I came from the opposite end of the spectrum: started building "websites" with PHP and have grown to be a full fledged programmer in PHP, Python, Erlang, Scheme, and Objective-C. I quickly learned that my creations were sub-par and poorly engineered because of gaps in my knowledge of abstract concepts.
Learning about the Theory of Computation sky rocketed my skills, shoring up my mathematics education has also greatly augmented my understanding of why certain things work and why certain things are a bad idea to do (even though you have the rope to do it!).
Knowledge truly is power, the rest of it you will gain through experience. The OP will quickly learn that he will be above those that did not get through a CS degree because he does understand the minutia of the system and he will be able to understand the engineering process with precision. Rather than "stabbing in the dark" as I see a lot of my peers doing - who did not even bother to at least teach themselves the basics of computational theory, mathematics, &c...
You're on the right track my friend, as many have already said - just start getting some experience. The best route there, IMHO, is by contributing to Open Source Software; nothing taught me more about software engineering than slowly becoming a core developer for an OSS project!
I'm in a similar situation as when you started. I'm coming from a background in web programming and have been wanting to extend my understanding of computers in general and broaden my programming skill-set.
Are there any resources you can recommend in terms of "Theory of Computation"?
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Good comment here.
I came from the opposite end of the spectrum: started building "websites" with PHP and have grown to be a full fledged programmer in PHP, Python, Erlang, Scheme, and Objective-C. I quickly learned that my creations were sub-par and poorly engineered because of gaps in my knowledge of abstract concepts.
Learning about the Theory of Computation sky rocketed my skills, shoring up my mathematics education has also greatly augmented my understanding of why certain things work and why certain things are a bad idea to do (even though you have the rope to do it!).
Knowledge truly is power, the rest of it you will gain through experience. The OP will quickly learn that he will be above those that did not get through a CS degree because he does understand the minutia of the system and he will be able to understand the engineering process with precision. Rather than "stabbing in the dark" as I see a lot of my peers doing - who did not even bother to at least teach themselves the basics of computational theory, mathematics, &c...
You're on the right track my friend, as many have already said - just start getting some experience. The best route there, IMHO, is by contributing to Open Source Software; nothing taught me more about software engineering than slowly becoming a core developer for an OSS project!
I'm in a similar situation as when you started. I'm coming from a background in web programming and have been wanting to extend my understanding of computers in general and broaden my programming skill-set.
Are there any resources you can recommend in terms of "Theory of Computation"?
Greatly appreciated.