How and Why you should Learn Coding
Posted on February 24, 2016 | By Stephen
Coding is an increasingly integral part of our daily lives. Computers have taken over our lives in many ways, and this trend looks set to continue with the increasing capabilities of home PC’s and devices, as well as the levels of automation in industry too. Being a part of this, in many ways, necessitates that you learn coding.
The first step of learning about computer code is that it isn’t one homogeneous group; there are many varieties and they each are more well suited for different things. The coding used to produce this website, for instance, probably used about 3 different languages; HTML (all websites use this), CSS (Cascading Style Sheet(used for styling an HTML page)), and PHP (used to make functionality on a website dynamic). Applications on your desktop will use a different computer code, you computer games will use another, you mobile phone will use another and so on and so on.
Often times you find that the reason why new codes are produced is because programmers, those using the code, are unable to use an existing one for a new task. Because they aren’t fit for purpose, they need to make a new one. Of course, this is no simple task, so you find that those who have resourced to make new codes are big organisations and businesses.
So with this ever expanding list of codes that you can learn, there simply isn’t enough time for people to gain proficiency in every single one, so focusing on one area, on top of learning the theory behind computer code, is a good strategy.
The good news is that learning computer code isn’t something that anybody is barred from doing; many of them are taught for free through online tutorials, in particular the most prevalent ones, such as the three used for programming most websites. If you’re prepared to put the time into learning one of them, it isn’t all that difficult either, but as result of knowing one of them you get a lot of opportunities coming your way.
Even if you don’t want to pursue a job in coding, there are a lot of interesting ways that you can apply your knowledge in your daily life. Want to start a blog like this one? No problem! Just spend a few hours learning the basics and you’ll be able to change colour schemes and reorganise the layout of a page fairly easily.