A Well Deserved Break

 With the holidays coming up, I've decided to take a break from learning. Yes, I could make the time for whatever was important to me, but I'd rather not stress myself out or overload myself. We as humans need to know when to step back from something for our mental health. That time is now for me. 

Resources Galore

I have found #python Tiktok. If you've ever been on Tiktok, you know the drill. To all those who roll their eyes at the mere mention of the app and wish it would die, I'm here to inform you that this app is more than teenage girls twirking for likes and comments. 

Most videos are fifteen seconds long, but some can be as long as sixty seconds. There is a large variety of subjects that you can stick to if you use the discover feature. I just happened upon one person's page that used the hashtag, and down the rabbit hole I went. You would be amazed at the stuff you can learn in short videos. The biggest thing I got from the videos was actually seeing how what I'm learning can be used in different ways. Everyone has their own ideas of how to come to a solution, and there is often times more than one way to 'skin a cat' (as the older generations would say). 

It was interesting seeing the process of how programmers put their ideas into action. You can get all kinds of code samples to look out, but watching a program be created is another experience altogether. 

Steady As It Goes

I've made it halfway through Chapter 4 this last week. The content on these webpages is easy to follow and well organized with opportunities at the end of each chapter for you to use what you've learned. I would suggest this series of webpages to anyone starting out as it assumes you have no prior coding knowledge. 

I admit that I've not been committing as much time to learning to code as I could (life and other extracurricular activities get in the way).

I'd still like to learn the Java and C languages in the future, but I'm going to focus solely on this until I'm finished with next semester. I'm looking at over two years before I finish my degree, and I hope to have either an app, game, or program created by then. Either would be great practice for what I'm learning. 

Goldrush!

I know I said I would only be updating once a week, but this information begged to be passed along. As I mentioned in my last post, I will be learning Python at school next semester. I did a little digging to get ahead of the game and found the following website:

https://automatetheboringstuff.com/#toc

If you are anything like me and haven't been coding since you were five, then this tutorial is for you. It is far easier to follow and understand than Head First Java. The whole Python language is much more simple than Java even. 

Just beware the indents! 

Yesterday my program kept throwing out an error message, and it turned out that I only forgot to leave out an indent. 

I'm so excited I've found this. 

Holy Dungeon Batman!

My journey of learning programming reminds me a lot of playing Skyrim for the first time. 

I loaded up the game, customized my character, was led through the first quest, and then I was released into the wilds with a general direction of what I needed to do. Of course, the first thing I did was run off into the woods and start picking up random things that I came across. I soon found myself in a dungeon that I was far too unprepared and under-equipped for. After taking days to fight through to the end (I learned quickly to save before advancing to the next room), I finally received my prize without a clue of what to do with it. 

I was determined not to give up, so off I went again into the wilds. It wasn't until about two weeks later that I realized following the story line would have saved me a lot of pain and suffering. Now I easily navigate the world of Skyrim and have even taken on the ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE world of Elder Scrolls Online. 

I hope that one day I'll be able to do the same in the coding/programming community. 

My train wreck:

I received my class assignments for the Spring semester, and it seems they are throwing me head first into infrastructure and data management. I'm hoping that these classes aren't as scary as they sound. I don't even know what these things mean or what context to take them in. One of the classes also has a Python book I'm supposed to buy. These are going to have to be problems for another day. I have two months before I'll have to delve into this. 

Slow Down

 After jumping in the deep end the first few weeks, I've decided to take a step back and slow down. I took a break from Head First Java (for the most part) this last week to give my brain a rest. I plan to resume my course on Khan Academy this weekend and focus on that only for a few weeks. 

I've realized that being overwhelmed is counterintuitive. Out of all my studying and research, I've had more disappointments than successes. I'm blaming this on trying to wrap my mind around more than one thing at at time in the beginning. This is where it really helps to know from the beginning where you want to end up. 

From now on, I'll be updating my progress weekly. There just isn't enough to write about for a bi-weekly update. (Especially, since I'm pretty much talking to myself here.) 

So Much Information

You might not want to jump head first into several different things like I did. Actually, DO NOT jump into C, Java, and app development all at once. You have been warned. This stuff is hard enough to figure out as it is, you don't need to be trying to figure out how an app goes together when you can't even read the language to know what it is trying to do. 

First, I suggest going to Khan Academy and going through their programming course. They focus more on visual stuff in the beginning; drawing shapes and making text show up on screen. This will help you get a feel for how to write code and what punctuations you need to use when doing so. I'm not sure what syntax they use, and it may be a little 'elementary' at first. 

Programming languages are called that for a reason. They are languages, and with any language you have syntax (the set of rules that define what various combinations of symbols mean). Just like with the English language, sentences (called statements in a coding program) have a certain way they are organized to make sense to the computer. These statements are made up of words (predetermined keywords) and symbols. The languages (C, C++, Java, Python) all have their own syntax. 

My Train Wreck: 

I bought a book called 'Head First Java'. I'm only about 30 pages in, and it's pretty good so far. I would definitely suggest this book if Java is on your wish list of languages to learn. (I get nothing for suggesting this book.)

I will post some of the app development resources I have later (Microsoft visual studio tutorials and android developer). Those are on my backburner for after I have learned Java...because I realized I had to take a step back and not jump in this head first. 

-Petunia

Where to Begin?

Spray Rainbow Artwork

When you take a course at school or online, they usually have an organized and well planned out syllabus or teaching plan. Each new concept is built on top of the previous. That's all great and everything, but I didn't have access to these. 

It's the wild, wild west. 

My first step was to google as much as I could about the coding/IT field. It turns out that it is as varied as the freckles on my face (and there are a lot of them). I'll let you do your own googling to figure it all out and decide where you want to be in this vast field of computer language. 

I'm still not completely sure where I'm going to end up. App development, website development (front end or back end), security, help desk...there are so many options. All I know for right now is that I need to learn the basic programming language to get started. (Actually two because it's better to be well rounded.)

There are basically three tiers of programming languages:

1. Binary (or machine) - this is the lowest tier and it is what every language is build from. If you've ever seen the matrix, you've seen binary. To you it may look like a black screen with green ones and zeros scrolling around on it (of course this is just an example). It's the most basic thing a computer understands (on/off). No human can read this. It's just not possible, so don't even try. 

2. Assembly - I don't know how to explain this other than to say that I envision this as the language of the hackers from the 80s and 90s. Think IBM computers, guys in their garages and basements shutting down whole government systems. People that know this stuff are considered "old school" and can run circles around anyone born after 1995.

3. High Level Language - Here's where coding stopped being only for the super math geniuses and started being shared with the average and above average intelligent people. These are programs like C, C++, Python, and Java.

My Train Wreck:

I have chosen C and Java as my preferred languages since they are both used widely.