Learning To Code

[BreaksOver]

I've decided to start learning to code. I was homeschooled for most of my school years and I did some learning with Chipmunk Basic, Scratch.mit.edu and an HTML class at a local community center. I also frequented online forums as a middle schooler and made basic profiles using CSS. I know that's not really considered "coding" but I think it provided a bit of groundwork.

Now, I'm using freecodecamp.org's HTML and HTML5 course to begin with. It's great because I can get instant feedback as I go through each module. And I want to have an understanding of the basics before diving into other languages. From there I'll probably learn JavaScript, then Python, and so on. My end goal is to be able to get a job that utilizes these skills.

I'm such a newbie but teaching myself has always been the best way for me to learn. I can't do regular classes, online or not. So I'm wondering if anyone has any advice or tips for teaching yourself. Is there a language you wish you'd learned first? What languages and skills do you think are most important for getting a job? Oh and networking/community-building. I've heard that it's necessary to find work. I'm very much not a networking person. How do you manage that?

 

[Jordy]

html5 wont help you with an imperative programming language like javascript or python. Just learn python right now. The language you learn first doesn't matter. I started with C than C++, Scheme, verilog, assembly and finally lua and python, in that order. Just get a beginners book on python and get started, nothing else you really need to do.

But personally i would recommend electrical engineering over software development for good job opportunity.

 

[BreaksOver]

html5 wont help you with an imperative programming language like javascript or python. Just start out learning python right now. The language you start with doesn't matter. I started with C than C++, Scheme, verilog, assembly and finally lua and python, in that order. Just get a beginners book on python and get started, nothing else you really need to do.

But personally i would recommend electrical engineering over software development for good job opportunity.

I appreciate this, thank you. Why electrical engineering?

 

[Aspychata]

I took HTML in community college. I tinkered around in some Linux code but more just trying to fix bugs.

Great you are doing this.

 

[Luca]

I applaud people who can code. I’m useless with technology lol.

I didn’t do too well in a basic computers course in college

My only computer knowledge consists of basic video/photo editing, basic music production, DJ software (probably my most proficient technological skill honestly), iTunes, and drawing with a tablet.

 

[Fino]

Perhaps you would enjoy an app called "Mimo." It walks you through coding. It costs an annual fee to use it long-term but has a free trial.

 

[Richelle-H]

I was born at the front end of the computer age and found myself fascinated with all forms of technology. I wanted to know how it worked. I went to college where I majored in Electrical Engineering. I never finished, as I bore very easily. I puttered around in my mid twenties as a bench tech at an information-display company. There I basically taught myself coding: starting with machine code for debugging display elements.

Later I moved to various ASM languages (I even invented one of those myself at a different job, then wrote a compiler for it in yet another assembly language). In the end, I taught myself C and C++. It was all a natural progression for me without a single class (I dismiss the one semester course I had in Fortran 4 as worthless [I was 19 and away from home for the first time]).

I will admit that my ease in assimilating machine languages had a firm foundation in my understanding of the hardware that those languages are used to control. Just think about how fast things have developed. Portable transistor radios were just being introduced to when I was in high school, and now you have more computing power and storage in your phone than the first IBM PCs. Who knows where things are going to be in another 25 years, so look into what's hot and what is new on the horizon.

The wider understanding you have the more employable you become. Golly, I was hired for my last working job because I knew how to code in DOS assembly and they had a pressing bug that they were desperate to fix. They hired me, I figured it out in a day and a half and worked for them until my retirement 20 years later.

Start with what you feel comfortable and learn what works and what doesn't (analyzing the faults that produced the failure), then move on to something else. It gets tedious without a little variety.

All the best in your pursuits.

 

[Aspychata]

I was born at the front end of the computer age and found myself fascinated with all forms of technology. I wanted to know how it worked. I went to college where I majored in Electrical Engineering. I never finished, as I bore very easily. I puttered around in my mid twenties as a bench tech at an information-display company. There I basically taught myself coding: starting with machine code for debugging display elements.

Later I moved to various ASM languages (I even invented one of those myself at a different job, then wrote a compiler for it in yet another assembly language). In the end, I taught myself C and C++. It was all a natural progression for me without a single class (I dismiss the one semester course I had in Fortran 4 as worthless [I was 19 and away from home for the first time]).

I will admit that my ease in assimilating machine languages had a firm foundation in my understanding of the hardware that those languages are used to control. Just think about how fast things have developed. Portable transistor radios were just being introduced to when I was in high school, and now you have more computing power and storage in your phone than the first IBM PCs. Who knows where things are going to be in another 25 years, so look into what's hot and what is new on the horizon.

