30 Days To X

The days keep changing, will you?

The test

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“To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.”

– Thomas Edison

Before reading any further, I want you to try and invent a completely new color.

Give up?

That’s how it felt yesterday, when I tried to write my very own original code. Until that point I thought I was pretty decent at coding. But, once tasked with making something from nothing; I realized how inexperienced I really was.

Good luck
The most overwhelming sight in the world.

Staring at the empty command line actually paralyzed me. I sat for a good 10 minutes, just wondering where I should start. It was like being thirteen and writing my first short story all over again. After what seemed like an eternity, I broke free and started typing code. I typed and typed until I had my program written out.

First try
What I wrote.

 

Unfortunately, none of my code was even remotely correct. I had overcomplicated my task and turned a simple problem into nonsensical garbage. For the longest time, I kept trying different variations of this same material.

Finally I broke down and consulted one of my programming books. I found an incredibly thorough description of what I was doing and how I should do it. Taking this information, I applied it to my situation, and solved the problem.

That's all
All that was needed.

This event was the first real test of my commitment to programing, and I can proudly say I passed.

Is Estonia the next Silicon Valley?

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“While being a former socialist country, Estonia is usually clustered together with wealthiest countries in Europe and the world.”

– Meelis Kitsing

A few days ago, while browsing a programming forum, I saw the following video:

Until watching this, I had known nothing about Estonia. I’d always imagined the tiny country as being rural and somewhat folksy, like a medieval village with lots of accordion music. The video perked my interest, and I decided to further research Estonia’s technological innovations.

What I discovered was truly amazing.

The entire Estonian public school system is teaching children how to program. According to Forbes:

“[Estonia] has launched a nationwide scheme to teach school kids from the age of seven to 19, how to write code…

… For the youngest students, the new courses won’t be strictly focused on learning programming languages like Java, Perl and C++. Rather they’ll ease kids into the necessary skills for coding like logic, which has the benefit of some overlap with subjects like math and potentially, robotics.”

At my old high school all the students are given iPads and laptops, yet there are no programming courses. My school isn’t alone, a survey from the College Board revealed that computer programming classes are only offered in 10% of American public schools.

Aside from the fact that every Estonian programmer will automatically have 12 years experience over their American counterparts, Estonia’s focus on computer science has another benefit: anyone who wants to create will be able to.

Keep your eyes on Estonia. I have a feeling that, within the next decade, we’ll see some major innovations come out of there.

Interview with a Computer Science Major

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Close personal friend and Computer Science Major, Evan Landis, volunteered his time for me to interview him about all things programming.

Right off the bat, I asked the big question: “Which programing language is the ‘best’ to learn?”

After thinking for a moment Evan replied: “If you learn Java you will never be unemployed. Java is the most useful language, it’s cross-platform.”

Since Java is cross-platform (meaning that it can run on any operating system), I asked Evan if the major software companies all used it, or if they each wrote in different codes.

What he explained to me was that the “Big Three” (Google, Apple, and Microsoft) each use different languages. Google writes in Java, Apple in C#, and Microsoft in a whole slew of different scripts (like C++ and Visual Basic).

Table
The “Big Three” and their languages of choice.

I told him that I was learning Python and asked what the major differences between it and Java were.

“Python is a dynamic programming language meaning you don’t have to have classes and objects like Java which is a an OOP (object oriented programming) language. Python can still do class and object programming but isn’t emphasized a whole lot. Java has more of a ‘throw and catch’ kind of relationship with the classes and objects, and methods, and literally everything has to have a class, object and usually a main method.”

Finally, I asked him if he thought was possible to learn Python in 30 days.

His answer reassured me, “Python is the easiest language to learn. You can learn Python in about a month, if you work hard at it.”

“It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this.”

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“We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.”

– Marshall McLuhan

Until starting this challenge, I hadn’t programmed in almost seven years. As should be expected, I had no idea where to start from. Most of my old programing software was either outdated, or missing (when I was 14, my family moved. During that time a lot of my stuff got lost.). Not wanting to spend a small fortune on unreadable coding books, I decided to seek out free online resources. What I found were some fantastic and highly engaging materials. If you have any interest in learning how to code, check out these programs:

While browsing Reddit, I found a thread recommending Invent with Python. This book is geared towards children, making it a perfect introduction to programing. The book’s chapters are easy to work through and do a fine job getting you antiquated with the basics of Python. For the complete beginner, this is your book.

Difficulty level – If you can read, you should be able to comprehend the book.

After a reader told me about this book I decided to check it out. Learn Python The Hard Way is an incredibly thorough introduction to the Python language. While the book does have a slightly steeper learning curve than Invent with Python, it’s still easy to understand and written in a very digestible manner.

Difficulty level – If you’re at all familiar with programing, Learn Python The Hard Way should be easy to follow. If not, complete Invent with Python fist; and then start reading this.

Codecademy is by far my favorite online resource. Unlike the other materials on this list, Codecademy is an interactive website that teaches programing in real time. It’s simple to use, has a sleek interface, and offers tons of outstanding tutorials for a wide variety of languages. And, while it may sound a bit cheesy, I really enjoyed Codecademy’s achievement system. The presents of medals and a progress bar made writing code feel like playing an old school RPG.

Difficulty level – Anyone who’s ever played a 90’s computer game could probably get through most of lessons without much trouble.

What I’ve listed is only a small sample of the many programming resources available. If you have a favorite book or site that you want to suggest, feel free to sound off in the comments.