Trying to learn to code for the first time can be difficult. Finding where to start can be even more challenging. For this reason, there’s a lot of information available. Which advice can you trust? Minus the time-honored traditions of asking several friends, which advice do you take? Which piece of information do you use to make the best decision? A lot of information is available. Instead of trusting everything, we’re going to cut some information and present what you really need to know.
Separating work in software development
When you hear the word “development,” you think of multiple things. Programming is one of those things. It’s important to distinguish between the two. Writing code is considered programming. The other aspects of development include planning, writing, and testing the code. Code also needs to be shipped and supported periodically. When people use the word development, they’re talking about the whole process from coding to supporting a program. When just starting to code, you’re doing programming. To sustain a career, development will be needed in its entirety.
It is possible to become too casual with the comparison of different programming languages when just starting. This is commonly the case with beginner programmers. Programming is rarely the most difficult aspect of software development. Once you understand the design of software, you will begin to see how the different elements of technology connect and how certain pieces change the overall design of a software system.
Bot Python, JavaScript, and TypeScript regularly appear together, and for very good reasons, so let’s take a look at them. Python has a syntax that is a pretty close approximation of regular English, so it’s a great first language to learn, and is also a widely popular choice for data work and automation. Every single browser runs JavaScript, so if you want to build something that regular folks (your target audience) will use, you’ll have your hands on JavaScript whether you want to or not. It catches a lot of bugs before they even happen, so reason why more and more teams are using it for worldwide team work.
The other options are much more dependent on what you want to build. Rust and Go are dependencies for systems work that has a lot of backends. Swift and Kotlin would be the choice duo if you wanted to build native Android or iOS apps. Once again, these are great choices for what they were meant to be built for.
Tools and Frameworks
On the basic level, programming can require a lot of writing code. However, at advanced levels, developers spend most of their time inside frameworks. Currently, React and Vue are most used frontend frameworks, and Next.js dominates shipping React projects because of easy routing and SSR. Regarding backends, Node, Django, and FastAPI along with others cover most of the backend needs, depending on which language, Python or JavaScript, you have more exposure to.
Tooling has changed as well. Git-based version control is standard practice. Writing code with the assistance of AI or programming assistants has become widely used. Coding this way helps to minimize errors and increases coding speed. This practice is not a replacement for knowledge, and users can expect adverse effects blinding fast assisted coding when things eventually begin to break and the coding tool cannot explain the context.
Productivity Habits
Writing small but functional code commits makes it infinitely easier to deploy code to a production ready state, compared to leaving one huge code commitment at the end of the week. Code review, even if you work alone, helps you identify areas of code which you wrote and review yourself, but with fresh perspective, you will notice more mistakes. Including tests can save a lot of time in the long run. But people often include these practices only after the codebase grows exponentially.
Nothing about this is glamorous. But it is everything between the difference of a good and bad project. The good project has a strong and firm foundation. The bad project is a hidden disaster.
Practice to prepare, not to perfect.
Practicing doing too much at once is a good way to burnout. A common rookie mistake is programming new concepts. The problem with doing so many things at once is that there is almost always contradictory information on the web.
You have to take it slow and learn the basics of one language, develop small, simple applications, and then learn a new concept. There is a lot of depth to simple programs because you learn deployment and error handling that tutorials won’t teach.
Also, practice takes time. Be reasonable. You’re not going to learn a language to the point where you’re competent in a weekend. Having a foundation of understanding of a language takes a lot of practice. Learning to code, in general, is just the marketing framework behind a lot of coding courses. Lack of competence after the first weekend is to be expected.
Where This Is Heading
Development work is changing, but it isn’t going anywhere. AI tools can assist with writing code and catching bugs faster, but automation can’t replicate the ability to understand why a system behaves in a certain way and diagnose system failures. This type of skill is more valuable as products become more complex, leaving the most difficult tasks for developers.
Future guides will discuss these concepts in more detail by analyzing proper language comparison techniques, optimized Git configuration, leveraging AI programming tools without becoming over-reliant on them, and more.