The wider understanding you have the more employable you become. Golly, I was hired for my last working job because I knew how to code in DOS assembly and they had a pressing bug that they were desperate to fix. They hired me, I figured it out in a day and a half and worked for them until my retirement 20 years later.

Start with what you feel comfortable and learn what works and what doesn't (analyzing the faults that produced the failure), then move on to something else. It gets tedious without a little variety.

All the best in your pursuits.

Good old DOS days. I really liked DOS. That takes me back to Windows 98.

 

[Storm Hess]

It's great that you want to learn, but HTML isn't going to give you the proper base to work from...unless you're going into web design.

Python is the best language to start with. It's powerful, easy to learn, huge community worldwide and extensive libraries that will give you the ability to code just about anything easily. I started with C...and have sacrificed many a monitor to the computer gods. Python is straightforward in syntax and understanding how the code works. You may find yourself never moving to another language.

 

[NB79]

Documentation online or downloaded with the application you use, is of great help if its well made, i remember one of the most useful things visual studio had, is that you hover your mouse over a word and press F1 you could see the documentation about that right away.

 

[Storm Hess]

Documentation online or downloaded with the application you use, is of great help if its well made, i remember one of the most useful things visual studio had, is that you hover your mouse over a word and press F1 you could see the documentation about that right away.

Starting with a simple IDE or even a notepad to code Python, I think, would save a lot of confusion and possibly getting overwhelmed with how deep VS actually is.

 

[NB79]

Starting with a simple IDE or even a notepad to code Python, I think, would save a lot of confusion and possibly getting overwhelmed with how deep VS actually is.

idk, you are probably right but VS is not more complicated i would say than word or excel to use. And the auto fill feature is great. and all of those automated stuff it has.

 

[Misery]

The one thing I'll suggest is very, very simple:

Once you've chosen a language to start with... stick with just that for awhile. Dont try to learn like 50 of the things at once. Pick ONE that seems like it will be of use to you, and focus just on that. You can always branch out later on once you've really gotten the hang of it.

And dont rush it. Take your time.

 

[Storm Hess]

idk, you are probably right but VS is not more complicated i would say than word or excel to use. And the auto fill feature is great. and all of those automated stuff it has.

In certain respects, yes, VS is easy to navigate, but can be a bit daunting if you're not familiar with coding or the IDE. Then, the coder has to choose VB or C# as their main language to use VS. You can have VS install Python...but why, when Jetbrains PyCharm is vastly superior to VS? I would stay away from becoming Microsoft dependent. I would start with PyCharm, awesome IDE, beginner-friendly and has a free community version.

 

[Storm Hess]

Here's some information from Berkley, this may help in making a decision:
Go lang (from google...yuck) is another good language to start with as well. It's compiled and not interpreted like Python...so it's very fast. Your choice.

11 Most In-Demand Programming Languages in 2022 - Berkeley Boot Camps

 

[BreaksOver]

I can't reply to everyone individually because I am overwhelmed but THANK YOU!!! All of these responses were very helpful and I really appreciate the time taken to give advice.

I'll definitely take Python into consideration. I'm thinking I'll start with that (and stick with it) for the time being.

 

[Richelle-H]

I'll definitely take Python into consideration. I'm thinking I'll start with that (and stick with it) for the time being.

There you go, you are off on your adventure.

Become proficient, but do not lose sight of the many changes that will come over the next 10 much less the next 30 years. I am still quite ????? about how fast things changed even in just the 70s and early eighties, and the pace has only been accelerating with each passing decade. Remember that and adapt. I found that a hard thing to do initially, but it turned out to be key to my longevity in an occupation that can shift rapidly.

Best of luck.

 

[Brian B]

Python is a great scripting language. I mostly do BASH and Perl. But I would encourage you to learn Python. The advantage of a high level language like Python is that you don't need to do much for memory management. If you leanr C or C++, you need to learn to manage the memory that you allocate. You may want to learn basic data structures like: Arrays, Heaps, Hash Maps, Binary trees including red/black trees and B*Trees. You don't need to learn these things but knowing them will help when you are working with data.

You can get a Udemy account and pay for classes one at a time. All of the classes I took were well taught. I thought that Stephane Maarek does a really good job explaining complicated topics. You can take classes in most programming languages. But it helps to decide the type of projects that you want to build first, then pick a language that will allow you to write the code that you want to write.