{"id":6925,"date":"2016-08-01T09:15:44","date_gmt":"2016-08-01T14:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bluehost.com\/blog\/?p=6925"},"modified":"2025-03-24T09:43:53","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T09:43:53","slug":"6-essential-steps-to-success-for-learning-how-to-code","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bluehost.com\/blog\/6-essential-steps-to-success-for-learning-how-to-code\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Essential Steps to Success for Code Newbies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You can read and write \u2014 right?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Odds are, you can.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next question: Can you read and write code?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Odds are, you can\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One percent of Americans are professional programmers. But for the remaining 99 percent of us, learning to code, including understanding the best programming languages<\/a>, may be nearly as important as good old reading, writing, and arithmetic. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least, Steve Jobs thought so. The Apple cofounder said in 1995: \u201cI think everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer because it teaches you how to think.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plenty of other people and organizations have bought into the learn-to-code hype: In 2013 a nonprofit called Hour of Code launched a campaign to encourage people to start learning code, with backing by Apple, President Barack Obama, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2014 England added coding skills to its nationwide curriculum. And numerous startups and nonprofits have emerged to meet the demand for training; in the past three years, 260 million people have used the free<\/span> Hour of Code<\/span><\/a> training.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a step-by-step guide to take you from code newbie to know-it-all.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Understand what coding is.<\/b><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Coding is, quite simply,<\/span> a way of telling a machine what to do<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>
If you\u2019re down for a deep dive, you can read<\/span> this 38,000-word essay<\/span><\/a> answering the question \u201cWhat is code?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCoding\u201d is the most common term used by educational sites, but it\u2019s a bit more complex than that. First, there\u2019s no one way to code \u2014 there are numerous languages used to code for different types of projects. Second, knowing how to code with a particular language doesn\u2019t make you a programmer or developer.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though there is<\/span> some<\/span><\/a> debate<\/span><\/a> about the overlap of coding, programming, developing, and other related pursuits, most people agree that to get beyond coding, you need to be able to understand logic and algorithms, connect different systems and languages, and communicate and collaborate with other people.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Understand how coding can help you.<\/b><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Enhance digital literacy.<\/b> Since machines are everywhere, knowing how to talk to them is a pretty useful skill. You can better understand the digital tools you use every day \u2014 and make them work better for you.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cultivate skills.<\/b> Learning to code can foster both hard and soft skills that will benefit you in your career and life. The hard skills help you do cool stuff: create websites, apps, games, and software; analyze a web of data; automate complex tasks; or tackle any number of problems. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The soft skills help you think and work better: you\u2019re pushed to model and iterate ideas, identify and solve problems, and work within a collaborative community.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expand your horizons.<\/b> Learning to code expands your options much like learning to learning to read and write allows you to explore and express a world of ideas. Mitch Resnick of MIT Media Lab<\/span> said in a TED talk<\/span><\/a>, \u201cWhen you learn to read, you read to learn. And it\u2019s the same thing with coding: If you learn to code, you can code to learn.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solve problems.<\/b> Don\u2019t learn to code for coding\u2019s sake \u2014 learn because you want to use code as a tool to solve problems.<\/span> \u201cBefore you look at programming at all, figure out a problem that you\u2019re excited about, something that\u2019s going to motivate you to learn about the languages and tools available,\u201d advises programmer and vlogger<\/span> Kevin Gisi<\/span><\/a>. \u201cAnd once you\u2019ve built that really cool thing, you\u2019re going to discover that you accidentally picked up a lot of skills along the way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Pick your path.<\/b><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Before you start, remember Gisi\u2019s advice \u2014 figure out what you want to do with your future coding skills. Figuring that out is important for two reasons: first, different programming languages are used for different things, so you want to make sure you learn the language that best fits your goals. Second, having a specific, meaningful goal motivates you to keep going. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLearning programming is like practicing scales,\u201d Gisi says. \u201cIt\u2019s going to make you a very strong musician, but if you do that for years without ever playing a song, you\u2019re going to get very frustrated. It\u2019s a lot easier to learn something when you have a reason to want to know it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So which language should you learn?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Learn Programming subreddit (a subreddit is a forum on a particular topic \u2014 if you\u2019re unfamiliar with Reddit,<\/span> here\u2019s a primer<\/span><\/a>) offers this guide in determining which language to learn first:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I Want to Learn How To
<\/b><\/span><\/td>		Then Consider Using<\/b><\/span><\/td><\/tr>
Make iPhone Apps<\/span><\/td>Swift<\/span><\/td><\/tr>
Make Android Apps<\/span><\/td>Java<\/span><\/td><\/tr>
Build a website<\/span><\/td>JavaScript<\/a>, CSS, HTML5<\/span><\/td><\/tr>
Write Windows desktop applications<\/span><\/td>C#<\/span><\/td><\/tr>
Make 2D games<\/span><\/td>Python or JavaScript<\/span><\/td><\/tr>
Make 3D games<\/span><\/td>C# or C++<\/span><\/td><\/tr>
Program Arduinos\/micro-controllers\/robots<\/span><\/td>C<\/span><\/td><\/tr>
Do scientific\/mathematical computing or data analysis<\/span><\/td>Julia, Python, R, or Matlab<\/span><\/td><\/tr>
Do automation and scripting<\/span><\/td>Many languages (Python, Ruby, Bash, Powershell, AutoHotKey…)<\/span><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Other resources to help you find your programming-language match:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n