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Started as a programmer, learning the skill of coding, but gained appreciation for software engineering in grad school, where very large problems were decimated down into little chunks that even I could understand better. Then I could see that coding within the context of an engineered plan was more pleasant. I could leverage the help of others without breeding discontent and chaos. Each skill uses different parts of my brain, and each can be enjoyable.
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I am a senior software engineer. That is according to the company for which I work. Daily, I am using reference resources from the web (Google search, Stack Overflow, Code Project, and so on) to paper and book (real, technical books, reams of print-out code listing or requirement documents, or virtual paper as in Kindle or PDF).
I've been doing this stuff since the early 1980s. I'm in my 50s. I see the big picture. Many changes have come and gone in our industry of software science. I try to be agile.
I call myself a software and systems solutions engineer.
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Very good analysis.
I am an ex mech/aero engineer. I would no more expect to remember the thread pitch of an M8 fine than the minutae of a language, or a parameter variable. I work at a far higher level than that, designing the complex mechanisms that are composed of software.
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You have a mind like a sieve for facts, just Like Einstein.
when you programmed a Z80 with Op Codes, you had them memorized.
Back then, you were a 'programmer'.
Then came 5 volume Turbo-pascal API for windows 3.1..
The first of many bloated APIs and Dozens of languages ;C++, C, Java, C#, Ruby, Python, Go, Node.js
All the meaningless details and irrelevant syntax has been discarded by your brain. You have distilled out an understanding of software structure and design common to all architectures.
You now float above most humans like a zen-guru. Your code requires a function pointer ? How that is done exactly, is a job for google, and the auto-complete of whatever IDE you happen to be using. Details like that are for code-monkeys and programmers. not you. your mind contains the pure design, The Plot of the story; The essence of the characters. Language is irrelevant now.. you have become a Software engineer.
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Yep, spot on. The older and more experienced you get the more you move away from trivial details and implementation and gain the ability to hold complex mechanisms in your mind, in such detail, that you can see them functioning with all the required states and synchronisation.
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Definitely a programmer here. I'm the weird type. I can see the big pic and program in any language as long as I know the verbs (which I can google). I know how the computer works, and can make it scratch it's fleas if I want. Getting old, but still loving it. Passed it on to my son and now he's hooked. He's gonna be a Game Designer in 6 months or so.
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Personally I consider "software engineer" to be a case of buzzword bingo, just like "software developer" or "rockstar". Before these fluff phrases came into existence, "programmer" implied not just syntax and "details", but also spending time considering the big picture.
Honestly, since when did programming ever not involve "designing and understanding complex mechanisms. The architecture. The guts of the machine"? It always meant that. Don't let recruiter-speak diminish the meaning of "programmer".
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Can it be cured? 
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.
--Winston Churchill
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So THAT is how cat food is made...
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Hello Everyone,
I have some idea of javascript and jQuery as in I can get the work done. But I feel like there is no way past it. I have to know it better if it is going to be this relevant.
So here I am, open to suggestions about the best place to start. I did some research online and found that quite a lot of people endorse Javascript: The good parts and You don't know JS to be the best.
I trust CP the most because I know people here have been through this dilemma. So how did you do it?
Where did you start?
I am not the one who knocks. I never knock.
In fact, I hate knocking.
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Caveat - I have not been through this dilemma, I am currently resisting anything to do with the web stack since they trashed Silverlight.
However I think there are very few here who endorse JavaScript, there are many who would like to stab it through the heart or burn it at the stake.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Mycroft Holmes wrote: many who would like to stab it through the heart or burn it at the stake.
I doubt it.
Far too quick an end for it. How about a very slow steam roller running it over, starting with it's "toes"?
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Like this?[^]
If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't. — Lyall Watson
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Nah, the roller was moving far, far too fast.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Is there no Sarlacc pit nearby?
Quote: "In its belly, you will find a new definition of pain and suffering as you are slowly digested over a…thousand years."
―C-3PO translating for Jabba the Hutt
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
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Mycroft Holmes wrote: Caveat - I have not been through this dilemma, I am currently resisting anything to do with the web stack since they trashed Silverlight.
well it was a microsoft product, what did you expect?
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I hate JavaScript like the plague, so I can't tell you any resources you could try. My way of learning is time consuming: Start a pet project, set your goals high and don't even try to stay on the beaten path. Don't look so much at tutorials. Choose a design and try to implement it yourself.
Yor first shot will most probably not be perfect, but running into problems is the whole point. Don't get frustrated and go out of your way with refactoring or redesigning until you can live with the results. Go as far as starting all over again when you feel you have reached a dead end. This way you will gain a good understanding of the language, the framework and the tools at your disposal.
Speaking of that, frameworks and tools come and go, especially with javaScript. Don't waste too much time on them and try to focus on things that stay, like algorithms, design and architecture. Then learning yet another way to do the same old stuff will not be much of a problem.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
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Don't learn - just copy-paste from SO and hack at it until it sort of works.
That's what everyone else is jDoing.
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Well, to preface this... I've been using JavaScript since the 90s, then a few years back I learned way more than I ever thought I knew about it from a super smart coworker at the time. So only doing really hardcore stuff for only a few years now.
But, I'll say this. The web is sporadic. People don't really take the time to write well thought out content like a book does. Back in the 90s the best book I ever read on the subject was called the JavaScript Bible. It's still around actually if you get a newer edition, since it's has had 7 revisions. Things have changed now, so I'm sure there are a number of good books on the subject.
My advice, get a good book on plain vanilla JavaScript and start a personal project to work on with it. Reading stuff online alone won't really teach you much. You have to work on a project.
Also, as much as I love jQuery... I still use it a lot but it is dying as some of issues it addressed are being handled by native JavaScript these days. So, if I had to learn it all again, personally I'd start with vanilla JavaScript. Spend some time with it. Understand the semantics of the language (they're different because JavaScript is more functional then OOP) and only after a solid foundation would I consider building on top of that with libraries like jQuery.
Not really sure what interests you, but a suitable project to learn with would of course be a client-heavy one, such as a game. If you're looking for ideas, see if you can make a Tetris clone in pure JavaScript for instance. Those are always fun.
And remember, to get most things done in JavaScript you use callbacks and function chains like crack cocaine due to its functional nature, much like you would with LINQ chaining in C#. And by default, every last remote call is async. If you need to update the DOM based on a remote API call for instance it helps to remember that.
Jeremy Falcon
modified 8-Nov-17 3:13am.
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I have been reviewing some code from google music lab's experimental music projects. It's really interesting.
I am not the one who knocks. I never knock.
In fact, I hate knocking.
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Yeah, people don't realize how much Google has helped the web. They have a ton of awesome APIs they expose to the public. If it turns out being a fun project, I'd be interested to see what comes of it.
Jeremy Falcon
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Thanks, learning vanilla JS is really the way to go.
I am not the one who knocks. I never knock.
In fact, I hate knocking.
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