Renaissance Programmer

I want to use today's post to explain the title for my blog.  A renaissance man is one who embodies the ideals of the Renaissance Era: art, science, literature, poetry, and even physical strength.  The idea is that a person should be able to excel in multiple fields.  Leonardo da Vinci is probably the most famous person to hold this title.  He was an accomplished painter, sculpter, inventor, and scientist.

When I think about a Renaissance Programmer, I think about narrowing the scope of the 'multiple fields' concept to software development and it's surrounding landscape.  This includes web development, desktop development, and embedded development.  It also includes computer hardware and gadgets, as well as an understand of software licensing and business issues.  In short, just about anything IT.  Most importantly, I think by having a better understanding of the larger IT field, of which Software Development is one part, you can be a better programmer.

So it's more than just knowing a bunch of programming languages.  These days just about any programmer has to be pretty well rounded.  It's hard to get your job done without having at least a basic understanding of XML, HTML, SQL, javascript, regular expressions, and CSS.  Even if you concentrate soley on Windows applications you probably run into these regularly (even the web stuff- it's hard to escape now), and that's before you even take any 'real' application languages into account, of which most programmers can use at least two, if not more.

I began my personal journey towards this ideal the same way as many: by earning a BS in Computer Science.  As part of that degree I wrote programs using such diverse languages as C++, FORTRAN, COBOL, VB6, and VB.Net, in addition to the staples mentioned earlier.  A little old, a little new, and a little in between.  But that's normal  for a programmer.  To expand my reach, I dual-boot Windows and linux at home on a computer I assembled myself.  I've earned my A+ and Network+ certifications and spent some time doing help desk work and network adminstration.  I keep a pretty close eye on technology news, both hardware and software.  But I am not 'The' Renaissance Programmer.  There are many.  I also consider myself too green, with less than 5 years of experience in my field, to fully claim the title at all.  Instead, consider this blog to be the ramblings of one who aspires to the goal of Renaissance Programmer.

As an aside: I'm not committed to the "Renaissance Programmer" title.  It's too hard for new readers to type into an address bar.  Once you've visited a site for a while the URL doesn't matter any more.  You've book-marked it and you don't have to type it.  But having a type-able URL is key to bringing new readers into the fold.