“I don’t know how to start programming”
“I don’t know how to start programming”
This is a general notion in the minds of several people.
Some people think that programming is difficult, some think that one needs to learn more than one language to be called a programmer, some think that programming can be learnt in 21 days from some textbook.
Initially, no one has a clear idea or direction about how to begin, which language to learn, how long it would take to master programming, and thousands of other similar questions.
With this blog, we intend to start a series of blogs to give a clear direction and answer important questions such as above, related to programming.
Let us start off by dispelling some myths about programming that first-timers usually have.
* Programming can be learnt in 1 year.
You probably wonder how much time it would take for you to learn programming. However, no one knows the answer to this question.
Programming is a never-ending learning process, which may not be the same for everyone. Even after 10 years of experience in the industry, one does not stop learning new techniques, new algorithms, new languages or tools, etc.
Based on the need of the hour, a programmer may have to adapt to a new language, technology or a tool.
It is similar to playing football — even when you know you’re Christiano Ronaldo, there is always a new trick to learn or a bigger challenge to face.
* Learning a language means learning programming
One does not simply become a programmer by reading a book about C++.
Yes, one does learn various constructs of the language and its syntax, however that is not sufficient.
Along with knowing the syntax, it is important to know how to use the language to solve a problem, or to build a useful application. This is where people are generally stuck — they know the syntax, how loops and functions are written, but they do not have confidence to use them in creating something.
Knowing the syntax, and knowing how to use the syntax to create something is programming.
The only way to learn how to use syntax, is by getting out of your comfort zone and implementing something out of the box, other than just reading about the syntax on websites, in textbooks, etc.
Also, learning one language properly, may enable you to learn a new language faster.
So, it is recommended that you start with any language, get comfortable with it, implement some things using that language, and then learn new languages if you desire.
* Programming is difficult to learn
It is not! How do you believe us on that? You won’t know, unless you give it a shot!
It will be a little challenging in the beginning, you may feel like giving up at times, but once you get the hang of it, programming becomes pretty easy :)
// Aditya Sarode && Vaibhav Tulsyan
// More posts coming your way very soon! :)
