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How did you get into coding/programming? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I've always had trouble getting into coding/programming because I've never truly dedicated myself to it. Mostly, this is because I kinda always lose momentum to learn it. I'm a heavy FOSS user; I love coreboot/Libreboot and am interested in getting into firmware development. I've already helped test hardware for Libreboot and enjoy learning about firmware.

I have just started to cut out gaming from my life to focus more on this. Maybe I should start with Python? At the same time, though, I feel like I should start with C, but don't want to jump the gun too quick.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

I played flash games as a kid on Newgrounds. There was an option to submit your own flash games and that made me curious as to how they were made. I searched tutorials on how to make flash games and that was my start.

Eventually I got interested in making programs outside of Flash. Still being a kid, I wanted to be the coolest programmer/hacker ever so I learned C (the only language hackers use) and intalled linux (the OS for hackers). I mostly use Python now since I can get projects done much faster.

It doesn't matter what language you start with. Just learn the core concepts around loops, if statements, data types, data structures, object-oriented programing vs functional programming. Those concepts span across all languages and once you know them you can just google "how to splice string in (language here)" when you're using a different language. C is great if you also want to learn how computers manage data and how data structures work from first principles, since in C you need to manage memory yourself and it doesn't come with any advanced data structures built in so you'll need to implement them yourself.

I now mostly use my programming knowledge for hobby stuff. I automate tasks, do programming challenges, and mod games.