Re: Areas of Programming...

beliavsky_at_aol.com
Date: 12/28/04 

Date: 28 Dec 2004 09:59:00 -0800

Randy Howard wrote:
>The fact is, if you are really cut out for programming, you will enjoy
>almost any assignment as long as it contains real programming, as
>opposed to meetings, charts and graphs, project managent / scheduling
>stuff etc. If you aren't happy at the end of a day with a compiler
>or interpreter in front of you, then you need to look for something
>else to do.

I understand the above comment but don't entirely agree with it. One
can be good at and enjoy certain types of programming but not others.

I like scientific programming -- things like Monte Carlo simulation,
data analysis, numerical optimization -- and I like being in front of a
[Fortran 95] compiler or [Python] interpreter when working in these
areas. I don't think I would like, or be good at, writing a compiler or
a device driver. A number-crunching program will involve some
non-numerical programming to read in data and produce a nicely
formatted output file. I don't enjoy these tasks but I get them done. A
programmer needs to be good enough at the tasks he does not like that
he can finish them quickly and spend more time on the fun stuff.

A programmer good at writing compilers might be a weak and unhappy
scientific programmer if he is not knowledgable or interested in math,
statistics, and a particular domain such as civil engineering.

For about 15 years, my work in graduate school and the business world
has involved a lot of programming, although I would not describe myself
as a professional programmer.

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