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John Posada is wondering about increasing the tools in his toolbox,
<<If you weren't a programmer, but you wanted to increase your strength as a
technical writer by adding a programming ability, what would you go for...>>
Without a doubt I would start with Java. I'm not a programmer nor do I even
know any programming languages, but I am going in that direction (learning
languages). I want to start with C and not Java for my own reasons. (I am
interested in computer and network security where knowing C will be more
beneficial than Java.) Java will come later.
Based on what you have posted here over the years, I doubt that your skills
are lacking, but should you want to add to them, Java makes sense.
Java is the hot language now and, like Visual Basic, would allow you to work
with/mock up/design graphical interfaces. For one of our products that we
develop we publish an API manual for C and Java. The Java manual was
recently added and was developed very quickly because that was the language
the customer wanted to use. The customer is king, so we provided it.
I don't think you need to follow the customary path of BASIC/COBOL/C,
however, if you haven't taken a programming logic or a programming
fundamentals course (I have) I would recommend that you start there before
jumping into a language.
If you want to do API documentation or other complex documentation, then
knowing the basics of a language or two won't hurt you. In fact, when we are
looking to hire someone we look specifically at their technical abilities
above their writing skills. (That's not to say that the writing skills are
unimportant, just secondary to the ability to learn, gather, and digest the
information.) So, yes, in my opinion, I think it would add value.
It should take a lot of money to learn Java. A course or two at a community
college would suffice and shouldn't set you back too much. As far as time
goes, well, you didn't become a senior technical writer overnight. Java is
still fairly new and a year from now if you are able to say that you know
the basics of Java and can program some simple things, you'll be in good
shape.
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