Being a Good Developer

I wrote this essay at the request of my professor, for my college magazine.

First of all, I would like to thank Dr.K. Ramar in providing me this opportunity to write for the college alumni magazine. I graduated in the year 2002 in Computer Science and Engineering. This alumni magazine, I suppose would be glanced through by other friends of mine and also by my juniors. I hope everyone finds something useful and informative.

At the outset, I would like to inform you that I am not a good developer yet, but I am constantly striving to become one.

In this article, I would like share about what being a good software developer means.

What does it mean to be a software developer?

• A person working for a fat pay-check compared to people working in other jobs?
• A person visiting abroad and having a good time over there?

Well, none of them means being a software developer. You can consider the example of cooking and a being a cook. You may have a candid conversation with your mother on this topic.

Who is a good cook according to you?

• A cook who is working in a 5 star hotel and earning more money than his friend in another restaurant?
• A cook who goes to work at restaurant in USA and serves there?

Well, none of these mean a good cook, right?

A good cook is someone who prepares tasty food. Who has devoted his mind to the task of preparing the food, so that he and his friends can enjoy good food. A cook might choose to make a business; but that is a separate aspect and his business will flourish only if his food tastes good.

How do I become a good cook?

• Learn cooking.
• Practice Cooking.
• Concentrate while cooking and Enjoy cooking.

Now, the same question I pose it for programmer. How do I become a good programmer?

• Learn Programming.
• Practice Programming.
• Concentrate while programing, be devoted to it. Enjoy working on others programs.

That are essentially my thoughts on being a good developer.

Let me share with you few points that might help you become a better developer.

Learn to program:- Good Books

• The C Programming Language by Kernighan and Ritchie.
• The Unix Programming Environment by Rob Pike.
• Understand and learn programming language, libraries and runtime, and this will make you fluent in programming that language. (வி. சு.)

Practice Programming.

• Solve the questions at the end of the chapter.
• Don’t copy other programs.
• Start with toy programs. start writing small, simple and then you can move to bigger and more useful one later. ( வி. சு.)
• whenever you are in doubt write a small program; this saves lots of time, and easier (வி. சு.)

Concentrating while programming.

• That would be done with a good discipline. Ask an athlete friend of yours’ what does it mean to concentrate and to improve. Simple, it takes hard-work.

Enjoy Programming.

• Have your favorite tool and know about it in and out. Be curious of how Google works? How Internet works? How Operating System works practically.

These steps can help one become a better developer and thereby enjoy his time while he is in this field.

One last thought. If you have a Computer with Internet Connection at your room or home, what do you use it primary for?It can be used for many different purposes and also for the above 4 things I shared. If we using it for the later, then it definitely is more enjoyable for a Computer Science student.

Thank you,

Senthil

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O.R.Senthil Kumaran, Alumini (CSE 1998-2002), National Engineering College. Senior Software Engineer, Akamai Technologies, Bangalore. Email id: orsenthil@gmail.com

Thanks to:

• Vijayakumar Subburaj ( வி. சு.) for sharing so his insightful Comments.