Becoming a Programmer

You do not need a degree in Computer Science to become a programmer.  Technically, you do not need a college degree to become a programmer.  Bill Gates wrote and sold code while he was still in high school.  He dropped out of college to join Paul Allen in starting Microsoft.  Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of college when he started Facebook.  I know programmers who are fine programmers, but did not graduate from college.  Getting employment as a programmer without a college degree might be more challenging, but it is possible.

Sometimes a college graduate decides to become a programmer after completing a degree program unrelated to programming.  The following blog article (http://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/156836-teaching-programming-to-a-highly-motivated-beginner/fulltext) describes someone's experience in mentoring a businessman in programming.  What I hope to do with my blog, Canright on Software and Programming, is to share thoughts with people who are learning programming.

I want to assist young people, who are interested, to pursue programming.  When I was a young person I very much enjoyed learning chess and playing chess.  Chess is a game that offers as much complexity as you are willing to handle.  Programming, in some respects, is like a complicated game that some young people can enjoy.  Programming has the advantage that it can lead to useful skills.

The internet has many resources for someone learning to program.  I will mention the CodeProject as one source for beginning programmers.  Stack Overflow is another website where you can ask questions.  Sometimes just Googling a specific question will lead you to an answer.

A young person learning to program is not making a life-long commitment to becoming a professional programmer.  Sometimes programming is a useful skill in various business or scientific endeavors.

I hope some of my posts here might be helpful.

Robert