Introduction to Programming
How does a teacher tell a student what to do? Or a manager his employees about what work needs to be done?
When a task needs to be done, the employer clearly states the problem statement to his employee, right? Say, the task is to print 100 birthday cards, where the message is "Happy Birthday", with let's say, the date of birth as 1st January! Now the manager would give clear instructions, the instructions could be like the below:
Instruction 1: "I want the card to be white in color"
Instruction 2: "I want the birthday written as 'January 1' "
Instruction 3: "The card should have colorful triangles from left to right"
Instruction 4: "Total requirement is 100 cards." etc.

Now the employee starts reading the instructions and starts building the card. At the end, the card should look exactly as the manager imagined it to be, unless the instructions were not followed or if the instructions were wrong. The manager cannot expect a "blue" card since the instruction clearly said that the color of the card is white, or he cannot expect a 1000 cards, since the total requirement was for 100 cards, correct?
Similarly, programming is a way for us to be able to "speak" to the computer and "ask" it to do certain tasks. The language that we use to do the same is called as a Programming language (ex: Javascript, Java, Python, C++ ) and the process of doing so is called as Programming.
Programming enables us to do so many things in life easier, remember, before 2005, there was no google maps, people had to ask other people, how to reach from point A to B, you would get instructions like - "go for about a mile till you find a red building, then take a left", but the "red building" was just painted blue yesterday and you never reach point B, correct? Google maps made it so much easier for us to find our destinations, but guess what - it is a software program that helps google maps run too! Similarly, so many other things in life, like our phones, our smart watches, smart home lighting, Android auto / apple car play in our cars and so much more - work automagically, thanks to software programs.
Basic working:
A programmer writes code following certain rules and conditions using characters and symbols, the compiler converts the human readable code into machine readable lines, the computer then "scans" the code and understands the instructions and executes these instructions in the expected order to solve the given problem.
To me, a programmer is an artist and his code is the art! You will know what I mean as we learn more about coding, so hang in there!
Picking the right field:
Pick your specialization based on your interest(s), if you like building creative experiences that users can interact with on the browser, Front-end is for you, if you like writing algorithms but don't care much about building beautiful components on the UI, Back-end might be your go-to, if you love both - Trying full stack development might be a good idea.
Alternatively if you do not like coding, but are very imaginative and can solve user problems - UX and UI design might interest you. Software is a field that has something for everyone, don't you think so?
Why do big tech companies care about Programming?
All the software applications built in big tech companies are accomplished using "code", i.e. written using programming languages. Good quality code leads to stable products with less maintenance cost and overhead.
Imagine you go shopping for a mobile phone, couple of things one would filter by are brand, durability, battery capacity, processor etc. right? When we write code we look for clarity, readability, clear logic, optimal approaches etc. These define "good code" and top companies require people who are capable of writing, guess what? Yep, good code. These lead to stable, maintainable products, meaning - good user experiences, leading to revenue.
What are a few programming languages I can start with?
Front-end: If you look forward to becoming a front end engineer, you are at the right place, the future articles in this section will help you learn everything you need to about Javascript! ( You could also checkout the videos on our page that goes in-depth into everything you need to become a successful front-end Engineer).
Alternatively, if you wish to become a backend engineer, you could start with C++, Java or C#. And you guessed it, everything you need to learn is already waiting for you in the respective sections 😉!
Future of programming
"AI is here, why should I learn programming?"
AI assistants make our jobs easier, faster and better, but it still requires prompts, currently, at the time of writing this article, AI is not taking over the world yet!
Good programmers will always be required, good engineers help make good products, hence the future of programming and the requirement of good programmers, emphasis on the word "good", is only increasing by the year.
How to become a front end developer?
Front-end has three main pillars:
HTML, CSS and Javascript. Mastering all three is the only way to become a strong front-end developer. There is more to it too, learning pre-processors, frameworks and libraries, but we've got you covered!
Everything one requires to start from the scratch, from learning what is coding to becoming an industry grade front-end engineer is covered here at LearnYard, But we need your enthusiasm to help you become a great engineer.
Conclusion
That said, are you ready to continue learning Front-end with me? If so, I would encourage you to continue reading the future sections, trust me, I have got a looooot of fun stuff waiting just for you.
With that, Lets proceed to the next section, make sure to carry the same "Josh" to the next section too!