I didn't see any other forum this may wanna go in so I'll post it here. I'm 16 and I know HTML (not a big deal, I know) and I have a few books on PHP and MySQL. I'm slowly learning because I wanna be a computer programmer when I grow up. I also take a class that teaches Visual Basic.net at school, I have a B, so I guess I'm doin' fine...

Well, anyways, I'm confused as to what I would ACTUALLY DO once I got a job as a computer programmer. Are there certain languages I would need to know? Like, do I need to begin learning Java, Javascript, C, all of that? Also, do I just make random programs or something, like... why do I get paid, lol? Well, if you could help me, it'd be very much appreciated.

Short answer: it depends. What do you want to do (when you grow up )?

One way to see what's out there is look at job sites like www.monster.com or www.dice.com. Pretty much everyone needs a programmer, from actual s/w companies to medical centers to department stores. Don't forget about government jobs: local, state, and federal. Heck, even the Air Force has designated programmers.

The languages to learn really depend on what you want to do. Game programming typically requires C++ (for most of the game design), C (for video processing), Assembly (again for video), Python or other scripting language (for putting all the pieces together), etc.

Corporate enterprise programmers usually use Java or a .NET language, small tech startups seem to be using dynamic languages like Python and Ruby, web developers use PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby (on Rails), and some .NET. It really depends on where you want to concentrate (though obviously the more you know the better you'll be). The people you work for will determine what you'll be coding; every job is different so there's really a generic "programmer's duties" I can give you (though someone else might ).

IMHO, once you have knowledge of a few languages (C/C++ are highly recommend since most "modern" languages are based on them), the biggest thing to do is practice. Write your own small programs in whatever language you know and look at what other people write, both on GIDForums and open-source projects. You'll see mistakes others make and how to do a task in different ways.

I'll give you a slightly long-winded example. I finally moved into the programming shop at my command. Unfortunantly they don't use C or C++, the two languages I most recently took in college. They do use Python, which I'm learning on my own (and wrote several tutorials on <blatant plug>) but I'm not currently developing any Python code yet.

My current tasks involve updating legacy code for the intelligence analysts' editor application. This program is written in ACL (AutoCorrect Language) from Arbortext; it's designed for processing XML documents. The ACL files were mostly written 4-5 years ago by Air Force programmers, who mean well but apparently can't document source code to save their lives. Having never even heard of ACL until last week, I've not only had to learn how the language works, I've also had to find the areas that need fixed and figure out how to make my updates work.

I gave that (long) example to show you that a firm understanding of the basics will take you further than having a resume full of acronyms (not that acronyms won't help you get your foot in the door). But even my limited formal knowledge in programming didn't stop the programming shop supervisors from requesting me. AAMOF, they got interested because one of them saw me reading a Python book; when they interviewed me they really didn't care about what languages I knew, they were more impressed by my self-teaching and ability to learn quickly.

Hope that answers some of your questions. Let us know if you need more help.

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Thank you for the information.