How to choose the first programming language according to the life you want

The programmer's life is easy. There are plenty of jobs and good pay.

Even if you don't want to be a programmer, it's still right to learn some programming. Especially for those who work in web design, digital marketing, corporate and it industries.

But which language should you study?

The Udacity website makes a great infographic (see below) to help you choose. But I'd like to talk a little bit further.

On the basis of their infographic, I will give my advice in categories according to your wishes. For example, I would give advice to travel enthusiasts, designers, IT staff, or other professionals.

In the past year, I interviewed a lot of people, the job interview is not the same. I often communicate with other technology companies that are also recruiting, comparing their notes. This makes me more aware of the long-term development direction of technology (let me tell you, I work at IBM).

How do I find a job anywhere?

Do you love to travel? If so, you should choose a web-development language like Python, and spend less time on the C language.

Recommend some cloud platforms to help you learn: go to high-level websites like Heroku,bluemix and Azure. Knowing Amazon's AWS is good, but the learning curve is steep compared to other choices. As a beginner, you should focus on programming concepts, not how they are configured.

You can find remote jobs on the stack Overflow careers and angel.co two sites.

How to build great hardware

If you're planning to build something real, it's recommended that you have two great prototyping boards: Raspberry Pi and Arduino. You can read this article in more detail about the comparison.

In my opinion, Raspberry Pi is a better choice because the Python language is easier to learn than the C language. But if you want to build hardware, eventually you have to learn C (and C + +).

But sometimes it's easier to buy a cheap, broken-screen iphone or Android phone if it's a personal "Internet of Things" project.

With IBM's Bluemix IoT demo project, you can instantly track the 3D position and vibration of your smartphone without programming. After that, you can modify the Python code for the demo and do something that you think is cool. (For example, hide your iphone under your predecessor's mattress to see if you can find some rules.) ）

BlueMix IoT2 Demo

I am a programmer, how to raise salary level?

In addition to learning a new language, there is a strategy to learn and master more niche enterprise systems. For example, you can learn big data systems like Hadoop and Spark. (There are lots of free places to learn about these technologies, such as IBM's Big Data University or edx.org)

What if my chosen career is not programming?

For it and web design, I have the following suggestions. But what about other industries? Is there some programming knowledge that will help? First of all, if you don't know sumif() what it is, you should take some time to learn an Excel course. Excel tables are much more powerful than you think. Most programmers try to use Excel to calculate (if they can figure it out) before coding. For example, using data in Excel to make a beautiful chart, just a few minutes, but purely programmable, can take many hours (even days).

After that, you should study the following knowledge:

1. HTML: Every Web site uses HTML. (also, many mobile apps are now in use.) Whether you're trying to master WordPress now, or need to set up digital marketing tools, it's good to know a bit of HTML.
2. Css:css, also known as "cascading style sheets". It is a special typesetting language used by Web sites to select the fonts and colors of a Web page.
3. javascript: A little bit of JavaScript is useful when you need to tweak the website plugin for your boss.
4. One of PHP, Visual Basic, or asp: These are very easy-to-learn languages that allow you to quickly make something useful. In addition, they are the language used to write scripts and build websites on a daily basis. Understanding a language like Python or Java is not much help in solving the programming problems that ordinary employees encounter everyday. (because they are primarily used for larger-scale computer server programming, Web application development, or writing system scripts). It's worth noting that after you know JavaScript or PHP, it's easy to go to the Python language later. Their basic concepts are consistent.

I am an IT practitioner, what programming language should I learn?

If you are a Windows administrator, then learn HTML and PowerShell. If you are a Linux administrator, learn HTML and bash scripts.

In the IT industry, you don't need to learn to program to make a lot of money: with an enterprise-class technical certificate or qualification, the salary of the programmer is similar and sometimes even better. But knowing how to write bash scripts is an advantage.

What programming language should web designers learn?

Learning to sass This CSS-based language is a good starting point. After that, focus on learning JavaScript. Finally, learn about node. js, which is not dependent on the browser to run JavaScript. The node. JS market is hot now and will be so for a long time. Do not deviate from the JavaScript domain. Instead, specialize in node. js and learn in depth. (Note that later io.js may replace node. js.) So you want to keep the technical sync updates with the JavaScript community. (Translator Note: Recently Io.js and node. JS have merged the code base, but the author says it's right to keep the technical update.) ）

A final note on the infographic

Udacity in describing the development of JavaScript, I think they should not take this into account, that is, node. JS is just a JavaScript that doesn't rely on browser running. In 2015, the demand for node. JS engineers was unusually high. Without a 6-digit salary (as of October 2015), it is difficult to recruit an engineer with a rich node. JS experience. As more and more people learn about node. js, the market may slowly calm down. Last bit of advice: node. js is more difficult to master than native JavaScript. So, if you're a beginner, learn native JavaScript first and then go to node. js.

Finally, a infographic of udacity ([email protected] compilation) was made.

How to choose your first programming language

How to choose the first programming language according to the life you want