Are browsing this blog over your smartphone or your laptop? Have you checked your Instagram today and listened to your favorite music? Surely they are fun to use, but how do they find the things we like? Well, all these wonders and more like these are a result of some amazing coding skills. If you are eager about how to learn about coding, you are at the right place. Here’s a quick startup guide to help you begin your voyage to develop your coding skills.
Smart computers and advanced software are all around us, even our phones can do so much these days. But, all these started with quite bulky, slow and primitive applications.
Let go of the misconceptions about coding
Coding in general means writing lines of code that an electronic device can understand and do something. Any code is just a set of instructions for the computer to act and process. While that is true, not every code is the same and not everything works on everything. A simple code to add two numbers might act differently based on the inputs and a computer’s understanding of the code.
Similarly, a web programmer developing a website may code on something very different than some designer working on a smartwatch. So, while everything is a code, their application, outcome and design are different
Identify your skills and focus areas
As we said earlier, every code and its application is different and so are the ways to learn. Before you take on some tutorials and get lost in the space of programming, chart your route.
If you want to work on designing an attractive webpage, pick up something in the front end coding. Or, if you want to create a program that allows you to arrange your files, work on desktop programming languages, In simple words, have an end goal and use case in mind, else you would be puzzled with too many options. So, before you ask how to learn about coding, you should focus on what and why should you learn it.
Pick the right language and editors
There are hundreds of programming languages and libraries in the market today. And each of them has their specialization areas and applications. For example for webapps languages like C#, Angular, Javascript and Node are quite popular. On the other hand, for mobile apps, developers adore Java, Kotlin and Swift. Similarly for data science and analytics Python is a popular choice. So, pick the languages carefully and always start with the basics.
Once you have your language, the next thing you need is a development environment. Dev tools like Visual Studio, Jetbeans, Android studio. are extremely popular and powerful IDEs for coding.
Reliable and useful learning resources
Coding is a niche skill in the current market and is becoming a highly demanding capability. In many streams of work, programming has become an essential part of daily activities. And considering the demand and popularity, you can find a lot of learning platforms and resources to learn to code.
You can start by learning the basics and enrolling for beginner online courses. Once you have got your basics brushed up, you could get your feet wet by trying out some programming activities. There are a lot of websites that list problem statements that you can code and test. You can check solutions from expert programmers and other fellow learners. If you are someone who prefers reading, get a book for theory and then practice the problems. When it comes to programming, it is all about typing and scripting the code yourself.
Be a part of the community
You won’t find any better place to build your coding skills than being with like-minded code geeks. Once you have got a hang of the language and some understanding of programming, be a part of the community. You can find a lot of online communities for all sorts of languages, Some of the most popular ones include GitHub, Stack Overflow, CodeProject etc.
Here you can learn a lot about the latest trends, innovative ways to write the code and some tricks to play with the language. Over time, you could also contribute to the community by posing queries, sharing your code and much more. It is a complete world of people who love to code. And you find your answer to how to learn about coding and a lot more.
Keep practicing and keep learning
Coding is more than just learning a few basics of the language and knowing how to write a simple code. To be a good programmer, you need to understand the functioning and how to write the code efficiently. To be able to code nicely, you need to develop computational thinking. And a great way to build on your coding skills to code more. Every time you learn something new and find a new way to implement the logic. And over time, ‘practice makes you perfect’.
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