Learn To Code 💻

Hello friends!

I hope you're enjoying this weekly newsletter. If you missed any of the past editions, make sure to check them out!

I've been thinking a lot lately about how, despite all the resources available to beginner programmers, it must look like a daunting mess of decisions for how to get started in this industry. When I first embarked on my coding journey it was the exact opposite: barely any resources available for beginners, and far fewer and less complicated decisions for how to code.

How do you navigate all those starting points? I consistently take the approach that if you want to learn something, you should simply start doing it. Read more in my latest blog post How Do I Learn To Code?.

Let's talk about learning to code. 💻
 

TLDR

How to learn to code

• Have a clear vision of something you want to build, and start building it.

• Begin by building something simple. Break it into smaller concepts if needed.

• Start with a technology that provides instant feedback to code changes so you can see how your code works quickly.

• Search for code solutions. Searching is a learned skill.

Jump Right In

Virtually every programming language and framework I know, I learned by building something, and more often than not, by building a personal side-project.

Code is a tool to build things. How can we possibly expect to learn how a tool works if we don't actually use it? 

The process of diving into a problem and figuring it out doesn't end once you're no longer a beginner. Programming is a lifelong endeavor of learning. Here's a typical project lifecycle as a veteran programmer:

1. Write some code

2. Something doesn't work

3. Search for common solutions to the problem

4. Find a fix for the problem

5. Go back to step 1

Veteran programmers are constantly diving into new territory, and this is no different than starting out.

And never fear, there are countless resources available to help along the way. Find what works for you, and keep building.

Some Tools and Resources for Learning to Code

• Stack Overflow - Crowdsourced answers to programming questions

• GitHub Explore - Take a look at how popular open-source software is built

• r/programming - Reddit's programming subreddit

• DEV - Articles and tutorials from other programmers

• Codecademy - Real-time instructional programming lessons

• Tuts+ - Code tutorials for everything

• Google Web Fundamentals - Google's approach to programming for the web

• W3Schools - Front-end to back-end web fundamentals

• A List Apart - Elegant web programming solutions

• RailsCasts - Ruby on Rails screencasts

• raywenderlich.com - Mainly iOS tutorials, but lately covering much more

• Caster.IO - Android programming lessons

Hit reply to tell me how you learned/are learning to code. I'd also love to know what you thought of this issue, and what you want to hear about in the future. Thanks for reading! 🙌

Until next week,

Craig