Being a computer expert doesn't really have to do with programming; is the study of algorithms, a series of steps, learned by some person or device, in order to complete the activity in a certain number of steps. Many computer scientists don't program at all. In fact, Edsger Dijkstra once said that "computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes".
Steps
Step 1. Being a computer scientist is all about learning to be a student
Technology changes, new languages are developed, new algorithms are conceived: you need to be able to learn new things to stay up to date.
Step 2. Start with the pseudocode:
it is not really a programming language, but a way to represent a program in a very similar way to the English language. The algorithm most familiar to you is probably on your shampoo bottle: lather, rinse, repeat. This is an algorithm. It is understandable to you (you are the "actor" of the computation) and has a finite number of steps. Or does it …
Step 3. Edit the pseudocode
The shampoo example isn't a very good algorithm for two reasons: it doesn't have a condition to quit, and it doesn't really tell you what to repeat. Do you have to repeat the action of soaping? Or just the rinse. A better example would be "Step 1 - Lather. Step 2 - Rinse. Step 3 - Repeat steps 1 and 2 (2 or 3 times for best results) and then you are done (exit)". You can understand this: it is an end condition (a finite number of steps) and it is very explicit.
Step 4. Try writing algorithms for all kinds of things
For example, how to go from one building to another campus or how to make a saucepan. Soon you will see algorithms all over the place!
Step 5. After learning how to write algorithms, programming should come naturally to you
Buy a book and read it entirely to learn the language. Avoid online tutorials which are often written by hobbyists, not professionals.
However, don't hesitate to seek help on the internet. Object-oriented languages like Java and C ++ are "in", they are all the rage right now, but procedural languages like C and Python are easier to start with because they deal exclusively with algorithms
Step 6. Programming is just the translation of pseudocode into a programming language
The more time you spend before programming, planning in pseudocode, the less time you will waste typing and scratching your head.
Advice
- A whiteboard is a great place to write algorithms.
- After learning a programming language, learning another within the paradigm itself is easy, because you are still only translating the pseudocode into a real language.
- The field of computer science branches out to different sectors such as the design and development of computers, databases, data security or languages, just to name a few. Therefore it would be wise for you to focus on one or perhaps a couple of them that interest you.
