This gist is part of a blog post. Check it out at:
http://jasonrudolph.com/blog/2011/08/09/programming-achievements-how-to-level-up-as-a-developer
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Programming Achievements: How to Level Up as a Developer
Learn a variety of programming paradigms:
- Write a program in assembly language
- Write an application in a functional language
- ✔ Write an application in an object-oriented language (C# / Duplicate Photo Finder using photo meta data for filtering)
- Write an application in a prototype-based language
- Write an application in a logic programming language
- Write an application using the Actor model
- Write an application in Forth
Experience the ins and outs of programming for different platforms:
- Write a nontrivial web app
- ✔ Write a nontrivial desktop app (C# / Duplicate Photo Finder using photo meta data for filtering)
- Write a nontrivial mobile app (C photo reader?, voice control remote systems?, Whereis?)
- Write an embedded app
- Write a realtime system
Enhance your understanding of the building blocks that we use as developers:
- Write a networking client (e.g., HTTP, FTP)
- Write a device driver
- Write a B-tree database
- Wrap an existing library to provide a better (more pleasant) user experience
- Write an application or framework that provides a plugin model
- Write a testing framework (JBehave Geolocation extensions?)
- Write a programming language
Experience different development styles
- Complete James Shores Let's Play TDD
- Perform a root cause analysis on 5 defects
Enlighten yourself with koans, katas, and the wisdom of ages:
- Complete five code katas
- Complete the programming koans for a language that you want to learn
- Attend a code retreat
- Read SICP and complete all the exercises
Learn the principles
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Demonstrate in code with detailed comments on these principles, their benefits and pitfalls
DRY
KISS
Favor Composition over Inheritance
Law of Demeter
Single Responsibility
Fail-fast
Defensive Programming
Principle of Good Enough
Principle of Least Astonishment
Liskov Substitution
Garbage in, Garbage out
Hybrid Coupling
Open-Closed
Program in the open:
- Contribute to an open source project
- Have a patch accepted
- Earn commit rights on a significant open source project
- Publish an open source project
- Perform a Refactotum of an open source project
Learn by teaching others:
- Present a lightning talk
- Present at a local user group
- Present at a conference
- Deliver a training course
- Publish a tutorial
- Publish a constructive code review of an open source project
- Write a programming book
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