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Last week I talked about how I got started with coding. This week I want to talk about how to get started.
This is going to be a very simple general guide without any technical aspects and it assumes you have never coded before. In fact, you can take this as a “letter to my past self” kind of post. I will talk about why you should want to learn how to program, what you need to start learning and a small Do’s and Don’ts section with information that has been passed down to me from some of my mentors. So without further ado, let’s start:
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Why Should I Learn how to Code?
Someone who works in the industry may give you an answer along the lines of “because computers are the future and people who program will always have jobs, while people who don’t will eventually be sold as slaves to our machine overlords!”– followed by maniacal laughter. There’s also the people who will tell you about how programmers earn better, blah, blah, blah.
Here’s what I think: you should learn how to program because it’s fun. You may not make a career out of it or earn a lot of money with it, but there’s nothing quite like being able to tell computers what to do. The first time you create a program is magical and your enthusiasm is inversely proportional to the excitement of everyone around you. There’s something intrinsically fun about this ‘Eureka’ feeling, while everyone else just stares at you wondering if you’ve finally lost all your marbles. Just give it a try.
Programming is not fun for everyone, however. If you think it’s not your cup of tea, that’s fine. Just don’t let your fears be the force that stops you. I let my fears of calculus get the better of me for years. I would look at my IT friends and watch them struggle and I would fear it was too difficult for someone like me. Here are two secrets about programming:
- There is always a struggle and you will get stuck. As an outsider, it looks like suffering. As someone doing the actual work it feels more like a race or a sports competition. It’s the same kind of struggle you will experience from trying to solve a puzzle or running 5k.
- Programming can be as hard or as simple as you want it to be. Do you want to use all of your mathematical prowess? There’s data science and C++, do you just want things to look pretty? HTML and CSS got your back. In general, though, it is easier than it looks. I’m not going to deny that it can’t be hard, but it is humanly possible to learn how to do this.
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What do I Need to Code?
Now that I’ve convinced you to start coding, here’s the list of the things you will need to get started. Are you ready? Take note:
- A computer. It doesn’t even have to be new. It can be 8 or 10 years old, that’s alright. You’re here to learn. This is what you need to learn.
- One of these two: books about programming or the internet. I recommend the later, just because the sources are a bit fresher and it’s probably cheaper.
- A text editor. Most computers come with one pre-installed, but it’s nice to have one that feels comfortable.
- Enthusiasm. This is the most important item on the list.
That’s all you need to get started.
Because I want you to succeed, here’s a couple more tips: I’m not sure about what language you want to learn. You can test out a bunch of them or you may already have one language in mind. There are books for every language you can imagine and online courses about a bunch more. It would be impossible for me to list all that there is out there, so I’ll point you in the direction of codecademy and tell you there’s plenty of free online courses online, so go find them (there might even be a few hints in my previous post).
About the text editor. Most people confuse text editors with programs like Word or Libre Writer. What you actually need is a text editor that doesn’t have any kind of fonts or formatting done to them. Most programs that deal with written text have ready-set styles and formatting options that you as the user cannot turn off. That’s why you need a special program where you can write without adding any extra information on your files. Basically, you need something more simple than what you’re used to working with. Don’t be afraid!
Incidentally, the Django Girls Tutorial has a nice section on free editors you may use and a bit more of an in-depth explanation: here’s the link.
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Do’s and Dont’s
Here’s a very simple list of things I wish I had known when I started.
Do
- Learn how to code from your code editor. pages like codecademy are great in that you can do everything online, but the downside is that you then have a feeling of disconnection between what you do on their website and what you can do on your own computer. Explore the possibility of using the command line to run small programs on your own computer. It makes a huge difference. MOOCs (massive open online courses) from the University of Michigan are great when it comes to this.
- Code a little every day. It doesn’t matter if it’s just for ten minutes. Programming is a muscle that you need to exercise.
- Make comments in your code often. Explain everything. Your future self will thank you.
- Remember that the difference between the master and the apprentice is that the master has failed more times than the apprentice has tried.
- Google everything. Stack Overflow is your friend. Google all the errors you get, understand them, embrace them.
- Take breaks when you are stuck.
Don’t
- Utilize colors in your first few apps if you don’t know much about color theory. Sometimes, monochrome is a lot more simple and it looks good.
- Repeat yourself. If you are doing something over and over again, create a function or a loop that can help you.
- Copy-paste the code you are learning. Try to type and savor everything that you are doing. If you copy and paste all the commands, you will have a hard time remembering what you did last time you were at this point.
- Try to memorize everything. Just look it up. Eventually, you will learn how to do things, but it’s more important to understand how things work rather than just memorizing the words.
- Worry about bugs in your program. Even the most experienced programmers have to deal with bugs.
- Be scared of the command line. It’s not too hard to learn a few commands, and you can customize it to look whichever way you want. Besides, it feels super awesome to do things from the command line!
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All in all, I hope I have convinced you that learning how to code is something fun that you don’t necessarily have to do for profit, but for the sake of it. As you can see, learning how to code is something that you can do for very cheap or even for free and it’s not that difficult to get started. I think I managed to give you some tips and tricks without using too much computer lingo, but if there’s anything you don’t understand, feel free to leave a comment so I can correct that.
Have a great week,
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