Specialist computer programmers are also called software engineers, or software developers. Programming has, of necessity, existed for as many years as the the computers which run those programs. With no software application, pretty much all electronic devices would be just dumb boxes that did nothing. There are actually programs within practically every bit of technological-hardware you have. DVD Players for instance have something known as 'firmware' which essentially is a simple operating system that allows the equipment to do it's job. Think about the navigation menu which pops up when you're watching a DVD - that's software, & so is the on-screen interface which you use to set up a recording on your TV. When you see a film on DVD, what's in fact going on is a bit of software has pulled the 1s and 0s off the disc, & decrypted them at incredible speed into video-information.

The primary Microsoft qualification paths were up-graded a few years ago, as they moved from the earlier MCAD/MCSD ('Microsoft Certified Application/Solutions Developer') to the more modern MCTS (Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist) & 'MCPD' (Microsoft Certified Professional Developer) exams. Before you deal with the complete 'MCPD' examination, you need to complete two MCTS programs first. If you're new at all to the sector and have never written programs before, (although the initial unit from Microsoft is branded a foundation unit,) it could be a good idea to do a programming introductory course first. It's also generally sensible to take a support certification prior to both of them, so that a good understanding of software environments and software support can be obtained. A support accreditation will allow you to to acquire your 1st IT job. Normal training times tend to be close to 600-700 hours for a complete career track, & therefore you would generally plan for 12 - 18m of part time study.

Systems-programmers work in low-level 'languages' like 'C', although modern C is a long way away from the original C - and is really much more user-friendly now. Programmers focusing on applications use higher level 'languages', of which you'll find a whole lot. Each one has it's own specific set of rules & commands, and many are suited to particular tasks above others. By way of example a programmer writing database software for corporate use would use a 'language' that suits that environment, but a programmer writing games-software would probably use 'C', to attain swift running-speeds. When you are writing a database-application, it doesn't matter if your screen re-draws in one tenth of a second or a 100th of a second, while with video games, it matters a whole lot. The actual main concern for a database friendly language is that it provides options that help to make the job easier for the end user. Stripping things out so that it can run more quickly would be counter-productive. You could compare it to the big difference between a racing car & a family-estate. The 5+ seater family estate is more comfortable and practical, but its most certainly not built for speed. For the purpose of taking the kids from one place to another though, it does the job nicely.

It's commonly accepted that the best place to begin studying professional computer programming is with 'C'. This 'language' is very disciplined, and as such a number of others have sprung from it. Once you have perfected the way to program in C, you'll find the switch to others is more intuitive. 'C' is the principle language for systems. It's amongst Microsoft's most supported languages in the development environment Visual Studio, as well as within it's certification programs. The knowledge that Microsoft endorse it so readily, and offer an array of professional accreditation in this 'language', is even more reason why it's advantageous using it as starting point. In fact, 'C' started daily life back in the 60's (it wasn't actually labelled C until the seventies though.) The transformation to something called 'object-oriented' 'C++' (which means the program isn't merely a single, 'linear' pattern of activities - it may be multiple objects interacting with each other) was completed during the 80's. At the turn of the century, Microsoft released a '.NET' enabled adaptation which is now identified as C# ('C' sharp,) leading us all right up to date. '.NET' was a huge step forward, as Windows software-writers could now access pre-written programs that did a lot of the basic tasks for them.

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