How to learn a programming language
Is Coding hard?
patience: This is not only the ability to wait, but how you behave while waiting
Many junior programmers think that coding is hard, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t think like that at first, many people tend to give up when they come across a bug(error) . I started programming when I was 11, back then I was learning the fundamentals of C++ (integers, variables, cin, cout,…etc), and whenever I came across a bug , I would handle it like any other 11 year old would , Delete the whole program and restart again, and when I came across the same error twice, by default I would give up, and sometimes the bug was not even in the codes, sometimes the compiler just needed an update , I have had a lot of experience from my past mistakes, today I would like to share the technique I used to overcome them.
The baby step technique
When I am going to learn a new language I often think of myself as a baby and start taking baby steps , these are the baby steps I take when learning a new language
1. Standing up : before learning any programming language I first commit myself to the language, knowing full well that it might not be easy .with the commitment I have ,I make sure that I will not give up.
2. The Fundamentals: Every programming language has fundamentals, ( variables, values, functions and methods … etc) , and most of the programming languages out there has the same principles with differences only in the syntax.
As you can see from the images above from fig.01 and fig.02 the fundamentals are the same with changes only in the syntax and these are two different programming languages, so the more you practice one programming language the more you will get good at it, Just like the baby learns how to walk then eventually figures out how to run and jump without anyone’s help .
3. Practices and Projects: After dedicating yourself and learning the fundamentals the next step to take is to practice what you learned so that you understand them better, but practice makes perfect, but it does not make new . so try out knew coding techniques and Ideas because programmers approach problems differently , try to write clean codes too .by contributing to open source projects you will notice how senior programmers write codes because they operate in teams and how they add comments to each line of code they wrote you might even learn a thing or two from their codes .
N.B: Building a project is crucial to learning a programming language because it helps you solve real world problems.
As I Conclude Coding is not hard at all , just like any other skills like playing guitar or riding a horse , it takes patience and dedications, it does not come overnight, with the baby step technique you are sure to learn any programming language, it’s all about the fundamentals.
