<p>Do CS programs prepare their students for web development in languages, such as AJAX and Ruby on Rails?</p>
<p>I’m sure many do, but that’s not the point. Employing a computer language to provide the desired results efficiently in a team-oriented manner is the issue. Syntax is only a minor consideration.</p>
<p>Balthezar, good answer! I heard most software engineers don’t even write code that much. They just think about a program, write down the details, and hand it to a programmer to code it all. Correct me if I’m wrong!</p>
<p>But anyways, my school (UCR) only teaches C++ programming language. If the school doesn’t offer classes on them, just learn them yourself! Once you know one language, picking up on others is easy.</p>
<p>Skbryan is right. Once you’re proficient in one language, you can really learn any language in less than a week. There are tons of tutorials and stuff online to learn from, but I’d say most people who have become really good at programming look at documentation and perhaps look at some sample programs to get an idea of syntax, structure,etc.</p>
<p>Yes, I work in a casual game company and I do plenty of all that which I learned with my CS background.</p>
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Maybe you should define software engineers and programmers. The names are synonym. But the general public refers the software engineers as the one who design and implement the codes. Of course it’s a group work, and tasks can be divided.</p>
<p>Programmers are usually referring to the monkeys that write code. This is the job that is being outsourced because it requires no skill…</p>
<p>Yeah I noticed on bls.gov that they are projecting “programmer” jobs to drop in the U.S. within the next 10 years or so and expecting “software engineer” jobs to increase.</p>
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<p>Let’s not denigrate programmers here. The skill set required isn’t exactly comparable to flipping burgers at a fast food restaurant. You’ve got to have some brains, logic, and good pattern-recognition skills to program, and junior programming jobs are usually considered entry level in the I.T. area. They’re told what to code, and they return with a product that can be tested as a component of an overall application. How detailed the coding specifications and QA need to be depend on the level of the programmer.</p>
<p>In most instances, the communication between the analyst/project manager is technical in nature, so good communication skills are a must, and physical proximity to each other enhances the speed and quality of the delivered product. Programmers need good team skills because other programmers are working on their individual components in the furtherance of the project as a whole. Changes to your component may adversely affect other code and vice-versa.</p>
<p>So programmers are hardly monkeys, but cogs is good ;).</p>