Hi guys, when I learn just three of four programming language can I be agood programmer?

Question

advice in programming

Answer 1

I agree with the other posters. A parallel to your question could be "If I learn three or four different sports, will I be good at sport?". We know the answer is not necessarily!

Being a good programmer takes a lot more skills than merely writing code.

Here are my top eight tips for being a good programmer:

1) Design your code FIRST... before starting coding!
2) Comment their code using human language that any future programmer (or you in a few years time when you've forgotten what the code does) can understand [this makes the code more maintainable]
3) Make functions less than one sheet of A4 when printed out (you don't need to actually print the function out!). If a function is larger, then break the function down into smaller functions.
4) Use meaningful function and variable names, instead of get_largest(f) use get_largest_number_from_file(file) etc.
5) Format your code correctly (hopefully using the coding conventions of your company, or keep the style of the current code).
6) Write tests for your code (unit tests) as you go.
7) Write good documentation. Writing good documentation, is about working out who will read the document! If one of us geeks wrote the code, or designed something, but the document reader will be a manager with no coding experience, then that will be a different document to one intended for other developers! Most developers I've met can't write good documentation!
8) Good communication skills, with other developers and other members of the company, or customer if needed. If you can build up a good relationship with other team members, it helps. Some people are difficult to get on with though (office politics!).

Answer 2

Hum... Well, being a good programmer does not depend so much on the number of programming languages you know but on how well you know programming, in whatever language.

Getting really good at one language will be the first step to becoming a good programmer. Knowing and developping algorithms to solve problems, getting used to using libraries and the functionalities of a programming language is what you really want.

Bottom line: if you want to be a "good programmer", focus on one language, one that you enjoy coding in. And get to the bottom of it. Use it to learn the ins and outs of programming... Then if one day you decide to broaden your skills and learn another language, it will be a piece of cake.