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by throwup238
745 days ago
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Data structures and algorithms. I don't have a formal education either but after 25 years of programming, IMO everything boils down to data structures and algorithms - the former more so than the latter. I think everything else comes from experience gained from on the job training because you need to train the pattern matching part of your brain. A good foundation in data structures and algorithms simplifies that process a lot. Data structures are how programmers describe reality in the Wittgenstein/Sapir-Whorf sense and they shape our understanding as much as we use them to encode it. The right data structures drastically simplify problems and the wrong data structures turn them into nightmares of bugs and spaghetti code. Database schemas are the natural extension of this at the application, rather than module, level. I don't have a specific recommendation because data structures is such a broad field, but an MIT OCW data structures and algorithms course is a good place to start. Oh and the book Designing Data Intensive Applications for a higher level overview of how data structures and algorithms are used in the field. |
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And from Fred Brooks...
> Representation Is the Essence of Programming
> Beyond craftsmanship lies invention, and it is here that lean, spare, fast programs are born. Almost always these are the result of strategic breakthrough rather than tactical cleverness. Sometimes the strategic breakthrough will be a new algorithm, such as the Cooley-Tukey Fast Fourier Transform or the substitution of an n log n sort for an n2 set of comparisons.
> Much more often, strategic breakthrough will come from redoing the representation of the data or tables. This is where the heart of a program lies. Show me your flowcharts and conceal your tables, and I shall continue to be mystified. Show me your tables, and I won't usually need your flowcharts; they'll be obvious.
Brooks Jr., Frederick P.. Mythical Man-Month, The: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition
Replace "flowcharts" with "code" and "tables" with "data structures" (or leave it with "tables" for a database centric view) for more modern terminology.
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I would also reminded of Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs by Wirth... which in turn brought me to his quotes.
> "Good enough software" is rarely good enough. It is a sad manifestation of the spirit of modern times, in which an individual's pride in his or her work has become rare.
Craftsmanship is something that is lost. It's written and it's someone else's problem once it is deployed. Be that a "its operations problem now" or "this contract is done, the next contractor will need to deal with it."
The third virtue ( http://wiki.c2.com/?LazinessImpatienceHubris https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39385228 ) of programming is often forgotten and lost.
> Hubris: Excessive pride, the sort of thing Zeus zaps you for. Also the quality that makes you write (and maintain) programs that other people won't want to say bad things about. Hence, the third great virtue of a programmer. See also laziness and impatience. (p.607)