Hello my friends on the internet, ever dreamed of building apps, games, and websites? Automating your tasks or the cool bots that greet you on your achievements, and create schedules for you? Well, all this magic is made possible by computer programming. Everything you see on the internet, the apps you use, the games you play, and even the appliances in your home have some connections with the programming.
Why learn computer programming?
Learning computer programming is a superpower, it makes you the magician of computer wonderland. As I mentioned earlier, computer programming is what powers all these stuff like apps, games, websites, automated replies, and many more. Today, almost everything is somewhat connected to computers, the internet, and computer programming are the driving force behind this.
Once you learn computer programming, you can build your SaaS startup, and create your apps, new doors will open up to your imagination, and the creativity within you. That's not all but once you learn computer programming, you can advance in your career, it is a must-have skill in today's digital world.
Choosing the weapon (Programming Language)
OK, now that I believe, I've convinced you enough to start your programming journey, but here comes the major challenges. What programming language to learn? And how easy or difficult the path will be. How to select a programming language for X?
Well now before moving ahead, let's clear these things first, programming languages are nothing but tools, it's not the computer program but your logic that does the trick. It is up to you how to use these tools to build your own stuff. Each programming language has its own strengths and specialities, but this does not mean that you cannot do X thing using Y programming language, it's just that some programming languages are more specialized for a particular thing.
Selecting a programming language needs some research, you need to decide the end goal first, the outcome you want, and then you decide on which programming language to select.
For Example:
- If you want to develop websites, you need to go for web technologies such as JavaScript, groovy, Java, etc.
- If you want to build mobile apps, you should learn Java, Kotlin, Swift, dart, etc.
- If you have an interest in data science, you should opt for Python, R, and similar languages.
- If you are interested in embedded systems, and electronics, go for C, or C++.
- Automating tasks? Python is your friend. And for general-purpose programming,
That's not all, while choosing a programming language, you should see the community support for that specific language. By community support I mean, the activity on developer forums, such as StackOverflow, the libraries available, and tooling such as IDEs, debuggers, etc.
Setup and Learning Resources
Now once you select your end goal, and a programming language, it's time to dive into the computer programming world. Start with the basics but before that, you need to set up your development environment, download and install the necessary software, programming language tools, package managers, SDKs, etc.
Once the necessary software and tools are installed, you can start learning the specific programming language. There are various ways such as:
- Interactive Platforms: Several online platforms offer learning along with exercises, so you can learn and apply the concepts, this is a great idea if you prefer to learn and practice simultaneously.
- Video Tutorials and Courses: YouTube has a variety of videos on programming languages, and basic programming concepts, and platforms like Coursera, Udemy, and many others platforms provide great content on computer programming.
- Books (E-Books or hard copies): Another way is to learn by reading books, this way you can go at your own pace and practice along, I started my programming journey with books.
Here are the steps that I follow to learn any programming language or framework:
- Start with a crash course: There are plenty of videos, and crash courses available on YouTube and other course websites.
- Learn the basic constructs: Understand the control structures, keywords, syntaxes, and other features.
- Start a Mini Project: Once you understand the strengths, and capabilities of that specific programming language, build a simple project on that.
That's all. For any programming language, it is always a better idea to learn by building projects rather than learning theoretically.
Practice, Practice, Practice
Now that you have gained a basic understanding, it's time to apply this in real-world scenarios. Learning code is like gaining a new skill. It takes time to master, and the best way to do is to practice.
- Build Smart Projects: Start with building mini projects, such as calculators, To-Do lists, appointment apps, tic-tac-toe games, etc to enhance your skills.
- Participate In Online Challenges: Participating in Online challenges and Hackathons is the best way to apply your knowledge. I used to participate in coding contests, which not only enhance your skill set but earn you certificates and badges too.
- Contribute to Open Source: Join and contribute to open-source projects, open-source projects are great ways to contribute, they not only sharpen your coding skills but also allow you to collaborate with fellow developers.
Conclusion
Computer Programming is a must-have skill in today's digital world. It allows you to build apps, and games, automate tasks, and advance your career. But as every skill needs practice to keep it up to date, programming also needs practice to enhance the skills, online contests, interactive platforms, and coding challenges are the best ways to enhance your coding skills.
But remember, as I said earlier, programming languages are just tools, logic is everything, and it's your logic that does these mysterious things. If you have prior experience with any programming language, learning another language won't take even a single day (not exaggerating).
Logic is everything, programming language
Interfacing a 16x2 LCD with 8051 family microcontroller
Tags:
programming
Top comments (0)