Getting Started with Programming
By: Jayapriya Pai
Tags: Getting Started, Programming, Code Newbie, Beginner, Guides And Tutorials

Photo by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash

Read on if you are looking to get started with programming but do not know where to start and how to work your way through it.

Why programming?

Many computer science engineers today are not good programmers. It is something to ponder, why so many find it difficult to write code.

Every technology demands some understanding of how things work beneath the surface if one wants to architect a solution out of it. If someone decides to scratch that surface, they are going to find nothing but code which may be hosted in github like systems in the case that they are open source.

Before you begin…

Programming is a skill. Like any skill, you will need to start small, persist through the learning curve and not give up. Like any skill, you will enjoy it once you are good at it. Once you are good at it, you can innovate and do many things for yourself, for work or for pleasure.

Believe in yourself, know that it is not really difficult. Most importantly, you can get help, so know how to get it. Luckily, you are not alone and there are several programmer portals online. You could even make new friends or find a new job out there eventually.

Your age/role will not limit you from learning programming.

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious. — Albert Einstein

Where should I begin?

With many programming languages available and with their varied applications, it can be difficult to decide where to start. But…

1. Try choosing an easy language

Languages like python and ruby are more beginner friendly and easy to get started with. It has great community support as well.

2. Try practicing Tutorials

Plenty of them online.

3. Know your new best friend — Stack Overflow

This is where programmers, beginner to expert, go to when they need help from the programmer’s community. Probably, you don’t even need to post your questions thanks to the collection of documented questions and answers from the past. This way, you won’t reinvent the wheel.

4. Solve your own problems

Pick simple real life problems to give you context. Program your own loan interest calculator or your own Fuel cost calculator. You should know how to calculate these to make a program for it.

5. Consider taking up online programming courses

There are plenty of MOOC’s available in platforms like Coursera, Udacity, and Udemy for programming with most languages. You could also try Code Academy which helps you learn through coding exercises.

6. Challenge yourself

There are several programming challenges available online. A few such sites are codechef, hacker rank and daily programmer in reddit. This helps you have an online profile. But if you prefer so, you could solve the problems offline at your own pace too.

Also check out Project Euler, which hosts mathematical/programming challenges.

7. Use a version control system

This is something very important for any new developer. Document the changes in your code and maintain updates with the help of a tool/service. There are several options available like git, svn and clear case. I recommend git as it is opensource and several repository hosting services are based on git -Github, BitBucket, Gitlab etc.

8. Setup a development environment in your system

There are many opensource IDE’s available with several plugins to help you write the code in best possible way. The popular ones are Visual Studio Code, Atom, Sublime Text etc. I personally prefer Visual Studio Code since it comes with an integrated terminal. You could also install linting tools which helps you in maintaining community standards for writing code.

9. And finally, Have Fun!