Becoming a Better Programmer
23 Jan 2020
Gaining Real Experience
I am eager to expand my knowledge regarding software development. So far, most of my classes and experience with programming has been in theory and in very basic concepts. I have not really experienced what it is like to be working on software of a much larger scale, similar to what it is like for those actually working for software companies. I would like to gain some hands-on experience in working on large projects either on my own or with a team of people in a professional environment. Doing so will provide me with knowledge and skills that would greatly benefit me when I graduate and begin a career in the field.
Programming for the masses
I would also like to learn more about working with webpages and creating robust UI elements that are for a larger audience. So far, I have only worked in a closed environment, like a virtual machine or a school server, in which the code that I had written was either for myself or for a professor to look at and grade. All the programs that I have created so far have also primarily been command-line based, where input and output is basically just text. I want to learn ways to create programs with UI elements that would be appealing to the public and easy to use and understand. This knowledge would further increase my programming repertoire and provide me with more tools to work with.
More toys to play with
More knowledge of the different services and software that is available and intended for programmers is something I also hope to gain. Github is a great example of this. Experience with services like Github and the various frameworks, apps, and libraries that are widely used in the industry would be extremely valuable. It would give me the ability to make use of these services to become a better programmer and further expose me to different ideas and ways to do things. Learning JavaScript for software engineering is a great example of this. Since I am only familiar with Java/C, things like passing functions as arguments and return values, and JavaScript’s object orientation is useful and exciting to learn. Essentially, what I hope to gain in software engineering is real-world experience, more useful tools for programming, and the knowledge to effectively implement them.