[NTLUG:Discuss] Direction Recomendations

[Greg Edwards]

The one thing that has been said throughout this thread that is most
important is "what are your goals?"

I'm a consultant (Software Engineer) and every few months I have to look
for another job so I have to keep up on what's in demand.  There have
been many trends that have come and gone throughout my career and there
will be many more.  A couple of years ago everyone said that if you
didn't have C++ your career was over.  Now its Java.  I've written
production code in Assembler, C, C++, Pascal, Basic, SQL, Tcl/Tk and
Shells of several flavors.

I am a Computer Scientist (BSCS) but I traded in my study of computing
for a career in Software Engineering in 1985.  One of the problems I've
seen over the years is the mistake that many make in thinking that
learning a programming language is the way to make a career in this
industry.  If you want to be a programmer then that will certainly get
you a job.  If you want to have a career that gets you involved in the
real interesting problem solving aspects of systems you'll need alot
more.  If you have the patients to do it get a BS or MS in Computer
Science or Software Engineering.  I recommend CS because it'll open the
door to SE but not visa-versa.  I would at least recommend that you get
some training in programming principals and logic.

I won't debate the pros and cons of different languages since each
language has its strengths and weaknesses.  I will say that C is my
primary language, and language of choice, but then again I've got a
toolbox (mostly in my head) of solutions that resolve almost any
argument for using a higher level language.  I do have a major objection
to the statement that processing speed dosen't matter!!!  But then again
I've made alot of money re-engineering systems that were just too slow
because they didn't consider speed to be important.

As far as languages that are hot in the Unix world:

Web based work - HTML, C/C++, SQL, Java, Perl, shell programming

Scientific - C, Fortran, APL (yep its still out there)

Systems - C, shell programming, Tcl/Tk

Applications - C/C++, Tcl/Tk, Perl, Python, Java

IT - C, shell programming, SQL

Sys Admin - Perl, shell programming, Tcl/Tk

Embedded - C, Assembler

Unless your going to do windows skip basic.  If you are going to do
windows VB, C++, and Java.

-- 
Greg Edwards
New Age Software, Inc.
http://www.nas-inet.com