Learning to program in your free time

One of the biggest barriers, when trying to learn a new programming language after a long workday, is lack of time to spare. 

Having only a few minutes a day to invest for studying, we need to maximize learning by choosing a course that "sticks" at first attempt.

One course specifically designed for occupied people is The Go Programming Language Tutorial - Volume 1 on Udemy.

Its curriculum is short, focused, paced, and recursive. Here, you will not find major projects to do, just little exercises that help assimilate concepts, allowing the student to grow rapidly.

The Go Programming Language - Volume 1, introduces the language using easy examples. Although some advanced topics are covered early on, this volume teaches how to achieve programming outcomes without getting into data structures. Data structures will have its own volume in the series.

The Go Programming Language Tutorial - Volume 1

As an example, one detailed explanation hard to find anywhere is how to write to a computer file. You see, an external program runs in its own sandbox and only the computer Operating System has direct access to the computer hardware. 

The Go Programming Language Tutorial - Volume 1 takes the time to explain the implementation details of writing to file by using illustrative analogies. 

The idea is not to memorize syntax but to understand what needs to be done with the simplest example possible, and based on the curriculum covered in the first volume.

This course in programming is short but recursive and designed to teach.

Go for it,

Tony

Is it hard to learn how to program a computer?

If you have never programmed before, you may think that programming is hard or just "too involved" to mess with. 

Well, my friend, the term programming is so broad that we can't really make good sense of it in one fell swoop. 

The word "programming" has a thousand different meanings. Programming is not something we learn and master from beginning to end. It could take a lifetime to become a master programmer, but for most of us, becoming a master is not a goal or destination; we just want to take advantage of knowing a little, and do a lot with what we know.

Learning a programming language is like learning English or any other human language. Do you really know everything about the English language? Probably not.

We should learn a programming language by slowly putting it to use. Here, going slow is faster. 

I have met many programming students that jump from language to language and years later still can't create a simple calculator, or create a file with a list of their favorite music collection, but they claim to have mastered several languages in a short time. They are not aware of their limitations. 

Being aware of limitations, is a product of experience. And experience comes from creating many programming solutions, as well as failing often in the process.  So, dear friend, go slow, enjoy the ride, and put your knowledge to use.

Now, which language should you start with?

It's up to you, of course. For example, you could go the popular route by learning JavaScript. 

Well, JavaScript is a labyrinth you really don't want to get involved with as a first language.

Instead, learn a new and fresh language, something not patched, a language on the way in, with lots of potential, something minimalist and to the point.

You can visit my post about Google Trends to see what I mean:

• Google Trends: PHP vs Go or Golang vs JavaScript

If I was going to begin my programming journey right now, I would pick the Go language, also known as Golang.

Why the Go language? 

• Because it was designed by master programmers to circumvent many of the problems popular languages have encountered.  
• Go brings wisdom and experience to modern programming, and takes in consideration the latest computer technology -- things that older languages did not foresee. 
• Go is easy to start and simple to understand if you approach it with an open mind, but it may get complex later when you don't study from a well written and well-structured tutorial.

Where to go from here?

So, there you have it, if you are learning a programming language for the first time, or if you are looking for a good second programming language, go with Go (pun intended).

Just make sure you pick a good tutorial, such as
The Go Language Tutorial - Volume 1
on Udemy.

Good luck, my friend.

Tony

Google Trends: PHP vs Go or Golang vs JavaScript

Visiting Google trends, I have found the following contrast between PHP and the Go language (Golang):
PHP :
Go language:

The trending search differences between PHP and Go are staggering. This contrast tells me that more people are currently learning about Go programming than learning PHP from scratch.

However, just to be sure that Go is a trending language, here's another popular language trending graph, JavaScript:

From this perspective, if I was going to learn a new language today and struggle between choosing one of these paradigms, I would invest my time learning Go programming.

This is one of the reasons why I have created a course on Udemy for those wanting to learn the Go language from scratch:

The Go Programming Language Tutorial - Volume 1 is the first video-course of several other volumes designed for those who want to learn Golang but only have a few minutes of their time to invest per day.

The video course is an expanded version of my eBook Go Exercises in Plain Language published on Amazon.

I hope this has been useful,
Tony

Visiting Cape May, NJ

This morning I woke up out there in a mystic town called Cape May. The sounds of the Atlantic, along with those of my own sound choice coming from YouTube, started my day.

But that wasn't enough, I strolled down the road to Out There Coffee, on Ocean Street, and got my Cortado espresso. Out There Coffee is a lovely friendly place, with great coffee and pleasant reception, a good place to start my morning.
After the morning Jo, I began my mandatory minimum 10-thousand steps through the town, greeting gentle souls from all sorts of life.

Cape May, near Atlantic City and Wildwood, is a great place to unwind at any time of the year, but I prefer the off season period because, well, I'm a loner craving for peace and quiet moments away from the New York tic-toc professional life.