I Wanna Learn To Code - Where Should I Start?

If you’re anything like me, you’d think that apps, video games and websites were all made from the same coding language - but it turns out that there are heaps of different languages with their own specific uses. The question then is, if I want to learn to code, where the heck do I start? 

If you’re totally new to the idea of coding, it might be helpful to rewind a little, and ask yourself ‘what is coding?’. 

Coding is a way of communicating with your computer to get it to perform specific tasks or functions. Your computer works in a binary system (all those 1’s and 0’s you’ll see if you watch a movie like The Matrix). These days, programs are made up of billions and billions of binary numbers. Obviously to manually type out all of those 1s and 0s would take ages and be really hard for us humans to read and understand, so developers invented coding languages that make the commands easier for us to understand and write.

Different applications and operating systems can read different languages, and some are better for certain tasks than others.

Let’s chat through some of the more common coding languages to start with, and what you can do with them.
 

I’ve never coded before and want something easy to start with

After asking around, most experts recommend you start with something that has a similar structure to the English language, and is easy to test or run. If that sounds like your cup of tea, you should give Python a try. Python was specially designed to be extra-accessible, using a simple syntax that results in having to write less lines of code than other languages to achieve a similar result. 

Because it’s what’s called a general-purpose language, It’s used in professional fields such as programming, web development, machine learning and data science. Big tech companies such as Meta, Google, Netflix and more are big supporters of the Python language, and there’s a huge community of Python users who help each other out on platforms like StackOverflow and GitHub. In fact, as of 2021, it’s the second-most popular programming language amongst developers!

If Python feels waaay over your head, why not give Scratch a go? It’s a game that’s designed to introduce you to some of the building blocks of coding, such as IF statements and loops.
 

I wanna design my own website from scratch

If you’re interested in making an online portfolio, a home page for your side hustle, or you just want to develop your skills in web design, there are a couple of languages you might want to try out.

The first one is HTML. HTML, or Hyper Text Markup Language, is the main language for creating and reading web pages. Your web browser reads the HTML to produce a web page for you to read and interact with. The site that you’re reading this on is an HTML file! If you want to get a good look at HTML code, you can use the ‘inspect element’ tool in your browser to actually see what the code looks like. Pretty cool, huh?

HTML can be used to display and format text, images and ‘embeds’. Many of the website building apps out there like Wordpress, Squarespace and others may have options where you can go in and customise your formatting to your liking using HTML.

I wanna make apps!

If you’re interested in making a side-hustle out of learning to code, app development can be a great choice. Who knows, one day you might make the next Snapchat or Flappy Bird!

Unfortunately if you want to code apps, you might need to make a decision about which platform you want to code for. Android (used on most non-Apple phones) and iOS (the operating system for iPhones and iPads) both use different languages, so you’ll have a hard time coding something across both platforms.

Android is the most popular phone operating system, owning about 70% of the market share - so if you want to go big, you’ll want to code in either Java or Kotlin.

Java has been around for almost 30 years now, and Android apps use a special version of that called the Android SDK (software development kit). The upside of Java is that because it’s been around for so long, there’s a pretty extensive amount of resources available, with courses, tutorials and support forums to help you out. Which will be great, because Java is not super beginner-friendly.

Kotlin is the new official language of Android App Development as of around 2019. It behaves quite similarly to Java, but removes a few bits and bobs to make coding easier, so it could be a great shout if you just want to focus on making Android apps.

If you’re dead-set on making an app for iPhone, you’ll need to learn Swift. Swift is considered to be more beginner-friendly than Java or HTML, because it uses language and syntax that’s fairly similar to English, which can be a huge help from the outset. If you’re using Xcode (which is the program typically used for writing Swift), it also has an in-built tutorial program called Swift Playgrounds, which can be a fun way to learn!
 

Look, all of this might be overwhelming, so let me leave you with some words of encouragement! Whichever language you choose to learn, you’ll be gaining skills in a super in-demand area. Digital skills like coding are used in virtually every industry all over the world, so just embarking on this journey puts you head-and-shoulders above the rest. If you’re still looking for that ‘why’ factor, why not take a look at Digiskills? It’s a crash course on why digital skills are so useful and how you can future-proof your career plans.