How to be a “not-so-bad” programmer

preface

I’ve lost count of how many readers have asked:

Blogger, how do you learn? Do you have any suggestions for a situation like mine?

I don’t know when I became a life coach. Of course, I don’t reject these questions, and communicating with everyone is a learning process.

Therefore, I also promised to prepare an article on learning. Therefore, this article has been prepared for a long time and is long in length. Please read it patiently and hope it can be fruitful.

The following is just a summary of my experience as a “not so bad programmer” in terms of hard and soft skills.

The skill tree

As a code code of technical workers, how to say dry or technical work.

Since it is technical that professional strength must be excellent, I will talk about what we should master in accordance with the relevant categories below.

Computer Fundamentals

A job that involves working with computers. Computers are what we live on. So there are some basic skills that we should and must master.

For example, Internet related knowledge.

This includes the TCP protocol, which is different from UDP. You need to understand the TCP three-way handshake, such as unpacking and sticking packets.

Of course, the most common HTTP at the top also needs to be known, even familiar with.

This is recommended for illustrated HTTP.

And then operating system knowledge.

Since most of the code you write will be running on Linux servers, you’ll need to be familiar with this as well.

Concepts such as processes, threads, memory, etc. Server common command use, this is no trick is usually knock knock summary.

I also worked part-time for half a year in operation and maintenance before I was familiar with this area.

Linux this nature is to recommend the industry is very famous “Bird brother Linux private house dishes”.

It can be tedious to learn these things as a beginner, and universities usually have these basic subjects before their major courses. I’m sure most of you didn’t listen very carefully, because it’s true that even if you learned these things and memorized them, there wasn’t much direct motivation.

But after a few years of work, you’ll realize that as long as you’re still doing computer work, you’ll be glad you made the right choice one day.

Data structures and algorithms

Next comes another boring subject: data structures.

It was also the least popular course in college and the only one IN which I failed.

I remember that every time the teacher let us use C language to practice the exercises on the book, looking at a combination of letters that are open to recognize together I resolutely chose to give up.

As a result, NOW I have to read binary trees, red-black trees, stacks, queues and other knowledge every once in a while to deepen my impression.

I really have no say in the algorithm, and MOST of the topics of LeetCode THAT I insisted on brushing were in the elementary level.

But like basic search, sort algorithm I think still have to know, not necessarily handwritten but to understand the idea.

Therefore, I strongly suggest students to actively participate in some ACM competitions, which will definitely be a sharp tool to add points in the future.

This area of content may play a big role in college recruitment, if your job is Java Web development, this area is relatively less likely.

But once you get into model design, middleware, efficient storage, queries and so on, there’s no getting around that.

This content is about the same as the computer foundation above. For Our Java development, I think that in addition to deepening the impression by brushing LeetCode many times, when we choose a container to store data in daily development, we should think why we choose it? Is there a better way to store it? How efficient is the write and query?

The same stick to it, the future certainly receive goods quite abundant.

Algorithms (4th Edition) is also recommended.

Java based

Most of the readers here are Java related, so this highly relevant skill is very important.

The Java foundation is the only way to advanced Java.

Leaving aside basic grammar, we’ll focus on the high-frequency stuff in the real world.

• Basic containers, such as HashMap, ArrayList, HashSet, LinkedList, etc., need to be able to use and understand how they work. In this way, the optimal design can be selected in different scenarios.

• IO and NIO also need to be mastered. Most of the daily development is dealing with disk, network (logging, database, Redis), these are the IO process.

• Common design patterns such as agent, factory, callback, and Builder patterns are helpful in developing flexible and scalable applications.

• Java multithreading is a very important feature, many daily development. Understands the threading model, the pros and cons of multithreading, and how to avoid it.

• Good single test habits. Many people find writing single tests a waste of time and pointless. But with single tests, many problems can be exposed in advance, reducing the chance of rework and improving the quality of the code.

• Good programming specification, which can be referred to alibaba Java Development Manual and vipSHOP Java Manual optimized on its basis.

Java Core Technologies volume I is recommended.

Multithreaded application

With a solid foundation, let’s talk about multithreading and concurrency.

If you want to add the word “advanced” to your title, you must go through the baptism of concurrency.

Concurrency here refers mainly to scenarios in a single application, but distributed content in multiple applications can be seen later.

The emergence of multithreading is mainly to improve CPU utilization rate and task execution efficiency. However, it is not always possible to achieve this effect with multi-threading, because it also brings some problems:

• Context switch

• Shared resources

• Visibility, atomicity, orderliness, etc.

Using multiple threads can be more complex and uncontrollable than single-threaded programs, and even slower than single-threaded programs when used incorrectly. So consider whether you really need multithreading.

