starting coding

[oatmilkzombie]

I'm really into coding, computer science, and just general stem fields, I know a bit of HTML and Python and I'm curious if any girls on here are into coding as well and recommend any languages to learn or books on coding to read

[Sarah B]

Hi Oatmilkzombie

I studied computer systems engineering and mathematics at university and taught mathematics and computer studies when I was a teacher.  The programming languages I used when teaching students were the following in no particular order:

•   Java
•   Lisp
•   C and C++
•   PHP
•   Python
•   JavaScript

Those languages mentioned above are a good start when one is studying computer science.  When I'm programming at home I personally use Fortran and Assembly or ASM for short.

Take care and all the best for the future.

Love and Hugs
Sarah B
Official Greeter
@oatmilkzombie

[Lori Dee]

In college, I pursued a Computer Science degree. I studied FORTRAN, COBOL, Basic, Pascal, and Assembly. (Now I really feel old.  ) My dad was an Electronics Engineer and encouraged me to get into Electronics. I predicted that computers would be the way to go and that someday there would be a computer in every household. That was in 1971 and look at us now.

I had just completed a class in Systems Analysis & Design and a new 3-year course was being offered in Robotics and Industrial Controls. I was convinced that robotics was going to be the new trend. Not just industrial robots building cars, but robots in the home doing our chores. Somebody needs to program and maintain them. (Hello Zoomba vacuum robots).

I couldn't get approval for financing for the class because my major was Computer Science. So I switched my major to Electronics Technology and took the course. By then, Windows had changed things and we had so many new programming languages that I couldn't keep up. So I stayed with working the hardware side of things, even though I understand the software side too.

[SoupSarah]

I'm really into coding, computer science, and just general stem fields, I know a bit of HTML and Python and I'm curious if any girls on here are into coding as well and recommend any languages to learn or books on coding to read

To answer your question, we really need to know what you wish to code and what direction you want to take in the field.. Are you just coding for fun, or do you someday wish to get a job out of this.

You say you know a bit of Python, and that is great. For beginning, python is a great scripted language that will teach you most of what you need to know about program design and structure. Running python on a RaspPi for instance gives you access to a whole world of amazing coding possibilities.. look for some good python tutorial websites, a lot are free.. and have fun with that.

If you are more into game development or 3d graphic manipulation. Then personally, I would start with a development package such as Unity. You can program in C# and there is lots of free online resources out there. It is an incredibly powerful programming engine but you can start small and build up. There are some big learning curves in this though, especially 3D vectoring and similar.

If you want to write websites and online apps (think google docs) then your smattering of HTML will probably not go far. Instead you need to invest some time into learning PHP, Javascript, SQL and maybe HTML5.. I personally love coding in this platform. The code runs in any browser and can be very powerful. New versions of PHP even accommodate modern (object orientated) syntax, which if you go towards being a professional will be something you would be expected to understand and use. Maybe the easiest way to start out with this would be to buy a personal domain name (about $15 a year) and rent a web-server for that to use as your experimental platform.. there are of course, many online IDE (integrated development environs) but, personally, there's nothing like getting your fingers wet (so to speak) in real world coding..  Just make sure your webhost allows use of SQL databases, free upload via FTP and PHP integration (at least version 7 or higher).. this should not cost much maybe even less than $10 a month. Again, lots of online resources here.. look for the basics first.. maybe a simple username login system.. and work from there..

Whatever you do, have fun and enjoy it.. remember there are millions of programmers out there that actually like helping people out. So if you get stuck then just ask on one of the relevant forums, websites or <i>>-bleeped-<</i>'s..    (the bleeped was  r e d d i t s ? as in the website where you post things in /r/something ? why is that bleeped?)

[catbug]

hi @oatmilkzombie!!

What kind of coding are you into? just web? or systems/lower-level stuff?
I got my start in web development with NodeJS/JavaScript and C#. I've since moved into security research and mostly deal with assembly and C, which I find way more fun. Like, I never want to write C# or JS again to be honest.

Though my job description doesn't entail being a programmer anymore, I still code a lot and every day. 

If you're looking to learn some other languages, I'd recommend taking a look at Go. It's fast, garbage collected, cross-platform and easy to make things quickly in.

If you wanna get more into comp-sci territory and lower level stuff, definitely learn C and an assembly language of your choice (x86-64 and ARM are gonna be the easiest and best ones to learn.) Learning both C and assembly provides a lot really good insight into things under the hood. Once you're comfortable in both you can really gain a much deeper understanding of other languages, as well as operating systems. 

Oh also Rust is also really fun once you get the hang of it, and Zig will for sure be a great C alternative one day.

[Sarah B]

Hi Everyone

I knew Cobol and Pascal were around but Cobol (1990's) was seen as a dying language and Pascal along with Object Pascal language were used in the teaching environment.  Java when it came around, replaced Pascal.  But Pascal was already replaced by C long before Java got a hold.  The history is a lot more involved and interesting, than what I have just mentioned.

However BASIC (and other flavours) was part of the DOS and that was one of the first languages that I learned.

Love and Hugs
Sarah B
Official Greeter