6 Best Resources To Learn Programming For Beginners
Simply put, programming is a way of instructing the computer to perform various tasks. Instructing the computer here means, providing the computer a set of instructions that are written in a language that the computer only understands.
There are various types of instructions. For example:
- adding 2 to 3 numbers
- rounding of numbers, etc
Synonymously, like humans, we are born to understand a few languages or more (English, Spanish, French, etc). But for the computer, it is made to understand specific syntactical form known as a programming language.
Performing various tasks, the task could be:
- Calculating simple interest, rate and time
- calculating the average returns on stocks over a period of time.
What Is Programming Language
The programming language is the way a programmer expresses a task to a computer so that it could be understood and executed. Programming Language is the only way a computer can understand to process and perform a task. Examples of programming languages are:
- Python – Python is an interpreted, high-level, general-purpose programming language. Python was created by Guido Van Russom and released in 1991. Python can be used for developing Graphical User Interface applications, websites and web applications, scientific and numeric applications, etc.
- C – C was the basic language used in writing everything from Operating Systems like Windows and many others and also programs like the Oracle, Git, Python interpreter, etc. C is the most popular language worldwide. C was developed in 1972 by Dennis M. Richie. C is considered the mother language of all modern programming languages.
- C++ – C++ was created by Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension to C programming language.
- Java – Java is a powerful general-purpose programming language. Java is said to run on over 3 billion devices which makes it one of the popular programming languages. Java was created in 1995 and owned by Oracle.
There are so many programming languages of which few are mentioned above. Programming is very fun to learn. In this article, I will share with you some best resources you can learn programming from.
Turtle Academy
Turtle Academy is a web-based tutorial teaching programming in a fun and simple way by helping you write code through moving a turtle around the screen.
This practical way of learning programming is a great way to introduce yourself to programming and get familiar with basic programming languages as a beginner. You can visit their website on www.trustacademy.com
Udacity
Udacity is a web-based tutoring site that provides a huge online library of courses for all levels and all kinds of subjects. You can click on any programming course and begin to learn. All courses are beginner-level based. Visit their website on Udacity
W3Schools
W3Schools is basically a practical introduction to web development that anyone can follow. It’s practically full of examples and shows how different things work together. I love W3Schools personally because of the way it practically delivers and makes programming simple to learn.
Code Academy
There are over two dozen free courses on programming at Code Academy. All courses come with Exercises, Syllabus, lessons, and badges. All courses are free but for extra features, you need to upgrade to Code Academy Pro.
Free Code Camp
As the name starts with free, Free code camp offers hundreds of courses online for free on programming languages. At Free Code Camp, once you are logged in, 1200 hours of time is allocated to you to solve challenges. This makes one make good use of his free time. Visit https://www.freecodecamp.com/
Khan Academy
Khan Academy offers computer programming courses from scratch to advanced. All courses offered are free. With no coding skills, you can visit Khan Academy and start from the beginner level. Visit Khan Academy
Conclusion
Programming is important in our daily life to enhance and increase the power of computers and the internet as a whole. Big time programmers like Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Elon Musk and others, encourage others to learn to program because of it’s importance in our world today.
If you have the interest to learn to program but don’t know where to start, this article has highlighted some of the best resources online you can learn programming from. I hope it helps your journey to programming.
