Questions for the expert

[JoeData]

To, start I am new to programming and am beginner level. My question's are as such:

1.Do programmers memorize entire namespaces or does a programmer reach a point in which they can look up a class in the MSDN library and understand how to use it to it's fullest potential?
2.What is the best advice an expert programmer can give to the beginner?
3.If you could change one thing on your way to becoming an expert what would it be?
4.Once one programming language is learned, is it easy to learn another?
5.What is the job outlook like and what is a typical salary?

Feel free to answer any and all questions.

[RhinoBull]

Don't know if I fall under te "expert" category but here's my opinion:

1.Do programmers memorize entire namespaces or does a programmer reach a point in which they
can look up a class in the MSDN library and understand how to use it to it's fullest potential?
Nobody remembers everything but you must know the basics - the rest will depend how good you are with whatever refernce you might have including the on-line resources.

2.What is the best advice an expert programmer can give to the beginner?
Practice, practice and again practice. Lots of it. Also, do not stop learning ever.

3.If you could change one thing on your way to becoming an expert what would it be?
Even more practice...

4.Once one programming language is learned, is it easy to learn another?
It depends on many things including what you already know and what you like to do (desktop programming, database programming, internet, networking, etc), what platform you like better (Unix, Linux, Mac, Windows...).
It could be easy but it could also be just as painful.

5.What is the job outlook like and what is a typical salary?
Depends on the region you currently leave. For more detailed information you may check the surveys with Monster.com or Dice.com or some other places.

Good luck and welcome to Forums, btw!

[techgnome]

1.Do programmers memorize entire namespaces or does a programmer reach a point in which they can look up a class in the MSDN library and understand how to use it to it's fullest potential?
One of my favorite quotes is "A good programmer knows all there is to know about everything. The greatest or programmers know when and where to look things up." It's impossible to know it all. It really is. The best thing to do is to obtain a few good references, learn how to ask for help properly, and make MSDN your friend.

2.What is the best advice an expert programmer can give to the beginner?
Never stop learning. Also know when to stop. Avoid burnout if you can. "Know when to hold 'em. Know when to fold 'em." (Kenny Roger, The Gambler). And do lots of puzzeles. It keeps the analytical mind constantly working. Don't be afraid to ask for help.

3.If you could change one thing on your way to becoming an expert what would it be?
For me? Nothing. But I'm not at that expert stage I want to be at (others will disagree with that). I'm fortunate enough to have landed at the right places at just the right time that advancement in my career has progressed smoothly, and I get to do things I wouldn't have dreampt of just years ago.

4.Once one programming language is learned, is it easy to learn another?
Depends on how you look at it.... Once you have a grasp of the basics, in many cases learning a new language is simply learning a new syntax. Every language has an If statement, looping statements, Select Case statements, assignment operators, and so on. I had experience with BASIC (pre-windows) and Pascal. When faced with having to learn Ada, I nearly choked. Then someone pointed out this fact to me..... With the exception of Perl, there hasn't been a language I wasn't able to follow & learn.

5.What is the job outlook like and what is a typical salary?
meh... hard to say. Here it seems like we can't hire people fast enough. But part of the reason for that is it's tough to find someone that is the right fit. We have to look at more than just the credentials and experience. Other places have such a derth of programmers, no one can work. Companies are outsourcing, others aren't. It truly is a hard question to answer.

-tg

[Lord Orwell]

my answers:
1. You don't memorize everything but you get pretty quickly to where if you know what you want to do, you know what namespace to look it up in.
2. Agree with Rhinobull. Don't think about your limitations when thinking about a program. When you come to a part when writing it you don't know, that is where you learn something new.
3. Switch to .net 2 years ago.
4. Depends on what order you learned them in. If you learn a low-level language first, higher ones come easy. But i think learning a high one like basic first can make it hard on someone to learn a low one such as C because they expect some stuff to be simple like making the IDE or responding to Events that is totally different.
5. Based on my personal research, the highest growth and pay is in database management, especially web-based database.

[penagate]

1.Do programmers memorize entire namespaces or does a programmer reach a point in which they can look up a class in the MSDN library and understand how to use it to it's fullest potential?
2.What is the best advice an expert programmer can give to the beginner?

Learn what you need to. Learn where to look for the rest.

3.If you could change one thing on your way to becoming an expert what would it be?

Not knowing only one language for so long.