Once you know how to use it, you need to think about why multithreading has that problem, and you need to understand things like memory models and visibility.

What are the same solutions? Their strengths and weaknesses also need to be understood.

Speaking of multithreading, we have to mention and issue the following package java.util.concurrent.

The most commonly used and needed to master are:

• Atomic class: Atomic operations for concurrent scenarios.

• The queue. Often used for decoupling, you need to understand how it works.

• Concurrency tools, such as ConcurrentHashMap, CountDownLatch, etc.

• Thread pool usage, and related principles.

• Lock related content: the use and principle of synchronized and ReentrantLock.

This piece of content can be we know that writing the JDK to handle concurrency ideas, we write our own high-quality multithreaded programs also have a lot of help.

The Art of Concurrent Programming in Java is recommended as a good introduction to concurrency.

The JVM virtual machine

The JVM is essential to getting deep into Java. For most developers who have been working for one to three years, there is little direct exposure to these things.

To 3~5 years this stage must understand, the following content I think is must master:

• JVM memory partition, know which memory holds what content; Thread safety; Memory is not enough how to deal with.

• Different cases of memory overflow, stack overflow, and location solutions.

• Generational garbage collection strategies.

• Online problem location and related solutions.

• The entire process of loading a class, creating objects, garbage collection, and class unloading.

Knowing these things really helps a lot in actually analyzing problems.

I highly recommend Understanding the Java Virtual Machine in Depth, which has been read several times, with different results at each stage.

The database

Do WEB application development students must have a lot of dealings with the database, and usually a system is the first bottleneck is often the database, said that the database is the last straw to the system is not too much.

So it is very necessary to master the database. Take the MySQL database used by the Internet as an example, some knowledge points must be mastered:

• Index data structure and principles, which fields should be created index.

• For a slow SQL optimization idea.

• For the solution of database horizontal and vertical splitting, it is necessary to understand the middleware such as MyCAT and Sharding-Sphere commonly used in the industry.

For general use, you can refer to the database chapter in the “Alibaba Java Development Manual”. For an in-depth understanding of MySQL, you must recommend the classic “High Performance MySQL” book.

Distributed technology

With the development of the Internet, traditional single application is less and less suitable for existing scenarios.

So distributed technology comes along, and this is too much to cover, but I can only list some of the things I use on a daily basis:

• First of all, some basic theories such as CAP theorem, some problems that distributed system will bring, and the way each application trade-offs.

• To learn about the definitions, sources and comparisons of Microservices that have become hot in recent years, you can read Martin Fowler’s original Microservices, or search for relevant domestic translations.

• When working with distributed frameworks such as Dubbo and SpringCloud, it is best to understand the principles.

• The next step is to come up with solutions to the problems posed by distribution. Such as distributed lock, distributed traffic limiting, distributed transaction, distributed cache, distributed ID, message middleware and so on.

• Also understand some of the load algorithms in distribution: weights, Hash, consistent Hash, failover, LRU, and so on.

• It is a good idea to do a practice such as seckilling architecture practice

Previously there was an open source distributed related solution component:

https://github.com/crossoverJie/distributed-redis-tool

At the same time, I recommend an introductory popular science “technical architecture of large websites”, published a little early, from which I can learn some ideas.

Understand the point of architecture

I believe everyone has a dream of being an architect.

There is a sense that the architect is drawing the paper, setting up the shelf, and the people below are doing the work.

But in fact, the internal work needs to be very deep, on the above list all need to master, the bottom to the operating system, algorithm; From the top down to applications and frameworks, you need to be very proficient. (except PPT architect)

I don’t have much experience with architecture myself, so I can only offer limited advice.

First of all, you have to master distribution, because most of today’s architectures are based on distribution.

In this process, it is necessary to choose consistency or availability according to CAP theory and the project situation, and how to select the technology suitable for the existing team.

Here to recommend the teacher kaitao “hundred million level flow site architecture core technology”, listed a lot of architectural examples, but online praise or criticism, but for the beginning of the architecture can popular science a lot of knowledge.

How to learn

With skill trees out of the way, let’s talk about learning, which is one of the most frequently asked questions.

And the most talked about study is watching videos or reading books?

video

We have to admit that video is the most convenient source of knowledge, after all, it contains pictures, text and sound.

In fact, I did not take professional courses in the university for several years. I remember that I spent two months watching the video tutorials of “Ma Soldier” at home every day in one summer vacation. At that time, the resources were very old, and I remember the videos were released in 2007 (using Google).

During that period, I got up early and went to bed late. I practiced what I learned every day and felt a sense of accomplishment. Later, he became a “student with outstanding results” in the eyes of his classmates.

Now open my 12-year-old computer, there are still dozens of gigabytes of teaching videos lying in the hard drive.

