Really cool things I can make by learning code
Does anyone who has coded before help me add to a list of really cool projects or small tasks I can make by learning code? I have a few of my own already, but I also have a hard time prioritizing these things. I also want to discuss this endeavor in general.
What I have got:
- Scraping for web content, maybe even e-commerce items sold online
- Online/offline game
- Niche social website/message board
- 3D graphics
- ...more
Well not to be funny, but the scraping in and of itself is a HUGE topic... trust me. Also mini databases for things you collect or to sort things out, GUIS for command line programs (making and IDE for Linux comes to mind), games, visualization aids, etc. . Also there is computer vision and a bunch of stuff like that, as well as mobile. All depends on what you want to make. Just go throughout your day and think of what could make you life better, then make it. Right now I am making a p2p app for docs since that is something I need. What do you need?
Hear me out on this.
You asked what programming language would someone else recommend. The answer is as many as it takes to achieve the goal. Very few systems run on one or even two languages. This site for example has at least five obvious languages interacting. PHP, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and some database language most likely MySQL. There is probably also a framework it's built around but that isn't a language as much as a blueprint designed for a language.
You could take the same format and features as this site and build it with Asp, Java, Python, etc. Each having their advantages and disadvantages (read level of difficulty) to achieving the desired results. As well as different associated costs for each variation.
I would suggest starting with HTML, and working up/down from there. Html is forgiving, easy to understand and will give you a sense of how things interact. It's also a little more immediate as far as return on investment. With HTML5 you can even do animation that was for a long time restricted to scripting languages. HTML is a tag based language. Making it easy to read, an example would be:
<html>
<head>
<title>My first attempt</title>
</head>
<!---everything the user sees is in between the body tags on a web page in most instances.--->
<body>Hello world.</body>
</html>
You could copy that right now, open a text editor, paste it, save the file as an .htm or .html file and then use your browser to open it no server required. Hopefully you can see why that it's a good starting point for any beginner. No fancy software required to write it, easy to read, easy to understand, etc. If you think that you can just jump right into a scripting language...well good luck with that as most people who do end up giving up when they realize how difficult it is without an understanding of how things interact on basic levels. Html gives you an opportunity to build your skills to a point where jumping into a scripting language will be easier and be organic rather than forced.
Just my opinion.
Hear me out on this.
You asked what programming language would someone else recommend. The answer is as many as it takes to achieve the goal. Very few systems run on one or even two languages. This site for example has at least five obvious languages interacting. PHP, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and some database language most likely MySQL. There is probably also a framework it's built around but that isn't a language as much as a blueprint designed for a language.
You could take the same format and features as this site and build it with Asp, Java, Python, etc. Each having their advantages and disadvantages (read level of difficulty) to achieving the desired results. As well as different associated costs for each variation.
I would suggest starting with HTML, and working up/down from there. Html is forgiving, easy to understand and will give you a sense of how things interact. It's also a little more immediate as far as return on investment. With HTML5 you can even do animation that was for a long time restricted to scripting languages. HTML is a tag based language. Making it easy to read, an example would be:
<html>
<head>
<title>My first attempt</title>
</head>
<!---everything the user sees is in between the body tags on a web page in most instances.--->
<body>Hello world.</body>
</html>
You could copy that right now, open a text editor, paste it, save the file as an .htm or .html file and then use your browser to open it no server required. Hopefully you can see why that it's a good starting point for any beginner. No fancy software required to write it, easy to read, easy to understand, etc. If you think that you can just jump right into a scripting language...well good luck with that as most people who do end up giving up when they realize how difficult it is without an understanding of how things interact on basic levels. Html gives you an opportunity to build your skills to a point where jumping into a scripting language will be easier and be organic rather than forced.
Just my opinion.
Seconded. You should absolutely learn HTML and CSS before anything else. PHP is incredibly complex and I still don't quite understand it myself. Imagine computer programming as a tower of sorts, with no visible stairs or elevatoes. In theory, you could climb up a window shaft to the next floor (HTML to Java, for instance) but you would have no earthly idea where you were or what exactly is going on in that particular domain. However, if you have the necessary building blocks, you can construct your own stairs, and feel prepared to take on unforeseen challenges.
HTML is good programming practice, as it gets you used to formatting basic code and allows you to alter a lot of different aspects of a webpage locally, without ever having to connect to a server to see your page. After you've mastered HTML, CSS will be your aesthetic arsenal, and is an essential tool in making good, user friendly webpages. HTML and CSS are bread and butter, they go hand in hand. Learning how to make stylish webpages without nabbing a template is incredibly useful.
From there, you should try to learn JavaScript, or Python. But JS is used in an insane amount of webpages.
I'm still poking at learning to code when I have some spare time. I'm not an expert, but I've had some college courses.
I think some of this can depend on a few areas I see for coding projects that includes The Web, Server Side, or for The Desktop. I think someone learning, including myself, would have the most interest in either Website or Web Apps or coding a Desktop Application or Game.
It might help if the OP mentioned what operating system they're using and the current programming language they're working with. If they're a Windows user, they might be interested in C# with Visual Studio. You could make quick simple programs like Calculators for starters.
As for a general project idea, one time I did make a Scrapper that downloaded all the jpg images off of a website. Another one was a quick BASH script to append a line to every file in a directory.
If you are starting out Python will cover you across the most areas of development. To build websites you will still need to look into HTML, CSS and javascript.
Some advantages of python:
- simple syntax, forces clean formatting which will be good practice for going on to other languages
- Versatility. Can be used as a server side language (websites) and desktop apps.
- Lots of extensions available through PyPi such as graphical user interface libraries (wxPython, tkinter)
If you want to focus on web applications, there will be more resources available on learning PHP which is what I went with, however if I were starting out now I'd probably choose Python.
Javascript, javascript, and some more javascript. Why? NativeScript, it allows you to develop an application using Angular (javascript framework), typescript (subset of javascript), or javascript itself, and then compile that application to native device code so the application is no longer browser bound, it can be opened like a true mobile app or desktop application on the user's device.
I used to like Python but I gather the programs it creates are rather slow to run, so I never even tried to create music programs with it.
I'd think it very cool if somebody wrote an ad blocker that the Web page couldn't detect, so they wouldn't be able to make access contingent on disabling the blocker. But as nobody seems to have done that yet, I guess there's some reason why the website always knows what's really on my screen.
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