Roadmap to a better programmer [closed]

Question

Its always said that more you program, the better you become. Sounds good and true. But I was wondering if there is a proven route to becoming a better programmer.

Something like:

• Learn a
• Learn b
• Learn c > 'Now you are good to burn the engines'
• Try stuff around based on your learning.

The answer might be similar to a CS course roadmap, but I want to hear from successful programmers who might want to pitch in with something notable.

Thanks

Answer 1

Practice, practice, practice.

Once you're over the basic hump of being able to program, you can also read useful books (i.e. Code Complete, Effective Java or equivalents, etc.) for ideas on how to improve your code.

Answer 2

• Practice, individually and collectively

• Keep an open mind, always learn new things, don't limit yourself to what's familiar. Not solely from a tech perspective, ui design, people skills, ... Don't be afraid of what's new

• Peer review, talk to people about your code, let people talk to you about their code, everyone has a unique way of looking at a problem and you will learn a great deal from peers

• Love coding. If you love what you're doing, putting in alot of time seems effortless. Every coder needs the drive!

Answer 3

Take time to learn about all sorts of coding techniques, tools and programming wisdom. This I have found to be crucial to my development. It's to easy to just code away and feel productive. What about what could be if you just had some more knowledge / weaponry under your belt to bang out that next widget.

Knowledge/know how is our real currency. The more we know the more we can make a better decision about how something should be done and do it faster.

For example, learn about:

•Development Practices, Software Design, Estimation, Methodologies Business Analysis Database Design (there are a lot of great books out there and online resources)

•Read Code - Open Source Projects are a good place for this. Read Programming blogs

•Try to participate on Open Source Projects.

•Look for programming user groups in your town and/or someone who can mentor you.

And yes, as mentioned practice. Don't just read, do and watch how you will improve. :)

Answer 4

As well as looking at 'last weeks code', talk to users of your work after delivery - be one yourself if possible.

Its not my bag, but some of the best coders I know have spent time supporting applications. The experience improved their product I'm sure.

Answer 5

One you have learned something, try to learn something a little harder. Read and practice a lot about things that seem confusing at first time (lambda functins, threading, array manipulation, etc). It will take its time, but once you have practiced enough, what seemed confusing at first, will be familiar and easy.

Answer 6

First and foremost write code. Write as much as you can. Tackle hard problems. If you want to be a really good programmer you need to get into the guts of what you are doing. Spend a lot of time in debuggers looking at how things work. If you want to be a good programmer who really understands what is going on you need to get down to the metal and write highly async code, learn about how processors work and why SSE is so awesome. Understand threading primitives and be able to write them as well as describe what is actually happening in the processor. I could keep going here but you get the idea.

Second find someone who knows a lot more than you and learn. This relationship will work better if you are already deeply immersed in writing lots of code.

Third, spend some time in a large high quality open source code base. I learned a ton from the Quake I and Quake II code. Helped me be a better programmer.

Fourth take on hard problems. Push your limits. Build things that you thought were impossible. Right now I am writing a specialized compiler. I have learned so much just working on this for the last couple of months.