No Software Degree? Don't Let It Stop You!

I saw a an article over on freecodecamp.org where the author tells his story about getting a development job without a degree.  I think it is so inspiring when people share their stories.

I also am an un-degreed software engineer and I’ve been working in the industry for more than 30 years.

I assume that if you are ready to jump in to software development without doing a 4 year program, that you are passionate about writing code! If that describes you, read on!

Here are some tips.

• Don’t let anyone tell you that you NEED a degree. You can go and get one, sure and if that’s what you want, great. Go do it, but it will take you years and a lot of money.
• Read a lot. Consume as much programming literature as you can. Read conference proceedings. Read code. Read the History of Programming Languages, read archives of Dr. Dobbs Journal. 
• Learn several programming languages in different paradigms. I’m familiar with BASIC, 6502 assembly, Forth, C, Objective-C, Java and Smalltalk. Don’t be a one trick pony.
• Make your own software. Participate in open source projects so you can learn team programming skills. Code with friends. Create your own applications. Write some video games. Try your hand at programming tools. I wrote Liberty BASIC (a popular programming language) in my spare time and now I sell it. If you have a dossier of interesting stuff that you’ve done, it will be easier to get hired. Haven’t done anything interesting? The degree may not be enough.
• Network like crazy. Almost every job I’ve landed I landed because of people I met at the store, at church, at conferences (that I paid to attend myself), etc.  Join some programming groups on Facebook and meet local people using meetup.com.  This can be really important.
• Be ready to explain what you know. When you do get that interview, who will hire you if you can’t show on the whiteboard what you learned from your work. Give them a post mortem on your own code. Be ready to say what you could have done better.

Good luck and please check out my Liberty BASIC product!  http://www.libertybasic.com

See you around!

Imposter?

I found an article named Web programming is hard to do right by a fellow named Bert Hubert. He does a nice job of explaining what is so hard about web programming and then goes on to describe how it could be done right. He even includes some BASIC code as an example. I like the questions he asks:

• How did we arrive at this mess?
• That's just the way it works, isn't it?
• How should it be then?
• Why not go back to the old days?
  

This article really resonates with the ideas that inspired Run BASIC. We need more people who think this way.

He provides some C-like code implementing what the BASIC code does. I guess that this new scripting language is code for a language called Imposter by Gabor Vitez which he mentions in a note at the top of his article.

I did a quick search for information about Imposter and its author but it seems to have withdrawn from the Internet. Does anyone know where to get a copy of Imposter to have a look?

Rewrite BASIC language today?

In the Usenet group alt.lang.basic there was a thread recently with the subject heading "Rewrite BASIC language today?" where the question was explored about how BASIC would be written in today's programming world.

Clearly there is a wide range of opinions in the responses. Some opted for being retro and simple. Some advocated adding commands for dealing with various things. It's good to have a discussion about these sorts of things, and this one went well. There are a lot of experienced BASIC programmers in that forum and it didn't turn into a flame war.

In my own response I wrote "BASIC needs to be simple. Adding C or Java features is a mistake for the most part. There is value in keeping things out of the language."

There needs to be a balance. Sometimes it makes good sense to add new things to a language. But as I just said... sometimes. ;-)