The modern equivalent of 'left-corner design' is test first programming. Use a unit test framework and mock objects and write testable code that is so small that you can easily see, or isolate, all the bugs in it. Repeat at all levels of the software that you are building. Eventually writing the final app that brings it all together is a simple task as you will have written all of the building blocks of your app as testable components.
I started reading books on software design and best practice from day one when I was struggling to get my first program to compile. I am glad that I did as something always sticks and I never felt overwealmed by new challenges as I always wanted to apply some new techniques. Learning more than one language is a very good idea. So if you are writing serverside webapplications, say, then its a good idea to learn advanced javascript for the browser. Else if you are writing divice drivers in C then it is a good idea to learn advanced shell scripting for the OS. If your learning Java then learn Groovy. Its a good idea to learn a 'complimentary language' (e.g. an agile one that helps you out in your day job) in such a manner to learn to see more than one approach to any problem. The best advice I can give any programmer though is to take a touch typing course at a secretarial college and learn to type. Most programmers type with one finger and thats a bit of a bad industry joke really. Once you can type at full speed you can write really descriptive comments, method names and variable names. You will also be more productive. Sure you can get a typing game to train you to touch type but no-one ever completes those so I lugged my behind down to a secretarial college and forced myself to complete the course. My final advice is that once you get the hang of programming try to spend at least a helf day a month experimenting with fun looking opensource software in your favourite language. Your learn a lot from that that will help you in your day job and will also have fun.
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The modern equivalent of 'left-corner design' is test first programming. Use a unit test framework and mock objects and write testable code that is so small that you can easily see, or isolate, all the bugs in it. Repeat at all levels of the software that you are building. Eventually writing the final app that brings it all together is a simple task as you will have written all of the building blocks of your app as testable components.
I started reading books on software design and best practice from day one when I was struggling to get my first program to compile. I am glad that I did as something always sticks and I never felt overwealmed by new challenges as I always wanted to apply some new techniques. Learning more than one language is a very good idea. So if you are writing serverside webapplications, say, then its a good idea to learn advanced javascript for the browser. Else if you are writing divice drivers in C then it is a good idea to learn advanced shell scripting for the OS. If your learning Java then learn Groovy. Its a good idea to learn a 'complimentary language' (e.g. an agile one that helps you out in your day job) in such a manner to learn to see more than one approach to any problem. The best advice I can give any programmer though is to take a touch typing course at a secretarial college and learn to type. Most programmers type with one finger and thats a bit of a bad industry joke really. Once you can type at full speed you can write really descriptive comments, method names and variable names. You will also be more productive. Sure you can get a typing game to train you to touch type but no-one ever completes those so I lugged my behind down to a secretarial college and forced myself to complete the course. My final advice is that once you get the hang of programming try to spend at least a helf day a month experimenting with fun looking opensource software in your favourite language. Your learn a lot from that that will help you in your day job and will also have fun.