I’ve always had trouble getting into coding/programming because I’ve never truly dedicated myself to it. Mostly, this is because I kinda always lose momentum to learn it. I’m a heavy FOSS user; I love coreboot/Libreboot and am interested in getting into firmware development. I’ve already helped test hardware for Libreboot and enjoy learning about firmware.
I have just started to cut out gaming from my life to focus more on this. Maybe I should start with Python? At the same time, though, I feel like I should start with C, but don’t want to jump the gun too quick.
Feel free to share your stories!
As others have said, rather than learn a language, solve a problem. Find something that bothers you, and write some code to fix it. The specific language doesn’t matter.
Its kinda similar to learning a spoken language, there is no point learning French if you cant use it in someway.
Sound advice. During my first year of computer science, one of my professors told me that programming languages are just a tool to solve a problem. The logic to solve it is the key. Whether it’s Java, Python, Go, etc. If you don’t know how to tell the computer what to do, you can’t program anything in any language.
start with python to do what? learning a language is not the same a s learning programming. Heck most languages can be learned in an hour or two. Programming is another beast altogether.
A person can learn to use a hammer in minutes, but it doesn’t make them a carpenter.
Find a project you want to build, and start building it. solve problems, and learn along the way. Learning “python” on its own will not help you learn programming in any way. Programming stuff will.
I second this.
I started learning Google app script for work and while its not exactly traditional programming like most folks would do, i can now look at javascript and have a basic understanding of whats going on.
I learned a ot by doing. And with the help of ai, i was able to learn concepts, syntax, the best way to do this or that at least to a degree.
Just trying to make something is the best way. Make a tool to make your life easier. Like if you have a repetitive task that you dont want to do each time, make a script that does it for you.
I was a self taught programmer who 10+ years later is now a senior software engineer. I can’t tell you what to do but I can tell you what worked for me.
The reality is, I never sat down with the intent to “learn programming”. Instead, I had practical ideas for things I wanted to make the computer do, and then I learned whatever was necessary to accomplish my projects as I went. Whenever I got stuck or hit an error, I’d search my questions online.
I never truly “finished” most of these early projects but they gave me a practical understanding of how things fit together. From there I just kept making stuff and taking on harder projects and then harder jobs and eventually other programmers started coming to me asking for help because they knew I had solved the thing they were working on before.
I’m not sure if it’s advice, but I’d say stop worrying about learning and just do. If you like firmware, go buy some shitty unsupported peripheral from Goodwill and try to make it work on your modern system. Solve a problem you have in your everyday life. It doesn’t matter if you accomplish the goal, you’ll learn a lot by googling your way through it. Do that enough and you’ll wake up one day and be a competent programmer.
I started “programming” by writing triggers in the Warcraft 3 editor 😅.
Later learned C++, then went to uni and learned more and the deeper theory.
If you’re just a hobbyist, Python is a good choice. If you want to learn more deeply, I’d recommend Rust over something like C. Feel free to mention/message me if you have Rust questions.
I’m genX, so I grew up with 80s microcomputers. Programming was pretty much the only thing you could do with them.
