quote:Original post by SabreMan The issue is that it requires the *right* focus. For example, it''s no good spending a couple of years of your programming career focusing on how to make micro-optimisations. That''s very unlikely to help someone become a better programmer. Similarly, it''s no good choosing some big-picture issue to focus on, such as "I want to become a Technical Architect", without having any idea what one must focus on in the interim to achieve the long-term objective. By focusing on the wrong things, one can lose direction.
Awww... now your getting picky, Sabreman. I do realise that the issue here is the right focus and this focus was made clear: What is required to be a successful programmer.
The goal has been established, now to get onto the right path to achieve your goal as a successful programmer, that''s the focus.
"standard patterns" like facade and factory are quite recent things. I''m sure there there are tons of decent programmers out there that have only the vaguest clue as to what they are. It''s not that they don''t know the idea, it''s that when they were educated there was no such label to put on it. I had no clue what "facade" was until I looked it up a moment ago.
I read whatever book it was that started the hoopla a year or two ago. My conclusion was that it was basically common sense written down for people that haven''t previously encountered the various problems the patterns were trying to solve and/or liked to keep things on a more formal basis. Neither of which (experience or formality) is an absolute must for an entry-level programmer.
IMHO to be a good programmer you need to enjoy solving puzzles, have the ability to break big problems down into small pieces, have a logical approach to things, and generally be annoyed by ineffeciency.
In more practical terms, you need to know at least one of C, C++, Java, or Basic, and know it well. Other languages are nice but these are the once that are used the most. Which one you want to concentrate on depends on what you want to do. For games C/C++ is probably the winner. I think I heard it said once that VB programmers outnumber everybody else combined. They however are working mostly on business applications. Java IMHO has yet to prove itself as "the" language to use for anything except toy web apps. It does have a wide following though.
You should also have basic data structures (lists, queues, trees, perhaps hashes) down cold. You should be able to implement them on demand and tell me under what circumstances one is better than another. It also helps to have some intuition in algorithm analysis. i.e. I don''t care if you know the precise algorthim behind quicksort but if I explain it to you you should be able to come up with when it would be good to use and when a different algorithm might be better.
Im very very good with graphics on many levels. As well as very well at programming they are pretty much equal in comparison of skill. Don''t belive me try me...
quote: Nope, sorry, not good enough. While definitly above developer average, this is not a graphics guru - while you can argue that the screen looks good, the graphics on the screen are partially "work in progrss" - to a terrific degree. Better than most things shown here, but not graphics guru quality. Compare this with for example DungenoSiege or Imperium Galactica 3 - then you see what I mean.
Oh that''s right, Dungeon Siege was done by one guy... how could I forget?
quote: I am in development for around 14 years now, and never haveseen a good graphics guy being a good programmer at the same time.
well then, i suppose we can all go home then from a lesson well learned... your unrivaled experience surely couldn''t be paralleled, much less surpassed. Such a paradox couldn''t possibly exist! Please... take a bow...
Im a student taking software engineering, and I feel i'm fairly decent at programming (C++/Java) and have made a few small games already (entered a few programming competitions too). Recently I've been doing some 3d graphics for a larger scale project I'm working on.
'Nuff said
[edited by - stevenmarky on September 4, 2002 2:00:55 PM]
