If you are wondering what to do and how to make money, take a closer look at the programming profession. It is not as hard as it seems, and one can master it freelancing, without prejudice to the main job or study at the university. However, where to start? There are more than a dozen programming languages, how to understand which one is better for starting? Let us turn to the experience of the United States, where schoolchildren and junior students first study in Java and it is a right decision, why?
Coffee and oak
Java is one of the most popular programming languages, and one of the oldest among the living; it started executing in 1990, perhaps before you were born. Then they wanted to call the language Oak – that is, “Oak”. However, in the end, James Gosling, the creator of the language, settled on the popular name of coffee, which seemed to be very popular. From here came the steaming cup logo – surely you saw it, launching any game on the old phone. According to another version, a cup of coffee appeared, since Java was planned to be used originally for programming home appliances and the coffee machine for many people is the main appliance – for millions of people, a new day begins with it.
Java has become a truly “popular” language, and not only video players, refrigerators and other embedded equipment, but also banking systems are working under its control. Programs executed in Java can be seen on any Android device. The server part of a huge number of websites – Amazon, eBay, PayPal, Gazprom, the Ministry of Internal Affairs was built on it. This Java is especially good. Even the card on which your salary falls is working with an ATM, not least thanks to one of the Java versions. Well, if you are dreaming about the gaming industry, you only need to know that Markus Persson wrote in Java “Minecraft”.
Why is Java so universal? It is all about his “virtual machine” – this component adapts the code for any hardware and any operating system. In addition, because of the compilation, it is not the usual set of instructions that is produced, but the “byte code” is an intermediate code intended for execution not by the processor, but virtual machine. Therefore, it runs on a variety of hardware platforms.
Cross-platform is one of the main advantages of Java. Of course, you cannot just take and transfer code from one platform to another, and if you wrote something for a browser application, this does not mean that it will immediately work on an Android smartphone. However, if you have the necessary libraries, when porting you will get rid of a little blood.
Suppose you have a car, and you would like to not only ride it, but also to swim. If you direct it to the lake right now, it will sink. However, at your disposal there are tools to turn road transport into water too or in the air. Underground. Any. Java is such a universal tool that is used everywhere, despite its considerable age.
There are also disadvantages. It is scolded for overloading the RAM – it is noted that the products of this language often process the processes one and a half to two times slower than competitors written in C. They criticize it and for the syntax of the past millennium: the blocks must be highlighted with curly braces.
Yet Java remains one of the most popular and sought after languages. On GitHub, the largest service for programmers, it ranks second in the popularity rating, skipping forward only an even more age-related Python.
How and where to master
Learning to execute in Java in a couple of hours, while parallely watching the new series of the Game of Thrones series, is unlikely to work out. Programming is a time consuming process, coupled with constant tracking of errors, bugs and lost curly braces. However, two hours is enough to create something simple: for example, the analogue of “Tetris” or “Snake”. Especially if you do this not on your own, but under the guidance of a teacher. The Internet platform GeekBrains regularly conducts web-seminars on working in Java. See a couple of lessons for yourself and see that there is nothing very complex in programming.
Java games are not limited to games alone, and a Java programmer can find himself, for example, in software development for built-in appliances, Android applications or back ends and services. A specialist who knows this language will always have work to do. He has a right to rely on a decent salary. Of course, no one will pay decent money even if it is a talented but inexperienced applicant – training and internship is needed.
Unfortunately, with the brightest prospects, not everyone will be able to “drop everything and learn from the coder”. However, Java is a language with a short learning curve, and in order to master it, it is not at all necessary to sit within the walls of an educational institution for five years – you can take special courses. Choosing them, you need to look not only at the price, but also at the structure of teaching, and even at the further career of graduates, in order not to waste your time and money for nothing – in the field of education, it is quite easy to get low-quality services.
An example of a conscientious approach to learning is GeekBrains courses. Systematic education – from the introductory part to the full immersion in the topic, and the university approach – students attend online classes, do homework and do projects. At the end of the course, everyone undergoes a full-time internship, working as a team on a real project in a well-known company. Graduates gain experience, and many find work on a new specialty.
Courses run seven months (practice takes two). Training is organized so that it can be combined with work or full-time study. All lessons are recorded so that you can review them at any convenient time and in a special chat, you can discuss your questions with teachers and other students.
About the author
Melisa Marzett is a curious person by nature who is working as a freelance writer for http://www.smartessayrewriter.com/ providing with different articles in a timely manner having a grateful audience. Apart from writing, she enjoys simple things like cooking, traveling and shopping.