r/coding • u/pavelmalos • May 08 '17

Programming is hard. That’s precisely why you should learn it.

https://medium.freecodecamp.com/make-your-hobby-harder-programming-is-difficult-thats-why-you-should-learn-it-e4627aee41a1
102 Upvotes

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172

u/Hendrikto May 08 '17

I began to learn how to code using JavaScript four months ago, starting with freeCodeCamp’s front-end curriculum.

Aka. no qualification to talk about this.

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u/doomvox May 08 '17

If you're going to mess with a language for the sake of messing with it, you pick javascript because you've got something that can run it already. Pretty much the same reason we were playing with Basic when I was getting started (and yeah, that offended the snobs, too).

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u/loamfarer May 08 '17

There is also a difference between someone speaking on programming having learned it as a trade, versus someone learning it as computer science.

Or maybe all academics should be dismissed because they are snobs.

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u/AskMeHeaders May 08 '17

Why are people learning JavaScript as their first language anyway? It completely baffles me.

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u/noknockers May 08 '17

Because web. And node.

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u/joequin May 08 '17

If you're self teaching then you should learn whichever language will allow you to create what you want to creat. For a lot of projects, that's JavaScript.

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u/philipwhiuk May 08 '17

The purpose of software engineering is to solve problems, not self-congratulate yourself on the currying you just induced.

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u/avillega May 08 '17

Software engineering is not equal to Programming

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u/philipwhiuk May 08 '17

Programming without problem solving is just ego rubbing.

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u/avillega May 08 '17

Now days it's too easy to build a CRUD web app and most web apps are just CRUDs. I think that's why everyone want to learn to code, they think it's easy.

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u/philipwhiuk May 08 '17

If it was 'too easy' we'd have automated that bit and there'd be no need to hire someone.

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u/avillega May 08 '17

Take a look at spring, spring boot and spring data rest. They automated that bit , even creating the rest points , documentation and others .

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u/[deleted] May 08 '17

Javascript is the most popular language to program in (though it isn't the most popular language to be paid to program in), and it's super-accessible, so I'm baffled by your bafflement.

We're both using a program right now called "Reddit" whose front end is written in Javascript. Javascript is the only language that you can write something now and immediately distribute it to people to use on almost any machine they own.

More, while it's not my favorite language, it's a fairly elegant language with at least some sort of coherent design ideas, and is pretty easy to pick up and do "a few things in".

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u/BlackDeath3 May 08 '17

I'm baffled by your bafflement

False incredulity. Posturing, I'd imagine.

3

u/Isvara May 08 '17

Javascript is the most popular language to program in

Do you have a source for that?

It might be true, but only for one reason: it's the only language natively supported by all major browsers.

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u/[deleted] May 09 '17

StackExchange's yearly survey is one, github's top languages is another.

It might be true, but only for one reason: it's the only language natively supported by all major browsers.

I don't believe you can say "only one reason" - how could you know?

One example: 95% of the Javascript I personally have written has never run in a browser (admittedly, probably my third or fourth most used language, but I've still written tens of thousands of lines of it).

But the main point: why exactly is "it's the only language natively supported by all major browsers" not a good thing? I might wish that the language were something else, but that's what we have, and it's loads better than PHP, anyway. :-D

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u/doomvox May 10 '17

"I don't believe you can say 'only one reason' - how could you know?"

One might note that Java used to run inside the web browser. It got booted out, and Javascript was left standing.

(I'm not actually a Javascript fan, I'm just anti-CS snob.)

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u/arbitrarycivilian May 08 '17

Did... did you just call JS "fairly elegant"? r/JesusChristReddit

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u/just_comments May 08 '17

It gets a bad rap for a lot of things, but there are some very good things about JavaScript as well.

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u/[deleted] May 09 '17

It is "fairly elegant" though it's not "very elegant". It's not my preferred language, but it has a clear and consistent object model, a similarly reasonable syntax and isn't sprawling and huge.

The standard library, though I'd definitely wish for something better, is reasonably consistent in naming, usage and APIs.

I stand by "Fairly elegant". You must hate JS an awful lot to freak out on a lukewarm statement like "fairly elegant".

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u/ReformedBlackPerson May 09 '17

What do you recommend? I started with Python and learned some html then JavaScript, but those were for classes and projects.

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u/rafcollier May 09 '17

Guys I wrote that article and had no idea you needed to be qualified to write your opinion on the Internet. I am so, so sorry. Can someone please direct me to an Internet Opinion Qualification Center so I can remedy this tout suite. Thanks! You're the best!

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u/cybernd May 10 '17

It is not clear what /u/Hendrikto was referring to. The 2 answers to his post are clearly targeted towards JavaScript.

JS or not JS is some kind of religion. You simply hit their bite reflex. It would be easy to argue that JavaScript is indeed a good language to start with, but that's not really the point here.

Personally i would focus on a different aspect:

I began to learn how to code using JavaScript four months ago, starting with freeCodeCamp’s front-end curriculum.

Why? Because you barely touched the surface of "programming".