Learning to program a computer can be a rewarding and profitable experience. It an lead to a well paid career since programmers are in demand and are likely to be so for the foreseeable future. If you want to become a programmer but first want to get a feeling for what computer programming is like and to see whether you have the aptitude for it, your best bet may be to start learning a programming language.
Becoming a programmer doesn’t require any special skills in maths, just understanding some basic logic operations, so don’t let that put you off. Learning a programming language is just like learning a spoken language and it can take some time to become proficient at so don’t despair if it doesn’t come quickly. You’ll need to work out how to achieve your goals through a programming language, which has its own constraints and processes, and you’ll need to practice until this becomes natural.
Once you’ve decided on a language and installed a compiler or interpreter (which executes the code you write on the computer) you can make a start. Start with small, simple programs, such as displaying the text ‘Hello World’, to begin with and work your way up to more complex tasks. You can take example programs and then modify them to see what happens and then start creating your own.
Once you become comfortable with entering programming code to do specific things you should get a book to help with your learning. You don’t need to read the book from cover to cover, start with an idea for a program or function and consult the book to see what you’ll need to do to achieve it. There are online resources you can use as well but you should always try out what you have learned as you go so that it becomes easier to memorize.
There are many courses and free online resources for learning how to become a programmer online that you can uses as well. Some of the courses include videos and there are many that are drawn from university courses. These will help you to decide whether you want to continue learning a programming language. Getting better at programming only happens over time and by spending time practicing programming concepts. As you become more comfortable with the basics you should decide on a project to develop in order to improve your skills and program every day; just like a spoken language, unless you use and practice the skills you have learned you will gradually lose them.