4.Once one programming language is learned, is it easy to learn another?

It depends how many you already know. If you know one, it might be hard and confusing to pick up the second, but not as hard and confusing as picking up the first.

The more languages you know, the more you become versed in programming itself, rather than the constraints of individual langauges. After that, it's just a matter of picking the right tool for the job—whether it's a language you know or not.

[bgmacaw]

1.Do programmers memorize entire namespaces or does a programmer reach a point in which they can look up a class in the MSDN library and understand how to use it to it's fullest potential?

Most programmers memorize the basics to some degree and use help and other resources from there. For example, you might know that a particular type of function is in System.IO but you need to refer to help to get the exact function and overload you need to use in a particular situation.

2.What is the best advice an expert programmer can give to the beginner?

Truck driving school is still an option for you.

3.If you could change one thing on your way to becoming an expert what would it be?

I would have found a way to pay for finishing law school rather than starting a career as a programmer.

4.Once one programming language is learned, is it easy to learn another?

In most cases yes. Staying at top proficiency in multiple languages at the same time is difficult though. For example, I used to be proficient at Pascal and C++ back in the late 1980's but it's been so long since I used them it would take me some time to get back up to speed and become familiar with the underlying libraries.

5.What is the job outlook like and what is a typical salary?

It really depends on where you live in the world. In my part of the US, the typical average salary range right now is about $40K starting out up to about $80K for an experienced programmer.

The job outlook is a series of ups and downs based on the economy. You'll be making a lot of money a couple of years and the next you'll make a third of that when there is a recession and nobody wants to hire you. Programmers are one of the salaried positions that companies love to eliminate because they're viewed as a 'cost center' unless they're developing a sellable product.

I'd also add that career longevity is a problem. Companies love to hire young clueless programmers who will work for long hours at relatively low pay and who don't have any family distractions. Once you hit 30 and certainly 40, most companies will force you out of straight programming either by finding a creative way to fire you or pushing you toward a management role you may not want.

So, are you ready to look up the number for that truck driving school yet?

[Slaine]

The experts have had their say, now it's time for the Guru!

1.Do programmers memorize entire namespaces or does a programmer reach a point in which they can look up a class in the MSDN library and understand how to use it to it's fullest potential?
namespaces? Who needs them, I write all my code from scratch, in machine code, in binary.

2.What is the best advice an expert programmer can give to the beginner?
"Listen to the guru - he has much to teach us".

3.If you could change one thing on your way to becoming an expert what would it be?
More coke - liquid or powder, both do the trick.

4.Once one programming language is learned, is it easy to learn another?
Another? I know them all, there is no other.

5.What is the job outlook like and what is a typical salary?
I live it, getting paid is a bonus.




Tongue firmly in cheek!

[techgnome]

Truck driving school is still an option for you.

It's always an option for ANY of us....

-tg

[JoeData]

HaHa. Ya truck drivin aint bad i guess. I'm shooten up bad guys for now.

[Lord Orwell]

My CDL recently expired

[Al42]

To, start I am new to programming and am beginner level. My question's are as such:

1.Do programmers memorize entire namespaces or does a programmer reach a point in which they can look up a class in the MSDN library and understand how to use it to it's fullest potential?

The greatest experts on anything know where to look for the information they need. (Einstein never memorized his home phone number, because he knew how to look it up in the phone book.)

2.What is the best advice an expert programmer can give to the beginner?

Don't give advice - people seldom take it, even when they ask for it.

3.If you could change one thing on your way to becoming an expert what would it be?

I'd have been born decades later so I could have gone for a CS degree. (I studied vacuum tubes in school.)

4.Once one programming language is learned, is it easy to learn another?

Once programming is learned, learning one language is just about as easy as learning another language. Learning a language before you learn programming is just playing at being a programmer.

5.What is the job outlook like and what is a typical salary?

The job outlook will continue to be good until we have computers that can program themselves. The salary depends on your experience, your knowledge, the type of programming, the location ... too many things to give you a meaningful answer.

[RhinoBull]

The greatest experts on anything know where to look for the information they need. (Einstein never memorized his home phone number...

Bad example - Einstein was way beyond being just an ordinary expert - he was The Genius! [serious]

[Lord Orwell]

Not only that but he is always misrepresented. Everyone makes a big deal about him failing one of his entrance exams to get into college, but no one ever mentions that the test was given to him in french and he didn't speak french.