And what's currently the most in-demand language/skill?
*I'm looking for an Android app.
You're not going to learn much from a phone app. Specially programming.
"Learning apps" are mostly gamified gimmicks. If you never learned programming, you need a good book explaining the concepts of what you're trying to learn, a computer, a project, and the internet to search when you get stuck.
I know it's the boring answer, but this is one of those skills that it's basically a lot of tinkering, exploration, and nose to the grindstone.
Thanks. Appreciate the honesty.
What book would you recommend these days? I want it to become my main profession. I'm a future expat so I'm looking for a way to sustain myself in Europe. I will be looking for an IT-related job, in case this info could help you recommend something fitting.
Re: orizuzu’s comment on python. I’m just starting out too and I’ve really enjoyed Automate the Boring Stuff. I have the course on Udemy, but he’s got the first chunk of it on YouTube if you want to try it out first. There is an accompanying book but I haven’t dived into it, just watching the videos for now. He does a good job of explaining concepts through simple examples that you can type out along with him, which he recommends. Good luck!
It's really hard to recommend something without knowing what you're interested in. And you only know what you're interested in once you start exploring.
IT is really vast, and some positions do not require a lot of proper programming (besides some system scripts). My advice is to explore a lot of things, and narrow it down later down the line.
With that in mind, if you never programmed before, I would recommend starting with python. It's easy to learn, there are a ton of resources out there, and it's almost the "lingua franca" in a lot of areas (since it's so popular). I'd say most developers these days are at least familiar with python, so that gives you a lot of options of people you can work with.
The fact that it's so popular also means that whatever sub-problem you're trying to solve, most likely there's already a python library that does it, or some library written in another language that also includes python bindings.
Can't recommend a specific book (since I've learn it a long time ago), I'd start by searching "best python resources site:reddit.com", and go from there.
EDIT: apparently python can now be used inside Microsoft Excel. This might unlock some entry level positions to automate the admin workflow of a lot of companies (a lot of them heavily rely on Excel).
You'll need a computer, doesn't matter if it's a desktop, an old laptop or whatever. You'll not be able to actually learn programming properly on a phone (besides theory..).
I like to suggest to get started with online Python courses: https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-python-3 (Needs a free account nowadays) where you'll learn the very basics of programming. What are variables? Conditions? Loops? Bit of object oriented programming (OOP) and so on.
After doing the course you very much have to download Python and work on your own computer (instead of in the browser) if you want to learn and experiment more.
Just to get started with the actual language doesn't matter much. Though at some point you should look at strongly typed languages (like C#) to get a feel for data types. What is an integer? Bool? Float? And so on, something that JavaScript and Python (to some degree) mostly hides from you. One step even further would be C++ where you learn about pointers, how memory works etc. but that's not necessary for the first year or so (and might only be "good to know" if you don't intend to go that low level).
At that point you can probably write whatever little program you want and get it to run. The next step is algorithms, design patterns, how to structure and organize code (concepts like SOLID), databases, source control, security and much more vague knowledge. That's where it gets difficult and some things you'll only pick up when actually working in a team.
the best apps for learning programming are the ones you write. try, fail, try again, keep at it, eventually succeed.
https://www.hedy.org/start
For someone learning programming from zero, it was specifically invented to be:
Hedy is the easy way to get started with textual programming languages! Hedy is free to use, open source, and unlike any other textual programming language in three ways.
- Hedy is multi-lingual, you can use Hedy in your own language
- Hedy is gradual, so you can learn one concept and its syntax a time
- Hedy is built for the classroom, allowing teachers to fully customize their student's experience
Adding to the points above:
At the end of the gradual progression, Hedy becomes vanilla Python.
An aspect of the 3rd point is having an online editor & execution environment, so you don't need to deal with setup.
After completing the Hedy lessons, can follow up with other learning resources like freecodecamp.org or codeacademy.com.
Understood. Could you recommend me a good course, then? I'd like to use these IT skills to eventually find a job in Europe. What field looks most promising to you?
I'm a python dev, not really sure what's most in-demand right now.
Strictly Android? I like SoloLearn. Pretty stream-lined. I've done a bunch of exercises on it to kill time.
Depending on your patience, exercism.org and termux or an in-browser ide.
Edit: I do agree with all the replies saying you can't code on your phone to an extent.
It's definitely not the best way to start but you can make it work for you if you use Termux to run your scripts.
Nano, the terminal editor is alright. Micro let's you use the touch screen. There's also Acode which is a straight-up android app that you can code in.
To be clear, learning to code on your phone is going to be way tougher than on a computer. There's just more hurdles but it's not impossible. I do a little coding on my phone here and there, mostly for little scripts or small bugfixes. If I'm coding big stuff on my phone, I use something like repl.it
I don't know your situation but if a phone is all you got, then you can do it, just expect to be doing a lot more googling than if you were on a computer.
How far has the knowledge of Python taken you so far? Did you study it at a uni? Or self-taught?
Self-taught. I have a little discord server with some close friends and one of them is computer illiterate so I started working on a bot with a few commands to help him pirate some stuff and it's grown into thousands of lines of code and I'm constantly adding to it. Runs off a raspi and I'm getting close to my second rewrite.
I started another bot recently that runs an icecast radio station and the bot handles the commands for that, including managing a SQL database for the music library, downloading music and inserting into the DB.
The two bots are a little buggy but they run really well most of the time and most of my effort goes into fixing bugs here and there until I work up the motivation to rewrite them from scratch with all the knowledge I gained since the last rewrite.
Along with a ton of other little scripts and stuff.
I've done a single python class after the first rewrite. Harvard's CS50P (intro to programming with python).
That's the first class I've finished since I dropped out of high school and I learn better with a project I'm heavily invested in. It's been 3ish years since I started that first bot with very little programming background.
I'm now searching for a junior dev job while doing small database projects for a solar installation company.
I have tried a lot apps. I hate then all. They are full of ads and everyone have subcriptions, rabbit holes for idiots who are ready to give away money. Better learn by books, guides, some youtubes introductions, and by trying some personal project, like even building a minigame or basic program.
