Programming guide for beginners (how and where to start)
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Steps to learning to program for beginners
Learning programming for beginners is not an easy process at
all, but it is not impossible either. If you have a clear vision and plan and
you do what you do to reach a specific goal, your learning journey
will be simple, easy, and not stressful.
What makes people fail the most is confusion and confusion
at the beginning, as they keep looking for things like the best course or the
best programming language for beginners, and waste all their efforts in this
useless search, so before we move on to learning resources, we must touch on
some of the most essential things in the start.
This is what I will present to you in this article through
these steps:
First Step: Determine why you want to learn to code
The first, most important, and hardest step is determining why you want to learn to code and set your own learning goal. If you don't have a goal, how
can you achieve it?
This is the most important point in learning programming for
beginners, which will help you chart your way in this world that you do not
know much about - now -.
In this step, you will have to learn more about Computer
Science and what programming is, and its different types.
Do not worry, these topics and other basics that you will
need in any field you will enter, whatever it is and whatever the job tasks
assigned to you.
Knowing or looking at the field from above will help you
determine the right field for you - if you haven't already - as well as
identify the programming languages and tools that you will need to learn and
master.
It will also prevent you from making some serious mistakes,
as your knowledge may be wrong about programming and about the field you want
to enter, and another field may suit you.
Here is
an overview of some scenarios that you should consider in this step:
a)
If you want to enter the field of programming to improve your financial
level and improve your salary
In this case, you will have to get acquainted with the
fields available to you and the nature of the labor market in your country, for
example, the opportunity to get a job in the field of web development is much
better than in fields such as video game design or cybersecurity.
It would also be better if you thought about how programming
intersects with your original field so that the technical and programming
skills that you will obtain guarantee you a promotion in the same profession if
you love it and want to stay in it.
b)
If you want to learn programming to advance in your field
Many fields - for example, academics - today need to learn
some programming skills, in this case, you will have to get to know which
languages and tools are used in your field and you need to learn them, instead
of studying a language or tool that you do not need.
Today, programming has entered, in one way or another, into
all fields, from administration to civil engineering, medicine, and pharmacy.
All you have to do is look carefully at the opportunities around you in your
field.
c)
If you just have a general passion for learning programming and want to learn
more about it
In this case, there will be beginnings that are more
suitable for you than others, and programming languages that you prefer to
start with, for example, Python language, which will open the door for you
to almost most of the existing fields.
d)
If you want to get the programming benefits of logical reasoning and others
In this case, some languages and tools will be
more suitable for you than others, and knowing them will save you a lot of
time.
But before I move to the next step, I have to advise you to
start learning about computer science in this step, as it helped me a lot when
I was at this stage.
Fortunately, there are plenty of courses that will also
help you get started, such as:
1. CS50:Introduction to Computer Science from Harvard
Perhaps this
course is the best in the world, as it has benefited millions of students
around the world who want to start learning to program.
The presenter
of the course is the famous professor David G. Malan, and the course includes
many topics, such as basics, algorithms, data structures, protection, web
development, etc., and through it, you will learn about languages such as Python, C, JavaScript, and SQL in addition to HTML and CSS.
2.
Computer Science course from Crash Course
This course
is a lot less well-known than CS50 but I find it very valuable as it gives you
a brief explanation of everything you need to know from computer parts, their functioning,
operating systems, and even NLP.
The
introduction to this course is Carrie Ann Philbin, who has a very simple and
fun style and will take you on a fun and short journey into the world of
computers and programming.
Of course, there are plenty of other courses but these two are my favorites, and I think
each one is more than enough to get you started in this mystical field for you
-just for now-
Many skip
this step or see at first that it is not of great importance or that it is a
waste of time, but this is completely incorrect and you will realize that it is
the most important after a while in your learning journey of programming and
then you will thank me.
Second Step: Knowing the field you will enter
In this
step, after you have defined your goals, you will be able to determine the
field in which you will learn, as you know there are many fields now.
I will
tell you about the most important areas of programming for beginners that you
should pay attention to:
1. Web
Development
The field of
web development is the most widespread and easiest field to hire, whether in
traditional companies or in freelancing.
The field
is divided into two sub-fields, namely:
The front
end is responsible for designing website interfaces, and it relies on languages
such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and development tools such as Bootstrap, Sass,
and others.
This is the
field that most newcomers to the world of programming and web development begin
with, and it is the field for which you will find a lot of courses on the Internet.
The best of
these courses, in my opinion, is the Front-End Developer course from Zero
Academy, which in short is comprehensive and tidy.
You'll find
everything you need in it, from the questions on your mind to the order of the
lessons you need to learn.
Also, Osama
Al-Zero, the presenter and explainer of this course, has an extraordinary
ability to explain and simplify, especially since he personally is not a
graduate of the Faculty of Computers or Computer Engineering, and he has
learned to program on his own.
