How to Code

Step-by-Step Guide

1. 1

   Step 1: Don't worry too much about what language you pick.

   Many beginning coders struggle with what language to pick when they first start learning.
   
   The actual language that you start learning on doesn't make a big difference when it comes to learning about data structures and logic.
   
   These are the skills that matter most, and they can be honed with any language.When picking a language, just focus on what kind of development you want to start with and pick an introductory language from there.
   
   For example, if you want to learn web development, start with HTML5, supplemented with CSS, JavaScript, and PHP.
   
   If you want to want to do desktop applications, start with C++ or another basic programming language.
   
   If you make coding a career, you will find that you may never use the language that you first learned to code.
   
   Instead, you will be learning languages as you go through documentation and experimentation.
2. 2

   Step 2: Find free resources online for the language you choose.

   The internet is a treasure trove of free tutorials, classes, and videos, all tailored towards the language of your choice.
   
   You can start getting a basic grasp of just about any introductory language in a day.
   
   Popular sites include Bento, CodeAcademy, Code.org, html.net, Khan Academy, Udacity, W3Schools, Code School and many more.
   
   There are a variety of language-specific starter guides available right here on LifeGuide Hub.
   
   You can find how-to guides for almost any programming scenario on YouTube.
   
   Stack Exchange is one of the more popular Q&A sites for any programming questions you may have. , Many programming languages allow you to use external text editors when you write your code.
   
   Find a text editor that will allow you to see indentations and code markup.
   
   Popular programs include Notepad++ (Windows), TextWrangler (OS X), or JEdit (any system). , Some programming languages require a compiler in order to run the code that you create.
   
   Compilers translate the code you write into a lower-level language that the machine can process.
   
   Many compilers are open-source and free to use.
   
   Languages that require compilers include:
   C C++ C# Java BASIC Fortran , Pick a good introductory project that will help you get your feet wet.
   
   There are a variety of suggestions and tutorials online, but some places to start are basic websites for HTML, basic database and form functions with PHP, or simple programs with any of the compiler languages. , All programming languages have a comment feature that allows you to enter text that is ignored by the compiler.
   
   This allows you to add comments to your code.
   
   These comments are crucial, both for letting others know how your code works and for reminding yourself what your code does.
   
   You can also use the comment function to quickly remove code from your program for testing purposes.
   
   Put comment tags around the code you want to exclude and then remove the comment tags to return the code. , When you're learning as you go, don't be ashamed to look things up and see how others have tackled the same tasks.
   
   Take time to understand why the code is doing what it does.
   
   See this guide for details on how to view the source code of websites.
3. 3

   Step 3: Download a good text editor.

4. 4

   Step 4: Download any necessary compilers.

5. 5

   Step 5: Start your first project.

6. 6

   Step 6: Comment all of your code.

7. 7

   Step 7: Pick apart other programs or web projects.

Detailed Guide

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