There’s no doubt about the fact that you’d be doing yourself a huge favor if you decided you wanted to learn how to code, but where on earth does one start?

Start at the end

I suppose there are indeed some instances in which the desire to want to learn to code comes from nothing more than just wanting to acquire that skill, but the more likely scenario would be that of having seen some or other application in action and then developing a desire to want to learn how to build something like that yourself. Alternatively, your desire to want to learn to code could very well have been sparked by an idea for an application you had, or indeed a solution to a specific problem you’ve identified.

This is what is meant by starting at the end. Take a look at what you want to accomplish with your desire to want to learn programming and write down all the features your solution would have. Make sketches of the interface which by the way don’t have to be anywhere near perfect.

Describe the overall function of the solution you want to build and also write down the functions of each individual feature. For example, if you we were talking about a game you might want to build, what is the game about? What are the elements of the game and what are the features, e.g. a 2-D car game to make things as simple as possible would feature a car, the road surface, perhaps some obstacles and it would also feature the main functions of the action, such as acceleration, braking, steering and perhaps crashing.

It’s very important to approach your exciting journey of learning how to code with a project in mind, ideally a solution, application, etc.

Choosing your development language

This now becomes that much easier since all you really have to do is find out which programming language is best-suited for the solution you want to build. Sticking with our 2-D car game example, the language you’d probably best go with is Java, but there are many options to choose from such as C, C++ and even JavaScript which is more of a web-based scripting language, so JavaScript would perhaps not be a good option.

Computer Science

Computer Science is the study of computers using science, which in this case is a programming language. In your quest to learn how to code you’re not going to try and study the programming language you’ve selected with a view of building the solution you pictured. Rather, study the science behind it all. Learn the language, paying special attention to the various components and functions.

This is important because once you’ve mastered one programming language and you take a peek at the syntax and components/features of pretty much any other language, you’ll realize that the computer science is basically the same. It’s generally very easy for a programmer to pick up a new programming language based on the knowledge they have of the language they know and as you go through the chapters you should come across some instances where you’re like “I can use this feature for this or that specific function in my program.”

That’s the best way to learn how to code!