Without the miraculous combining of almost the entirety of humanity’s knowledge, creativity and understanding with a sleek, portable and amazingly navigable key to experience it all, you might as well be holding a garage door opener in your hand. Enter those who code.
HTML, JavaScript and CSS have long been recruited as sturdy web client-side programming languages, the domain of the web browser. Coding to target the web client — essentially a web browser — has proven a sound strategy for making “one-size-fits-all” content for the array of desktops, laptops, tablets, ultrabooks, phablets and smartphones on which that content might be consumed. Web applications provide a user interface for all platforms that can muster a web browser.
For developing client-side user interfaces for web applications, HTML, JavaScript and CSS constitute a potent triumvirate for showing content (HTML and possibly XML), input validation and programming functionality (JavaScript), as well as formatting and layout (CSS).
Features exclusive to HTML5 and soon-to-arrive 5.1 give even more power to web developers, including better support for graphics and media, which will be critical as the battle for consumers’ eyeballs intensifies.
Producers of app development tools now offer programming environments that enable programmers to employ these languages to create other types of software, such as mobile and desktop computer apps.
Web programmer, meet the new you: app programmer
Armed with the JavaScript programming language, developers can take advantage of hardware on mobile devices such as GPS, accelerometers and other sensors, giving JavaScript programmers the chance to tap capabilities previously available only through languages such as Java and Objective-C.
The result? A clear shot for web developers to become app developers, and the emerging possibility app programming — along with its potential for more lucrative and exciting job opportunities — is within reach of a larger audience of developers.
Today’s app developer is forced to develop against multiple platforms. Gone are the days of universal demand for a single operating system (Windows in the world of desktop; iOS in the initial mobile world). The ability to develop a single app across iOS and Android operating systems is now a bare-minimum requirement. The most sought-after developers possess skills that can easily translate to other platforms (like Microsoft or BlackBerry) on demand.
Setting forth from IT’s ivory tower
One fact hasn’t budged since the founding of the first for-profit venture: Employees who wear suits usually take home the most money.
Ironically, as lean operations and doing more with less have become mantras in growth’s pursuit, those who thrive in this setting — e.g., insightful, decisive managers — receive bigger paychecks than at any time before.
App developers who improve their abilities to observe, analyze and reference a continually expanding knowledge base by obtaining a project management professional (PMP) certification will claim the lion’s share of leadership roles in their organizations’ most promising initiatives.
Many will also earn the right to strategize with the C-suite.