Reading a book

After work, time is really precious, and there is no freedom for students to study. So now my main source of knowledge is books.

Reading books will involve the difference between e-books and paper books, I personally prefer paper books. After all, I can easily take notes and switch chapters at any time. The most important or from childhood to develop the habit of smelling books.

Knowledge of pay

In recent years, paying for knowledge has become more and more popular. Many big names have also joined this ranks, and people are gradually getting used to paying for knowledge.

To be honest, it is not easy to write a good article and write a video. Only with positive motivation can the author continue to output better content.

What I think is better in China and what I pay for are geek time, big guy’s knowledge planet, etc.

There is no absolute distinction between the three points. In fact, IT can be seen that I watched videos at the beginning, read books and learned paid content after work.

The advantage of the video is that you can follow the teacher’s ideas step by step down, there is a strong sense of audio and video substitution, just like the school teacher lectures.

However, due to the long content, readers are unable to know the key points, and even dare not fast forward for fear of missing any important knowledge. Now, due to the increasing popularity of IT, there are many videos on the Internet, resulting in uneven quality and uneven system.

While reading a book can selectively browse the chapters that interest you, and it is easy to re-read the obscure content

Therefore, it is recommended that students who are just getting started can watch videos and learn from them. After working for a period of time, they can try to read more books.

Of course, this is not absolute, find suitable for their own way of learning. But whether it’s a video or a book, do more.

Build your personal brand

Personal branding may seem like an irrelevant job as a programmer, but it’s important to everyone in today’s Internet age.

In the past, when we were writing a resume or reviewing someone’s resume, we didn’t think to search for their personal information online, but in this age of information explosion, your online footprint can be seen.

blog

Therefore, we need to maintain our own business cards, such as setting up our own personal blog first.

I have talked about the benefits of blog several times. It doesn’t matter if you pay attention to a few people in the early stage. What is important is persistence.

GitHub

The second point is more relevant for techies: participate in maintaining your GitHub.

Due to GitHub’s special properties, it can be better maintained to build personal brands.

Talk is cheap. Show me the code.

If you want to maintain well, you can start from the following aspects:

• Get involved in other people’s projects, whether it’s a code base or a knowledge base, and get involved in the community first.

• Launch your own open source project, whether it is the small pain points in the usual development process, or carefully organized knowledge points can be.

But there are a few things to note:

• We need to follow GitHub’s social etiquette. Use English as much as possible, especially in foreign warehouses.

• I don’t think pushing as much as possible that doesn’t have to do with code work will improve your brand.

• Don’t swipe star. This is also recently popular, do not know why there are always some people will drill this loophole, brush up the heat on their own and did not improve.

How to build your personal brand as a new developer

https://medium.freecodecamp.org/building-your-personal-brand-as-a-new-web-developer-f6d4150fd217

English is important

Talking about the importance of English, I remember at the beginning of college teachers and some training institutions would say:

Don’t be afraid that your English is too poor to learn programming, really used words.

This is true, but English is a great plus for the IT profession.

Take the common JDK source code annotations are pure English, if English is good, some Spring things can be completely self-taught, go directly to the Spring official website can view, even the back of the SpringCloud, official information is the best tutorial.

There is usually when looking up information, conditional can try to use Google + English search, you will find a new world.

Otherwise there would be no programming for Google/Stack Overflow.

Students who are good at English are not afraid, but what about those who are not good at English?

Like me, but I insist on the following:

• Switch all your phones and computer systems to English and get into the habit (although there are awkward cases where you can’t even find the menu).

• Subscribe to English weekly newspapers, such as the Bay Area Daily.

• Read articles regularly in influential foreign communities like https://medium.com/.

Although NOW I am not much good, but at present I am also working hard, I hope we also adhere to it together.

Recommend a recent reading of the book “Programmer’s English”.

Stay competitive

The technology industry is developing rapidly and changing too fast. Every year, there are countless graduates from related industries to join the competition. If you are not careful, you will be caught up or even surpassed.

So we have to be competitive all the time.

I can only talk about what I’m doing right now:

• Lay the foundation. Not after learning to forget, need to keep to see, consolidate, the foundation is all changes from its ancestor.

• Read the source code, understand the principle, do not stay in the realm of the paramedic.

• Pay attention to industry development, new technology, new trends at least can not be outdated.

• Aim to produce one technology-related article per week.

• Actively participate in open source projects.

Mind mapping

Combined with the above output of a mind map more intuitive.

conclusion

Based on my own experience, this article lists some methods that may not work for everyone and require your own judgment.

I have been writing for almost a week, hoping to play a role in this road and my friends on the road.

Most of them just talk about ideas, in fact, each single item can write a lot. There is a book recommended for each point. If you have better suggestions, please leave a comment.