Interesting article over at ArsTechnica.
http://arstechnica.com/information-tech ... rogrammer/

I've always been of the opinion that having a logical mindset is essential to becoming a good programmer. However, many people say that coding is a skill like any other that can be taught to just about anyone.

The recent surge in code school websites and the push to introduce programming back into mainstream education suggests that more people will be exposed to code these days. Will we see coding become mundane and commonplace or will it remain a black art only practised by geeks?

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10 PRINT "Bad Monkey ";
20 GOTO 10

well, i was working as a ceo of a smaller software development company a few years ago. When searching for php developers you learn one thing - which will for sure be true for other languages too the more popular programming gets: Everyone can be a programmer, but it is hard to find someone who actually can program.

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My projects: Gamvas Web - html5 canvas game framework| sge2d - C/C++ 2D SDL game framework

You have only to talk to my wife to realize the answer to the question is "No".

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Bored? Head on over to my blog and see what I'm up to.

Microsoft XNA MVP

She must be the exception to the rule :D

I think programming in itself is not difficult, you just write a recipe with steps that any fool can follow.

The difference is imho mostly in the speed and flexibility of picking the right structure of the problem you're solving, and the ability to scale up to a large amount of variations such that you are not busy forever, and every variation works.

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My project: Messing about in FreeRCT, dev blog, and IRC #freerct at oftc.net

Well, I suppose if someone can write a program such as:



There's hope for us all.

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What most people don't understand about "enlightenment" is that it is not an end-goal; but where you find yourself just before taking a new "first step."

Hey! Don't knock it. That's one of the few programs I've actually finished.

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10 PRINT "Bad Monkey ";
20 GOTO 10

Not knocking it. Just saying that if someone is cable of typing those lines out, they wrote a program. Maybe nothing that would strike us with awe, but we all started with Hello World, right?

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What most people don't understand about "enlightenment" is that it is not an end-goal; but where you find yourself just before taking a new "first step."

So anyone can be a journalist?
Can't anyone with a basic education write an article following the five journalist questions?

Anyone can be anything if you are happy wearing an ugly jewel, or a suit with too long sleeves, or living in a house in constant risk of collapse.

Being a programmer requires mindset and dedication.
Can anyone with enough commitment become a programmer?
As long as you believe that anyone with enough commitment can become a mathematician, a physicist or a philosopher, then anyone can be a programmer.

But I don't think that people work this way.
I think commitment is a very personal and intimate sprout that's strictly correlated with a person living environment and interests.

IMHO not anyone can be a programmer.

BTW, hi all, this is my first post

Sounds like how I tend to think about things. Of course, they way I tend to say such things tends to confuse.

Nothing worthwhile comes easily except through dumb luck. And if you rely much on dumb luck, you tend to end up with nothing worthwhile at all.


Howdy, and welcome aboard!

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What most people don't understand about "enlightenment" is that it is not an end-goal; but where you find yourself just before taking a new "first step."

Yours finished? Mine's still printing out "Bad Monkey".

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Trying is the first step towards failure
b

Ah, the evils of GOTO.

I was yelling at one of my co-workers the other day for using a GOTO in a batch file. He asked if I had a better way of handling the script, and to my shame I didn't.

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10 PRINT "Bad Monkey ";
20 GOTO 10

Some interesting comments about learning to program

http://worrydream.com/LearnableProgramming/