request for guidance

[rusi]

On Saturday, December 14, 2013 10:41:09 AM UTC+5:30, David Hutto wrote:

> Don't get me wrong, I didn't mean reinventing the wheel is a bad
> thing, just that once you get the hang of things, you need to
> display some creativity in your work to set yourself apart from the
> rest.

> Nowadays, everyone's a programmer.

> If it weren't for reinventing the wheel, then we wouldn't have
> abs(antilock breaking systems), or new materials, or different
> treading for water displacement or hydroplaning.

> The point was just to try something in python, and to 'boldly go
> where no 'man' has gone before'.  Just to remind her that it's not
> just about python, but what you can accomplish with it, and
> distinguish yourself from others.

To complement what David is saying, programmers need to know
programming but a lot else besides in order to become even minimally
productive. eg

Primary Development tools/aids

   1. Help
   2. Interpreter-CLI
   3. Interpreter-Introspection
   4. Editor
   5. Completion ('intellisense')
   6. Tags (navigation)
   7. Refactoring
   8. Integration with 'non-programming' below


Other Development Tools
   1. Debugger
   2. Profiler
   3. Heap Profiler
   4. Coverage

Non-Programming

 Area             | Tool(s)              
------------------+----------------------
 packaging        | distutils, setuptools
                  | pip        
                  | Native tools (eg apt)
 versioning       | hg, git, bzr         
 multiple pythons | virtualenv           
 automation       | tox                  
 testing          | unittest, nose, pytest
 build            | scons, make...       
 deployment       | fabric               

Yeah I know this can sound a bit intimidating :-)

In actual practice most active developers need to know about 30% of the above

But you need to know which is your 30% ;-)

PS. Yeah you can say Im just a teacher trying to justify my job!!  On
the other side, for years I argued with the authorities that a 3 year
CS degree could be reduced to 6 months.

But I dont think it could be reduced to 6 days... or even 6 weeks