Workshops, events, books, robots and games are multiplying around programming. Programmer is even mandatory now at schools. But why learn to program today and how to learn? Learning a programming language is within everyone’s reach. You probably think that programming is a difficult activity, that it does not serve much while programming is an exercise within the reach of all. This is why programming should be made mandatory in school programs.
Programming is an activity that develops several qualities that are needed during studies but more generally in life. This activity is reserved for the moment only to a handful of geeks or students of specialized schools while access to programming has never been so easy with thousands of websites devoted to this art are online and that books allow amateurs to get into computer programming.
The qualities developed by the practice of programming are as follows
- Tenacity
- Taste of challenge and intellectual challenge
- Curiosity
- Logic
An algorithm is nothing more than the division into tasks that follow one another logically to achieve an objective. Take the information in one database and copy it into another. Create small software that can perform calculations. At a time when computing is the common lot of almost everyone, understanding the logic of programming is a very fun activity and would be an opportunity to make sense of mathematics. Mathematics, the only language common to all civilizations, tends to appear as a cold, distant and completely abstract science. If knowing how to count is essential, the fact remains that computer programming can be an excellent way to test the logic of students and to make concrete the mathematical logic.
Programming requires toughness
The main activity of a programmer is to understand the bugs. Why what he just wrote does not work. Of course, talented developers do not have to debug all 3 lines of code, but those who have had the opportunity to rub themselves with computer code will understand. When writing a script, you must cut each action into a task. Connect to the database. Secure this access. Open a file with write permission. Copy the information into this file. Close the file. All these tasks require a logical progression of thought and an aptitude to understand how to communicate with the machine.
Creating lines of code requires patience and knowing how to approach or work around a problem: so many opportunities to develop a sense of perseverance among students so as not to become discouraged at the first mistake.
Programming sharpens the sense of challenge and purpose
Setting a specific goal before any business seems like something normal but in most cases, people can forget about this goal along the way. In computer programming, each task is a challenge when it comes to getting out of your comfort zone or following a specific goal. The coder must be able to set and clearly delineate his tasks so as to obtain what he seeks to achieve and nothing else. Coding a website or coding a program is an opportunity to set challenges, to define goals. It is an intellectually demanding art, but so rewarding when the result is in line with expectations.
Field of possibilities
Knowing how to code opens the field of possibilities. If you create a music group, for example, you will manage your own image on the internet, your website, your social networks etc. Understanding what the purpose of an algorithm is helps to better understand the digital world. Knowing that it is an algorithm that manages the Twitter feed or Facebook posts of your account can understand that you can intervene on it and no longer undergo the initial reasoning.
Do not waste time and put yourself to programming!
Photo by ThisIsEngineering