programming.

@chukxy. C is a small language and a 'naughty' one if i might add cause it makes u do 'dangerous' and tricky stuff sometimes without u knowing. It was created in the era where memory was very very limited so it was designed with speed and use of limited system resources as its main priority. Yes C is the industries choice language for systems programming cause it abstracts the machines architecture one level up enabling the programmer think more in terms of the problem than the hardware yet giving the programmer full control to specify operations and directly access system resources(main memory, registers, ports). You might wonder why don't people just use the assembly language of a device directly. Well, using the assembly language for a device makes your program less portable btw devices with varying architecture(ISA), cause your only 'speaking' the devices language. If u use C u make your program more portable btw systems with varying architecture cause at the end of the day u use each systems C compiler to translate your program to the assembly lang of that system and hence your program works on a wider range of devices. Also, since Denise Ritchie could us it(C) to create the marvel called UNIX it shows that C is a  strong language in that area. I'm sure u'll appreciate C if u're the type that likes getting under the hood of things,  Have fun!

Thanks Dueal! I appreciate.

dueal:

Yes C is the industries choice language for systems programming cause it abstracts the machines architecture one level up enabling the programmer think more in terms of the problem than the hardware yet giving the programmer full control to specify operations and directly access system resources(main memory, registers, ports). You might wonder why don't people just use the assembly language of a device directly.

to add to @duels comments which are very right C provides a useful abstraction of the underlying hardware i.e. its hot as high level as other Object Oriented languages. Also in C is a deterministic language platform; looking at a C program, you can tell how long every operation might take, you can also calculate the size of your data structures quickly. Languages like java(in its ordinary form) have too much baggage for embedded devices.

Agreed.

Wow! We have too many gurus' in the house.
Chukxy, clap for them

Thank you guys! My interest is rekindled again. You people are too much!

@dueal
I just left my accounting job to concentrate on my first love. I was discouraged from reading computer science when i was entering uni(they told me comp sci graduates can only work in cyber cafes. i cant believe i fell for that). After reading economics, i was so unhappy in my job. I was learning java on my own sha but it was not convenient and having so little time for it meant that i could never turn to a guru so i left the job.

From the looks of it, you are a certified Guru. My action plan is PGD Computer Science (part-time cos thats only whats available), Java certification (i'm preparing for SCJA. I'm targeting October, worst case - December) and A+. After my SCJP and while preparing for SCJD, i'll go for SAP BASIS (all things being equal). For Java, my target is SCEA.

I love programming and I will appreciate your advise if you see any need to especially in terms of my choice of degree and certifications (for example, I want to do A+ but I'm not planning to be a hardware person)

@ last poster
Not to discourage you but wouldnt you be more useful being a certified accountant
and a core programmer ?
that way you can contribute software services to accountant i.e be a player in two fields.
Accounting software industry is very large and lucrative but most programmers
can't grasp accounting but accountants would feel at home with a fellow who talks
their language- solid business grasp with an I.T edge.
but just my contribution

@kambo
You made sense.

@all
I like to ask a question, going to university to study programing OR going to an I.T school to study programing, which is better?

@kambo
thats what i'm working on. I haven't completely dumped accounting.

@i-guru
i think its better to go to a university. Then develop yourself on the side.

tundebabzy:

@kambo
thats what i'm working on. I haven't completely dumped accounting.

@i-guru
i think its better to go to a university. Then develop yourself on the side.

Which university do you recommend?

i-Guru:

Which university do you recommend?

to be honest, I don't know any that I can recommend. but what i know is that there IT schools that we have here in Nigeria are just after your money.nothing else

Interesting one.

@poster
You've got a nice compilation. So, keep it up guy.

dueal:

@all. I'll recommend everyone read this post above. I've been tempted to take peoples cash when they come up to me asking that i should teach em programming but i end up not taking it cause they have this weird idea that it'll be over in no more than a year and some think 3 months at most. I say just like aladdin, 'if u wish to be a geni be prepared to have it and everything that goes with it, including the bottle'.

yeah right!

@tundebabzy
does one use programming to look for job. A proffession OR vocation OR bussiness OR occupation

Poster, this is a very encouraging article

New Programmer:
Crawl (there may be blisters) -> Walk(You might get bored) --> Run(You might get exhausted) ---> Until you Fly (You sure will be smiling)

Whatever stage you find yourself, Be Consistent

@maxdi
programming can be used for any of the listed. It just depends on individual personal goals and drive. I personally want to use programming to set up my business. I'm not ruling out employment though,

This is a topic every "Want To Be A Programmer" has to read before proceeding so you dont think people training you on Programming just took your money from you and gave you a scratch test. Programming has to do with constant learning, constant practicing, and you thinking faculty must be at work 24/7. like the topic says: you cannot afford to make any mistake.

@tundebabzy. Nice to knw ur intrest has always been in this field. Just can't believe someone got u to think that by studying a computing course will land u a job at a cyber cafe. Not withstanding there are many great minds in this field with prior qualifications in something unrelated, so don't get discouraged. As an advice, don't start to study just to pass a certification exam, companys are wising up on the fact that the paper is not a true representation of a persons productivity/capability. So, take ur time to study,experiment,and have fun while at it. Ur portfolio of works done will surely stand as ur certification. Have fun!

read fredrick p brooks. the Mythical Man-Month.

Are you thinking of acquiring the necessary I.T. skills and solutions needed to get you your desired job? i have just put together all the trainings i have on video tutorial in my Hard drive to be of assistance to my fellow Nigerians you can just get some of them download here at www.imustwork.com/download.html