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Developing programming skills is essential in today's digital age. Learning to program involves understanding programming logic, systematically solving problems, and persisting through challenges. Regular practice and participation in projects are key to improvement, as is access to online resources such as tutorials and communities of practice where you can find feedback.
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Individual Empowerment and Increased Labor Competitiveness
In the digital age we live in, programming has become a fundamental transversal skill that drives the functioning of almost all industries and aspects of our daily lives and is soon becoming as important a basic skill as reading and writing in the workplace.
Programming is the means that allows people to give instructions to a computer to perform specific tasks. This is achieved by using programming languages such as Python, Java, C++, JavaScript, Ruby, among others, and defining sequences of logical instructions that the computer can understand and execute. The importance of having programming skills in today's world lies in several key factors, the most notable being:
Gives people and companies the ability to create their own tools that automate repetitive tasks.
Allows the creation of new products, services and technological solutions that improve our lives and transform entire industries.
It can make all the difference in setting yourself apart as companies actively seek professionals with these skills.
Its application allows you to identify and solve problems in a systematic and logical way, as well as encourage critical thinking.
Its real-world application and use are virtually limitless and continue to expand as we move toward an increasingly digitalized society. As our dependence on technology continues to grow, the importance of programming will only continue to increase in the years to come. Therefore, learning to program is not only beneficial, but also essential to thriving in today's society and in the future.
Development of Systematic and Logical Thinking: Fundamentals of Programming
The path to learning to program and developing code from scratch can be quite challenging. Even for those with a strong academic background or extensive experience in their field, it can take time to gain the expertise needed to develop useful solutions. However, this should not demotivate the beginner in programming, but rather make him aware of the importance of forming a good foundation for the success of your projects.
The first step to developing programming skills is not on the computer, but in our own mind. Consists in developing systematic and logical thinking skills, or computational reasoning. Although this may seem unnecessary, everyone can benefit from doing exercises to further develop the ability for systematic and logical thinking. Some of them include:
Play chess or solve puzzles to develop logical thinking and analysis skills to anticipate future moves.
Practice identifying patterns and sequences into a series of numbers, letters or figures to develop analysis skills.
Practice deductive and inductive reasoning solving puzzles and logic problems.
Identify a problem and find its root cause asking yourself the why of the situation 5 times to find the best solutions using logic.
Perform Truth Table exercises that involve logical operations such as AND, OR and NOT to understand how they work in different contexts.
Practice reading and creating flowcharts to describe processes or solve specific problems in a systematic and logical manner.
Perform team problem-solving activities to develop communication, empathy and collaboration skills.
The development of reasoning is a continuous process that requires practice and patience. However, its strengthening is what lays the foundation for not only programming efficiently, but also in efficient and effective planning in all areas of life.
Hands on the Computer: First Steps in Programming
The learning curve in programming can vary from one person to another depending on your level of computational reasoning, but in general, it follows a similar pattern for most beginners with the following steps:
Learn the basics of programming, such as variables (integers, floats, text strings, booleans, among others), data types (structured and unstructured, control structures (loops and conditionals), functions and classes.
Choose a programming language of interest depending on what you would like to start developing, such as Visual Basic (for automating tasks in Microsoft Office and developing specific applications for Windows), Python (for analyzing data and web development), JavaScript (for web development and designing applications), among others .
Get trained with tutorials, courses and official documentation to learn the use of selected language, best practices and delve into specific industry topics.
Install an Integrated Development Environment(IDE) o a Text Editor that helps you write code efficiently by highlighting syntax errors, doing code auto-completion and debugging like Visual Studio Code, Atom and Sublime Text.
Start with a simple program that prints a message on the screen or perform basic calculations to understand the syntax of the language.
Develop personal projects where you solve algorithm and data structure problems to apply what you have learned in a practical context.
Join programming communities such as GitHub and Stack Overflow to share knowledge, ask questions, receive feedback on code, and participate in independent projects.
Study and analyze the code of other programmers to learn new techniques and approaches.
Practice regularly to improve optimization and speed in programming.
Maintain a repository with useful functions and scripts that can be used for all kinds of projects such as transferring information from one document to another, printing and/or sending an email automatically, updating online forms and data in real time, among others.
Programming is a vast and constantly evolving field, so there is always something new to learn. Exploring new concepts, techniques and technologies, as well as learning from mistakes and receiving feedback are key to expanding the knowledge and skills necessary to stay competitive in this exponentially growing field that allows people and companies to scale their operations and automate their processes independently.
Good Programming Practices: Cleanliness, Efficiency and Ease
As projects grow in size and complexity, the need arises to implement standard practices, protocols and processes that allow all parties (including the future you) to understand, debug, maintain and scale programs effectively and efficiently. These measures include:
Use friendly names for variables, functions, and classes that reflect their purpose or function in the code.
Prioritize clarity and simplicity in code to avoid confusion and facilitate long-term code maintenance.
Use comments to explain the purpose and operation of the code, especially in parts that may be confusing or complex to other developers.
Break code into smaller, cohesive functions or methods for single purposes to make the code easy to understand and reuse.
Avoid code duplication by using modularization to call functions or methods instead of repeating them.
Maintain a uniform indentation, spacing, and wording format throughout the code to improve its readability and facilitate its maintenance.
Set checkpoints and perform tests to ensure functionality and detect errors early before they become more difficult and expensive to fix.
Manage code versions and document changes to have the ability to go back to the previous one if necessary and keep a record of all changes made.
Consider the security when writing code and avoid common vulnerabilities such as SQL injection or Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities.
Optimize code only when necessary based on real performance tests to identify bottlenecks and improve performance where necessary.
These best practices are valuable professional skills that will help you be a more effective and efficient programmer, and develop code that can be worked on by multidisciplinary teams and can be used by other programmers in the future.
Conclusion: Solid Professional Development in the Field of Programming
Developing programming skills is not only crucial to adapting and thriving in today's society, it is also essential to staying competitive in the job market and contributing to the development of high performance organizations. Programming not only allows the creation of innovative technological solutions and task automation, but also encourages systematic and logical thinking, fundamental skills in any field.
As dependence on technology continues to grow, learning to program becomes increasingly important for individual and business empowerment. Additionally, following good programming practices ensures efficiency, maintainability, and scalability of development projects.
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About Pablo Tellaeche (Author):
Owner and main consultant of TACs Consultores, Speaker and University Professor; seeks to bring a true and positive Lean Culture and Digital Transformation to every company with which he has the pleasure of collaborating.
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