The Best Tools for You Rogers AR

Posted by : Nelson King Programminghed: The best tools for youdek: but don't add so many tools that your toolbelt trips you up.dek: when picking a language, it sometimes pays to buck the mainstream.dek: the programmer who isn't careful can easily be overwhelmed.By Nelson King

Learn a programming language, become a programmer, right? It's not quite that simple. For one thing, what programming language should you learn? For another, there's a lot more to programming than writing code. In the previous two parts of this series on becoming a professional programmer, I've covered the environment and mindset of a programmer. Now it's time to get down to some nitty-gritty.

A professional programmer needs to master the tools of the trade. I suppose the term "tools of the trade" may not sound very exotic. Sorry, but there's not much about programming that's exotic. It's complex, demanding; even mysterious at times. But it's still a profession that requires knowledge of specific tools coupled with practice and experience. What are the tools of the trade? Loosely, I'd call it a programmer's toolkit. The toolkit (which is mostly in your head) contains mainly two types of things: languages and framework knowledge.

The first part is obvious: Even the most blasé of programmers needs to master one or more programming languages. The second part is more nebulous, but just as important: The programming framework consists of knowledge about software components and how ...

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