Chapter 26: Ten Cool Programming Careers 369

Niche-Market Programming

One problem with programming classes is that they teach you how to write programs, but they don’t teach you how to put your skills to practical use. Most companies use computers, so try to combine your knowledge of programming with another field.

Who’s better qualified to design and write medical software, for example, than a programmer with a medical background (or a medical professional with a programming background)? Sports fanatics combine programming skills with enthusiasm for sports to design horse race-handicapping software; health professionals design nutrition and diet software; and lawyers create special legal software.

Practically every field faces unique needs that general-purpose software (such as spreadsheets or databases) can’t solve. That’s why professionals hire programmers to develop custom software.

Best of all, niche markets are so small that you never need to worry about monolithic companies such as Microsoft competing against you and wiping out your business. In addition, only a handful of programmers can even possibly write programs for certain niche markets — how many programmers have experience in hotel management, for example? — which means that you face less competition and a market practically begging for your software.

If you ever wanted to take advantage of your previous job experience and combine it with your new programming skills, consider developing a program that solves a specific problem in a niche market. Who knows? With your programming skills, you can perhaps find new opportunities in a field that may have seemed a dead end.

Teaching Others about Computers

Become an expert in any field, and you can teach others your unique skills. In addition to the obvious teaching positions in schools, training others to use popular programs such as Microsoft Word, Lotus Notes, or C++ programming is a lucrative business.

Training professionals travel around the world, conducting classes for corporations who want to train their workers to use a variety of programs in hopes that they become more productive. As a trainer, you get to see the world, meet people, and see for yourself how many different ways Holiday Inns can design the inside of a hotel room.

370 Part VII: The Part of Tens

If you like dealing with people, enjoy traveling, and love sharing your knowledge of computers with others, this sort of job may prove the perfect position for you.

Selling Your Own Software

There’s no cheaper way to go into business for yourself than to develop and sell your own software. Unlike restaurants or bookstores, you don’t need a large amount of space or an extensive inventory. You simply write a program and sell it electronically across the Internet.

The most popular way to test-market a program is through shareware distribution: You give away copies of your software and ask that people send you money if they find it useful. To encourage more people to send money, your program must prove useful and work reliably.

Despite the seemingly bizarre business logic of giving away your product and trusting that people actually pay you for it, many shareware authors earn hundreds (and sometimes millions) of dollars for their programs over the years. (One of the most successful shareware programs is WinZip, which you can download at www.winzip.com.) Distributing programs as shareware can make you rich or earn you a little bit of extra spending money.

If you ever wanted to start your own business but didn’t want to take out a loan, starting a shareware business is the easiest and cheapest solution. All it takes is a good idea, some decent programming skills, and a little bit of marketing know-how to launch your business.

If your program doesn’t appeal to the average computer user, try selling it to a niche market instead. In addition to niche markets for stock brokers,

law-enforcement agencies, or restaurant owners, you can also find niche markets that target specific computers, such as the Palm or PocketPC handheld computers.

You can turn your programming skills into your own business with the right computer program. And if you like programming, what other job lets you stay home all day, play around with your computer, and still get paid for it in a business all your own?

Chapter 27

Ten Additional Programming

Resources

In This Chapter

Commercial compilers

Finding shareware and freeware compilers

Using proprietary languages

Buying from mail-order houses

Finding sources for source code

Joining a user group

Browsing Usenet newsgroups

Playing Core War

Building battling robots

Playing with Lego Mindstorms

If Liberty BASIC is your first foray into the wonderfully wacky world of computer programming, you may be curious about where to go from here.

Although you can continue practicing with Liberty BASIC and even use Liberty BASIC to create programs that you can sell to others, you may want to learn what other programming languages you can use as well.

If you’re serious about programming as a career, the next logical choice is to learn C/C++, C#, or Java. Of course, this step means learning the arcane syntax of C/C++, C#, or Java, so you may want to consider a simpler (but still powerful) alternative such as Visual Basic.

Then again, why limit yourself to C, C++, Java, or any version of BASIC if you can choose from literally hundreds of different programming languages with oddball names such as Modula-2, LISP, LOGO, Scheme, Prolog, ICON, APL, COBOL, FORTRAN, Ada, and Perl?

Because programming can often get frustrating and downright troublesome, this chapter also includes resources where you can find additional help from