Mastering a programming language is not the easiest of tasks. It may take years of practice and hard work before one can actually refer to themselves as proficient programmers. However, if your preparation plan incorporates access to guiding tools and useful informational resources, the goal defining process can yield wonders.

1. Select the Language

Some computer programming languages involve a deep reliance on the internet. For instance, games programming requires that one uses the exceptionally good learning resources that are available on the internet. On the other hand, tasks such as web programming, text processing and scripting involve the use of specified applications. Thus, it is of the utmost importance that you select a programming language where your interest best lies.  For instance, to… Continue reading

When it comes to categories of software, programming language translators are one of the best examples of system software. A translator acts as the intermediary between the computer and the programmer. Computer programming languages are developed with the sole aim of simplifying the process of issuing instructions to a computer and thus enable most people to be able to do this. This includes the process of abstracting (hiding) the underlying details of how the computer works from the programmer.

Each language is developed in such a way that it can achieve specific objectives and solve particular problems. Below we look at some of the most known programming languages.

a) FORTRAN

FORmula TRANslator (FORTRAN) is one of the oldest, high level programming languages. Its first version was referred… Continue reading

PHP has emerged an all time favorite for most designers and web developers in recent times. The big reason for this preference of PHP is the mere fact that PHP is open source and offers effective support for several databases including Oracle and MySQL. This popularity has made it a necessity for web developers to perfect PHP so as to enhance productivity in their daily work. For any one who is not yet a master of PHP but would like to be so in a relatively short time, the learning resources listed here will go al long way in teaching you PHP programming:

1) PHP Cookbook

This is a great resource that was composed by David Tratchenberg and David Sklar. In fair language, this is one… Continue reading

Nowadays, there has been a lot of debate concerning agile and non-agile software development. Pushed to the edge by ever increasing competition, global corporations are tending to lean towards the agile methodology in an attempt to optimize features, maximize throughput and reduce time-to-market for their applications.

There has been a misconception by some people that agility refers to not gathering requirements before starting the code writing phase. In fact, some have misunderstood agility as being the action of writing code very fast. The point here is that majority of people really don’t understand what agility means, and some so to the extent that they just would not want to get involved in any process where ‘agility’ in involved.

In stable meaning, agility refers to the adoption of a… Continue reading

Whenever you consider building a database, start by searching for the best platform which can easily provide: reliability, performance, scalability and productivity. Based on one’s specific requirements, several solutions are available from which to choose. SQL (Structured Query Language) Server latest version (2008), Ms Office Access 2010, MySQL (5.5) and Oracle are just a few.

SQL Server is a Microsoft proprietary platform.  Microsoft provides a dense documentation and consistent support to developers in this platform. For any database programmer with a familiarity of Windows Server OS, using SQL would relatively be easy as it has an identical user interface. Below is a detailed view of some of the key features that make SQL server stand out as a great database platform:

a) Offers Performance