Today is the first day of my coding journey. Before we get started, I want to introduce myself and explain why I am learning to code and blogging about it.
I love to learn and I learn best when I teach myself. By teach myself, I mean utilize the materials available to me to learn on my own. I want to learn to code because I am both analytic and creative. I also want to own my own business and work for myself. I feel like programming will allow me to achieve these things.
I have taken one programming class at the college level. I did learn a little C+, but that was over 5 years ago. Like so many other full grown people (not necessarily adults), I have been agonizing over which programming language to learn first. Three days ago, I decided to learn Java. After three days, I know Java is not the first language for me. I am off to a great start!
I got through half of the free Java lessons at codeacademy.com and I enjoyed it, but it feels like a 20 year old programming language (it was release in 1995 by Sun Microsystems). It has a little attitude and is not as user friendly as I had hoped. Even downloading and installing the Java Developer Kit (JDK) was tedious although this video is super helpful https://youtu.be/LlLRjFptXAY.
After listening to a few episodes of the Code Newbie podcast (you can visit codenewbie.org if you are interested in checking it out), I decided that I wanted to jump into a programming language that is a little easier to learn according to tons of professional programmers. I arrived at Python 3. For the most part, I like to learn using books or other reading materials to learn on my own. At the advice of a couple of guests on the previously mentioned podcast, I decided to watch videos to get started.
Because there are different versions of Python, I decided to learn more about their differences using the video below. This is video one of a 68 video series aimed at teaching absolute beginners how to start their Python learning journey.
After the finishing the video, I feel good about choosing to learn Python 3.
Notes on video one:
('This is an example of print function') is the string. According to the video, you can use single quotes or double quotes to encapsulate the string as long as long as you use an "escape" character such as the "\" (backslash).
At 6:54 into the third video, I am beginning to remember why I would rather learn using a book. Sentdex is clearly extremely knowledgeable, but the organization and teaching style are slipping in my opinion and that is when I begin to zone out. Because of this, I am going to search for the right book to continue my Python experience.
I will be back tomorrow!
I love to learn and I learn best when I teach myself. By teach myself, I mean utilize the materials available to me to learn on my own. I want to learn to code because I am both analytic and creative. I also want to own my own business and work for myself. I feel like programming will allow me to achieve these things.
I have taken one programming class at the college level. I did learn a little C+, but that was over 5 years ago. Like so many other full grown people (not necessarily adults), I have been agonizing over which programming language to learn first. Three days ago, I decided to learn Java. After three days, I know Java is not the first language for me. I am off to a great start!
I got through half of the free Java lessons at codeacademy.com and I enjoyed it, but it feels like a 20 year old programming language (it was release in 1995 by Sun Microsystems). It has a little attitude and is not as user friendly as I had hoped. Even downloading and installing the Java Developer Kit (JDK) was tedious although this video is super helpful https://youtu.be/LlLRjFptXAY.
After listening to a few episodes of the Code Newbie podcast (you can visit codenewbie.org if you are interested in checking it out), I decided that I wanted to jump into a programming language that is a little easier to learn according to tons of professional programmers. I arrived at Python 3. For the most part, I like to learn using books or other reading materials to learn on my own. At the advice of a couple of guests on the previously mentioned podcast, I decided to watch videos to get started.
Because there are different versions of Python, I decided to learn more about their differences using the video below. This is video one of a 68 video series aimed at teaching absolute beginners how to start their Python learning journey.
At 4:47 into this video, I began to wonder...do I need to learn Python 2 before learning Python 3? After some frantic googling, I read this article (https://www.dataquest.io/blog/python-2-or-3/) which reassured me that I do not need to pursue Python 2 at this time. Back to the video!
After the finishing the video, I feel good about choosing to learn Python 3.
Notes on video one:
- Python 2 and 3 are not THAT different.
- There may be less documentation and support for Python 3 because it is the most recent version.
- While this guy seems like a great teacher, he sucks at drawing!
Video number two in this series is going to take us through the process of installing Python.
I am going to go on record and say that most of this video was not helpful for me because I do not want to develop in Python 2.x at this time. I sat through it anyway. The upside? Now I have the Python developer environment installed and ready to use.
Notes on video two:
- It was extremely simple to download and install the latest version of the Python Developer Environment (I am calling it that because I am not sure what else to call it).
- I installed the 64-bit version for Windows. After installation, I was offered the option to let the Python installer automatically update the PATH in Environment Variables (System) which was incredibly useful as the Java Developer Kit does not offer this option and it was the most tedious portion of the JDK install.
Let's move on to video 3. I normally will probably not go through 3 videos in one day, but the next installation in the 68 part series is going to teach me to write my first line of code in Python 3!
('This is an example of print function') is the string. According to the video, you can use single quotes or double quotes to encapsulate the string as long as long as you use an "escape" character such as the "\" (backslash).
At 6:54 into the third video, I am beginning to remember why I would rather learn using a book. Sentdex is clearly extremely knowledgeable, but the organization and teaching style are slipping in my opinion and that is when I begin to zone out. Because of this, I am going to search for the right book to continue my Python experience.
I will be back tomorrow!
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