Learn Programming
How to learn programming?
Are you an enthusiast who started learning a programming language? Are you a student/trainee who got introduced with a programming language based on requirement? Are you startled with the number of programming languages you found while researching to learn a programming language?
Choose a programming language
There are many criteria on which you could choose a programming language. Some of them are :
- Some of the use cases you would like to solve may narrow down to a smaller set of programming languages
- The amount of help you could get from the online community for a specific programming language
- How interested is the industry in embracing the language
- Do you vision a future for the programming language
Examples for choosing a programming language
Following are some of the filtered set of programming languages based on the field of application
- Deep Learning {Python, Java, Go, etc.}
- Web Development {PHP, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, etc.}
- Mobile Application Development {Dart, Kotlin, Swift, etc.}
The best programming language to learn for jobs
If you are determined to get a job based on a programming language, try to find a niche where the supply to demand ratio is less. Focus on one or two programming languages in that niche along with at least two or three frameworks (if in scope). Following are some of the programming languages that are trending and may help you in getting a job.
- JavaScript: JavaScript is keeping its footprints in Web UI (client side) and also server side with frameworks like NodeJS.
- Python: Python has become popular with the data analytics and machine learning.
- C#: C# is being used as the programming language for developing mobile applications.
- Java: Java is everywhere. Be it client-side programming, server-side programming, machine learning, mobile application development, etc.
- PHP: Nowadays, most of the blogs and shared hosting runs on PHP.
- Go: Go is being used in Data Analytics, Machine Learning, etc.
- Swift: Swift is being used to develop mobile applications like iOS applications, cross-platform applications, etc.
Ways to learn a programming language
Learning any programming language is fun and exciting if you have a good perception of the programming language and the results you are trying to achieve with it. We present you our experiences and expertise to guide you learn the programming language easily from basics to advanced.
There are a number of ways that you could start exploring a programming language. For example:
- Read a book.
- Follow a tutorial.
- Go through official documentation (we shall see in a short time, what documentation is).
- Follow forums and engage in discussions.
- Ask the online community.
- Try solving the questions asked by the community through forums.
- Start a project (of your own) with the programming language.
How to get a good introduction to the programming language
Nobody can tell a story better than their own. So, if you want a preface or a noble introduction to the programming language you are interested in, go to their official website. Their home page would be filled with the capabilities of the programming language, its current stand with the industry, the use-cases that you could solve with it and a lot more information.
Know the capabilities of the programming language
There would be many applications developed using the programming language. Get inspired by their success stories to drive your passion.
How to get started with the setup for the programming language
In the official website, you would be presented with a get started section, where it may guide you with the steps to install any required software or the environment you need to set up for the programming language to work. Not everything might go as intended for everyone. There would be hurdles and challenges, be it some kind of exception you encounter or an error during setup. This is the time you need to take help from the community. Believe me, there is a 99.9 % chance that somebody has already got the same exception or error that you encountered now. Go browse the web with a hint of your exception. Try the solutions offered in community forums and technology forums.
Learn to Code
How to learn basics of the programming language
Once you are ready with the setup, its time to learn the basics of the programming language. There are two better ways to get started with the basics of any programming language.
- Follow the topics from a book in the order of its index
- Follow a well-formed tutorial
Make sure that there are enough examples provided when you start with a resource. Understand the basics and try out all the examples provided.
Apply your basics – Work on a sample application
By this stage, you should be familiar with most of the capabilities of the programming language. Choose a use basic use case that would require the application of most of the basics of that programming language. Start finding the solution for solving the use case with the development of this sample project and try to complete it. At this stage, you might need to apply your problem-solving skills and use the programming language as a tool. You might encounter a lot of hurdles, as this is the first time you are building a complete application on your own. Till now, you have only worked on examples that covered only specific topic or concept at a time. As you pool in all those concepts to solve a problem, you would start thinking on how to get those individual basic concepts together to solve a higher level problem. Online community would be of a great help in this stage, through programming language specific forums, technical forums etc.
Expand your knowledge with the advanced concepts
As and when you are comfortable with using the basics to solve a problem, the time has come to expertise in the programming language. Test your application with different types of loads and different possible inputs. Test your application’s performance. Test your application for security. The prototypes that you have built may not be able to bear a large input load. You have to optimize your code for performance. You may have to modify some lines of code for achieving performance. For this, you need to know the industry standards and some of the known optimization for specific problems. You need to learn the loopholes and security aspects of the programming language. There could be many situations where a security flaw or a performance issue has brought down the whole application offline. Keep track of those vulnerabilities and cross-check your application’s behavior for the same.
Give a helping hand to the new bees in the community
It is time to give back something to the community. Spare some time to solve the problems of new developers who are asking for help in online forums and technology stack websites.