🎉🎈 We begin with this programming introduction course 🥳🎈.
There are many programming courses. This one, I warn you, will not be the shortest, nor the longest. Nor the simplest, nor the most complicated. It might not even be the best. But it is the course that I would have liked to have read when I started in this.
The idea of this course is to give a different approach to programming. For this, we will not focus on a particular language, we will see programming as a process, a set of fundamental concepts and ideas.
Of course, during the course I will give code examples in C++, C#, JavaScript or Python, among others. This way we will discover the common aspects found in all programming languages, and the differences that make them unique.
But the most important thing is that we are going to learn to think like programmers. This means breaking down problems into logical steps, designing solutions, and translating those solutions into code.
As we progress, you will see that, regardless of the language you choose in the future, the foundation and the basics are common to all of them. If you know the basics, you will be able to face any programming challenge.
Afterwards, learning one programming language or another will be much easier for you. In fact, if you have strong foundations, switching from one language to another, or learning a new one, will require very little effort.
But first we should see, what is programming? We use the term almost every day, but what does “programming” a machine really mean?
What is programming?
Programming is a discipline that allows us to instruct a machine on how to solve a problem.
Through programming, we can create solutions that allow us to automate tasks, process data efficiently, build applications and software systems.
Programming predates the existence of computers and programming languages. Before electronics, programming was done mechanically, or hydraulically, for example.
Currently, most problems we are going to solve with a machine will require programming a computer or processor (it’s logical, they are some of our most powerful and versatile machines).
To facilitate the task we have created programming languages, which we use to “communicate with the processor” and rigorously instruct it on how to solve a problem.
Programming is not writing code
Throughout the course we will continuously talk about programming languages. In your life as a programmer you will talk about them so much that it’s easy to forget an important thing.
Programming languages are tools, they are not the goal
Get that into your head, programming is not simply writing lines of code in a specific language. Your job, the value you bring as a person 🧍 is not writing code. It is thinking and solving a problem.
But actually, that’s good news! Because programming is much broader, more interesting, and more fun than that. Programming means,
- Being able to analyze a problem
- Understanding its structure
- Abstracting the entities and relationships that form it
- Determining the requirements that must be met
- Proposing a feasible and cost-effective solution
In that entire list, so far I haven’t talked about writing a single line of code. In fact, you could use an existing solution, a no-code solution, or even an AI could do part of the code for you ¡And you would still have programmed!
In summary, programming is a form of logical thinking and problem-solving. It is a skill that allows us to create creative and innovative solutions to complex problems.
If you feel like learning or improving your way of programming, you can join us by reading the rest of the course. Little by little I will add new content and articles to the course.