The other
field in web development is the back end, which is responsible for everything
that happens behind the interface of the site.
In this
field, you need other programming languages, such as PHP, and its frameworks
such as Laravel and others.
There is
also a course by Osama Al-Zero entitled The PHP Back-End Developer course,
which is one of the best resources ever for learning the PHP language.
Usually, in
the areas of web development, the programmer or developer is either specialized
in front-end websites or specialized in back-end systems.
But there is
a type of web developer who is a full stack web developer who develops website
interfaces as well as their back-end systems.
They either
know and use the languages and tools for each of their fields, or they know
programming languages and tools that allow them to do both in the same
vocabulary.
One of these
languages that combine the two is Ruby and its Ruby on Rails framework which
is in heavy use these days.
2. Mobile
App Development
The other
field that competes with the popularity of web development is the field of
mobile application development, and its popularity has increased during this
period because every company and business has become necessary to have an
application.
The most
used programming languages in this field are Swift for developing IOS
applications, and Kotlin and Java for developing Android applications.
But now
there are programming languages that help developers write application codes
that work on both systems at once, and the most famous of them is Flutter and
the JavaScript-based React Native framework.
The field of
mobile application development is the second most demanded field for
programmers, so many beginners are joining it.
3. Data
Science and Artificial Intelligence
These two
areas are very similar so I'm going to talk about them together, as the two
rely heavily on the Python programming language.
They are two
very important technical fields that are growing very quickly and annually need
tens of thousands of programmers.
In 2020,
there was a shortage of about 250,000 data science professionals, and this is
in the United States of America only.
Third Step: To become acquainted with the programming languages and tools that you will need for the field you selected
After you
get to know the appropriate field for you and see if it is suitable for you or
not, read more about it and find out what are the most used tools and languages
at this time, yes, as the languages and tools for each field are constantly
changing in the market and the demand for them changes.
And pay more
attention to getting to know the most requested technologies in your country,
as by asking specialists or looking at companies' employment requests, you will
get to know everything you need.
After you
get acquainted with the languages, tools, and frameworks required in each field,
it will remain for you to determine the source from which you will study them.
This is the
point where learning to code for beginners begins, but as you've seen it
precedes many other important steps.
Me, when
I was at this step, I knew that there were two languages that I had to master
to achieve my goals, which are Python and R.
Plus I had
to learn a lot about Data Structure and needed some math to understand the
applications of data science.
Fourth Step: Determine the appropriate study source
Learning to
code for beginners is very easy as there are dozens of online resources that
provide you with everything you need to know.
Rather, it may
sometimes turn into a problem, because you cannot determine the best source
from which to start your journey in learning programming.
In general,
you will find a lot of articles on the Gainers website that will help you start
learning the field you want.
And if I
wanted to give you one piece of advice in this step, it is to pay attention to
the application. Learning a language or technology without applying it in real
projects is a waste of time and effort.
The
application is what will help you to build a business gallery for you, and also
enable you to start self-employment if you do not want to work in a company.
Fifth step: planning the learning process
Learning
programming depends not only on the learning process but also on planning and
organization, especially if you are a student or an employee and are not free
to learn.
In these
cases, you must accurately determine the number of hours in which you can learn
programming, and after you determine this number, even if it is 6 hours per
week, divide it by two.
Want to know
why? To give yourself time to absorb and apply, you are not learning literature
or sociology.
Rather, you
are learning a technical field, so you have to put extra time to
absorb the concepts that you learn, many of which you will not be able to
understand satisfactorily the first time, not even the second time.
Try to
distribute the learning time two or three days a week. For example, if you
have 8 free hours in your day, divide it into two groups of 4 hours, one in a
day and the other in a day.
Step Six: Apply as you learn
Application
in learning programming is equivalent to the learning process itself.
Programming is a practical field. If you cannot apply what you study, then you
have not learned it.
Always apply
and experience what you learn, and you can even allocate more time for
application than learning, and after a period of learning the basics, work on
real projects.
Apply even to very simple projects, the important thing is that you use what you learn because I believe that just as there is muscle memory, there is a
programmatic memory that you have to build during the learning period.
On the
Internet and on YouTube, you will find many projects that you can work on,
implement, and add to your portfolio.
Step Seven: Never stop learning
The title of
learning programming for beginners may suggest that the learning stage is
temporary, but this is not true at all, as learning programming is a continuous
process.
Technologies
change, and you may find, within only 6 months, that the frameworks you use are
outdated, and the market has turned to other frameworks for work.
So keep in
mind that you should set aside time per week to learn even after you have
completed the beginner's course.
Conclusion
Learning
programming for beginners is not an easy process, but it is also not
impossible. If you know the correct steps, you will be able to master
programming with minimal effort and in the shortest time.
In this
short guide, I have provided everything that will help you in the journey of
learning programming, and I also shared with you my story and my learning
journey as well.