

"Compulsory" projects to become a programmer - drRoflol

Hi. Just wondering what things you'd say one has to have done before one can be called a programmer? Sure, a person might know a whole lot about programming, but never have put it to good use, so what's the best ways to prove it?<p>(i.e. (simple) web app, 2D game, su-doku-solver, web crawler, particle collider OS)<p>Thanks:)
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mechanical_fish
Find a person who has a problem. Solve it using code. Now that person will
call you a programmer.

A useful special case of this: Find someone with some buggy code, fix it for
them, and convince them to accept and install the fix. Now you've demonstrated
the ability to read code, understand it, debug it, and write a fix that works
and that doesn't make the code's maintainer blanch in horror. You're a
programmer.

When you can, publish your code with an open-source license so that people can
read it and borrow it.

