As a beginner, the theme of programming often seems mysterious. It is difficult to get an idea of what programming methods and tools or coding can look like when you have no experience. Learning to program is a considerable ordeal, especially if you plan to learn on your own for your own project. We’ve summarized what you’ll need to be successful in your coding, command, and scripting learning .
Programming for beginners: preparation
Anyone who wants to learn a programming language needs to document a lot. Reading forum topics and books is the first step. Through careful reading, one can acquire the necessary knowledge bases . Each programming language has its discussion forum. Thus, most imaginable questions have already been asked and Internet users have undoubtedly also provided an answer, or at least attempted.
If you do not find a satisfactory answer, you can ask your question yourself to the large community of programmers. Write down the important information that will help you in the initiation phase. A clear personal database with interesting notes will help you to solve your problems in a targeted way later on.
What are the programming languages?
A good part of your research and preparation should be learning about the different programming languages and finding which one is most suitable for your project . The best known and used are the following:
- Java
- VS
- C ++
- VS#
- Objective-C
- Python
- Visual Basic .NET
- Javascript
The complexity of these languages is variable : some are indeed more difficult than others to master. You should always keep in mind why you want to learn to program. Would you like to design websites in the future? Would you rather program a micro controller that you would use on a daily basis (in your car for example)?
Web programming
To design web pages or adapt a web application, you have to start with the basics. HTML and CSS are not programming languages per se, but they nevertheless form the basis of most sites and thus constitute the starting point for a beginner in programming. One can set up elements of web pages using HTML and thus design the skeleton of a site. The next step is to discover HTML5 which offers more audiovisual possibilities.
With CSS, it’s all about design and organization. All the characteristics of the various elements are fixed by this means, namely their colors or their positions for example. However, HTML and CSS only allow the design of static and simple functional pages . If you manage to learn these basic tools, you will be able to do programming. For first tests with dynamic pages, the use of JavaScript is the best choice because it is quite simple. With the help of JavaScript, dynamic websites can be designed which, for example, allow the automatic adaptation of the size of the images.
PHP and SQL complete the basic package for programming web applications. PHP is an open source scripting language and can be integrated with the HTML protocol. SQL is a database language with which you can define the structure of data, modify the latter or even extract data sets. When designing complex pages (including a member identification area for example), the use of a content management system (CMS for Content Management System) considerably reduces the knowledge required on PHP and SQL.
The items presented above are of course only a small selection of the many possible scripting languages for the web. The languages HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SQL and PHP training still constitute a solid and sufficient knowledge base for most web projects. The w3schools.com website offers documentation suitable for beginners as well as tutorials for using the scripts mentioned.
Program an application
In order to program applications such as games, or even photo editing programs, it is necessary to bet on other bases. Among these we find in particular C, C ++ and Java. These three languages have a similar syntax. Those who have mastered C or C ++ will thus be able to learn Java more easily. You will find a course for programming in C or C ++ on developpez.com . As for the Java or C # programming, there are tutorials on the following respective webpages: Openclassrooms.com Java programming , programming in C # . ?
Apps for iOS and OS X
It is possible to program applications for iPhone and iPad using Cocoa . It is not a script language but a transmission interface for the Mac OS operating system. Xcode is a development interface for Mac OS, with which you can develop Mac and iOS applications related to Cocoa. Interface Builder is graphic design software for application interfaces. Among the languages used are Objective-C among others .
Android apps
Applications for Android operating systems are programmed with Java . The Android Studio interface and Oracle’s Java development kit , combined with the right basic knowledge, allow you to create a wide variety of applications.
Learn to program online
Whether you are an employee or the creator of a start-up for example, having programming knowledge is an undeniable asset in the digital sector, but also a big challenge. There is help on the Internet for quick and straightforward learning: online courses are indeed available for learning programming.
Code Academy
Code Academy offers an interactive English-language programming course, including HTML, JavaScript and PHP. The platform also publishes courses that do not refer to particular programming languages, but rather general topics like for example programming interactive websites. So you can learn programming for free, in English language and with basic computer skills.
Udemy
The Udemy online platform offers more than 40,000 online courses, from photography to programming and design. Online course offers can be free or paid for the main IT topics (software and programming) . Users can therefore find free introductions to Java, HTML5 or PHP and others for a fee on mobile applications, e-commerce, etc. A positive point for developers is the programming course for entrepreneurs available. Classes are mainly in English and do not always require basic knowledge. There are free courses and the paid ones cost around ten euros.
Code.org
Code.org is an online portal for those new to programming. It is therefore the ideal platform for those who do not have any knowledge in the matter. There is a wide selection of fun and free tutorials , with references to famous online games like Angry Birds. On Code.org, it is above all about explaining the logic of programming. The portal is international and you can select the language of your choice, including French. Small games and tasks await the user, so as to make the learning as understandable as possible.
Learning support
If you know which programming languages to use, you have a gigantic choice of online tutorials and other relevant forms of help . It also takes patience to find the right editor for your material.
The choice of editors is great, the best known are Notepad ++ for Windows users, BBEdit for those who use a Mac as well as TextMate . The SublimeText editor is suitable for both Mac and Windows. For languages like Java or C (and derivatives of the same family), we generally attach ourselves to an IDE (development environment), which groups together various complementary elements for programming (for example Eclipse, NetBeans, Visual Studio, XCode) .
