Learning how to code without the jargon
Having just finished my sixth semester in Computer Engineering at Purdue University, Indiana, I find myself, like my fellow college peers on winter break, twiddling my thumbs and lying about with nothing to do. Perhaps I could hang out with my friends at the mall? Play video games? Go to the gym? Or just catch up on the sleep I lost over these past four months?
Then I remembered a little writing assignment I did a few months ago for an English class, where I detailed an experience back in the 7th grade about how I learned how to code for the first time. The story involved balloons and Python, currently a very popular programming language. I realized I wanted to do more of that, combining my penchant for writing articles and coding, while I twiddled my thumbs at home. This article is my first serious attempt at a coding tutorial. If this effort goes well, we can establish two things:
- You, the reader, are able to understand what I explain, replicate it, and apply it. It shouldn’t matter if you’re into coding at all.
- I, the writer, am able to write effectively, explain concepts easily and help readers write good code.
How is this approach different from any other tutorial out there?
Probably like you, I’m not an expert at coding either. I don’t profess to be the best coder ever. In fact, coding is like driving in the sense that no one can be truly perfect at it. At some point in time and/or space, you are either going to make mistakes or not know how to perform a certain task. At that point, you will look to someone (or someplace) for guidance.
That means while you’re learning, so am I. I find that the best way to learn is in a group — and if I make mistakes, it’s a learning experience for everyone. That’s not to say I’m a complete beginner either! I’ve coded for the past 5 years in a variety of languages, but as I gain experience in more complicated applications of coding, I want to be able to pass on my recent experiences in the form of tutorials as well.
I’m also trying to be as accessible to non-programmers as possible. As we automate and digitize every last bit of our lives, learning about the tools required to do so also becomes impossible to avoid. Coding is here to stay. While it may not be relevant immediately to your career path or hobby choices, coding will be an extremely useful skill to have.
But I don’t know anything about coding!
Recall a time you spent learning something new that was difficult for you. It took effort and… well, time, right? Coding isn’t any different. Putting in the requisite effort will help you learn the content easily and push you towards being a great coder a lot quicker!
What if you’re asking whether you need to have some background? I should make it clear — you don’t. If you are merely interested in using coding as a tool to help you with your work, you shouldn’t have to understand the intricacies of the language.
Okay, let’s get right into it!
In my experience with teaching others how to code, people are quite confused about the various programming languages, the way each is written, and what each one is good for. They assume coding is difficult when they see an example program in more difficult programming languages like C.
To keep it simple, we’re using Python. A powerful language released in 1991 by Guido van Rossum, Python’s design philosophy emphasizes code readability. That means following the code isn’t too difficult. If you’re just learning how to code, this should be extremely helpful.
Consider the following instructions:
- Go to the market to buy two liters of low-fat milk.
- If the market doesn’t have that, get one liter of full cream milk.
- If there’s nothing, come back home.
Seems simple enough right? It’s not in code. If your eyes may have already strayed to the mass of code below, don’t run away yet! Two things to note:
- It’s not technically a “mass”. Most of it is me just explaining things.
- You don’t have to read the following. If you want, we’ll take things one step at a time through multiple articles. You should read through it if you do want to get an understanding of the syntax (albeit it may seem difficult to follow).
This is how I would do it in C: (My comments are given with two slashes before them, like this: //)
And this is how I would do it in Python: (My comments are given with a hash (#) before them)
You’re probably running away, screaming that I lied about how complicated this is. I really, really understand. If you want to close the tab now, I forgive you.
Have you left yet? No? I admire your tenacity and courage! We forge on!
So, as you may have figured out by reading through the “mass”, Python is considerably shorter. Below is a screenshot of the CLOC (Count Lines of Code) tool I used to count how many lines of actual code exist in the file.
Another thing is to point out is that, to most people, Python makes much more sense. The code is clearer, doesn’t have annoying jargon, and you can easily adapt it to do something else or add things, like buying other items, or looking at other properties like price, brand, nutrition and so on. It takes considerably more effort to add more stuff in C than it does in Python.
And that’s why we’re going to use Python to help you learn how to code. While it does still seem like I’m using a lot of jargon right now, I promise it will make so much more sense later on. Python’s extremely close similarity to grammatically correct English makes it a viable candidate for learning languages that are easy to follow. While it isn’t a quintessential candidate for the easiest programming language, it certainly helps to get you started.
In my next article, I plan on helping you jump straight into setting up Python on your computer and running some very basic test code to make sure it all works.
Hopefully, this has left you wanting for more. Thank you for taking the time to reach the end!
“Enter The Python” is out! Read it here.