You may have decided to pick up coding as a hobby. Maybe you are developing the next great game/app. And probably you did not go to school to get a degree in computer science.
You picked up a programming book from Amazon or Barnes & Noble and taught yourself C++, python or Java.
You think you are ready to develop a game/app. However, I have a hard truth for you.
Simply knowing a computer language does not make you fit to develop apps or games.
Yes, you can develop a game/apps but most likely they will be a mess.
Knowing a Computer Language is like knowing the Alphabet. You may know your vowels and consonants, but this does not mean that you know how to write.
Once you know a computer language, the 3 things you need to learn are:
- Object-Oriented Programming Principles
- Design Patterns
- Data Structures
These three concepts will take your coding to the next level.
Object-Oriented Programming Principles
There are 7 Object-Oriented Programming principles you should always keep in mind when designing your game or app. They are:
- Encapsulate what varies
- Code to the interface, not to the implementation.
- Favor composition over inheritance.
- Strive for loosely coupled designs between objects that interact.
- Classes should be open for extension but closed for modifications.
- Depend on abstractions. Do not depend on concrete classes.
- A class should have only one reason to change.
Design Patterns
The purpose of Design Patterns is to make your coding:
- Modular
- Flexible
- Adaptable
- Maintainable
With design patterns you no longer code, instead you Design.
You are no longer the mason, you are the architect.
With design patterns, you will design apps that are
- Easy to modify
- Simple to add functionality
- Painless to maintain
Some of the design patterns you should know are:
- Strategy Design Pattern
- Singleton Design Pattern
- Observer Design Pattern
- Composite Design Pattern
- Model-View-Controller Design Pattern
Data Structures
There are more elegant ways to perform a Search or a Sort algorithm than you know.
You don’t want to do a linear search on an array with 10000 elements. You want to use a Binary Tree Search algorithm instead.
You don’t want to sort 10000 elements by brute force, you want to use a Heap Sort algorithm instead.
Data structures teaches you elegant algorithms that make your coding faster, efficient and elegant.
Some data structures you should be familiar with are:
- Queues
- Stacks
- Linked-lists
- Binary Trees
- Heaps
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