What is coding?
As said by makeuseof.com, "coding is the process of using a programming language to get a computer to behave how you want it to". It doesn't necessarily mean that you're writing long lines of 0s and 1s, or even using a language that your computer can understand directly. So that brings us to our next question:
What is a coding language?
A little bit of context: the base layer of how computers work is binary code, which is the 0s and 1s thing that you've heard about. A coding language makes instructions readable and writeable for humans, but also understandable for computers. Sometimes these instructions correspond directly to 0s and 1s, but the code that you write usually isn't directly translatable for your computer, so a lot of the time, programs built into your computer will translate your code into binary. Quoting this article by Chris Castiglione, "it’s like if you needed to speak to someone who in Mandarin, you only know English, and the only translator you could find spoke only Mandarin and French. You would need another translator to translate from English to French and then the first translator can translate French to Mandarin, hopefully without meaning getting lost in the process."
What makes coding languages different? Why pick one over another?
At their core, coding languages do the same thing, as we mentioned above. However, there are many different ways to use computers, and the differences in languages reflects that. Certain languages are better for certain tasks because of the "translations" that were created for those languages.
There are a couple reasons:
- Programming languages are tools, and we choose different tools for different jobs. For example, Javascript is great for building websites, but Python is better for analyzing statistics.
- Personal preference. Sometimes some languages might resonate more with you than others!
- Popularity. Developers are more likely to learn languages that prospective employers use, and companies tend to use widely used languages to broaden their recruitment pool.
Where do I start?
We've linked a couple of suggestions for online courses below! Happy coding! :sparkles: