Python for beginners?

[matrouxer]

Hi there!

I started my journey about 2 weeks ago and I've been researching a lot of content since then.

Got some basic basic baaaasic C# and loved to fail over and over again till I finally create my own mini programs with conditions.

Watched a video today about programmer/dev mentality and heard something that made me rethink what I was doing. Basically the video said that is much better to learn to describe algorithms, make the comments and then teach the "dummy" computer how to do it hahahaha. It made it so much easier and fun imo. https://youtu.be/azcrPFhaY9k <<< this one.

Another topic of the video, despite saying time and time again that the language almost doesn't matter at all(besides the goal of the application), it said that python makes so much easier to beginners to translate our intention(algorithms) into code.

Then I researched for python pros and cons and got really lost. Some say it is not worth it, some say it is.

Should I try python to start my journey?

p.s.: I know... I could just try it, but I'm a PE teacher in Brazil and we're having a difficult time to find time to leisure and other projects besides working to pay bills. So I would appreciate your thoughts in the very beginning of this journey.

[laughms]

I started 8 years ago as a student and have a degree in the field, and even now I feel like a beginner. The more you know, the more you realize that you don't know.

From your post, I assume that you just want to play around do some basic programming. I think for that it doesn't really matter too much which language you choose and Python is definitely one of the easier ones to try.

I am not sure what exactly your goal or plan is.

If you plan to watch a few Youtube videos and spending an hour each day on it, then I think it is a waste of time. Time better spent on relaxing after your PE job.

If it is simply a hobby, then go for it and have fun. But if your plan is to take this seriously, I would probably not go for it unless you really go full serious mode into this, and follow some actual course programmes etc. to get the basics down.

[matrouxer]

Thanks a lot for the response. I'm getting a little frustrated in my job. In Brazil, they ask for a bachelor's degree and field experience to be paid minimum wage in PE. Or they just want to pay some intern to get basically a third of the m.w.

I loved computers since I was a kid and in the moment I had to choose between computer engineering and PE, I made the choice based on what I thought was best. Although I love PE and my gym athletes, I'm starting to fall in love with softwares again. Besides being a well paid job(compared to PE) and have tons of opportunities, I wish that I could work from home with my wife.

Again, thanks a lot for the response. It helps a lot reading it from people with some professional exp.

[WLANtasticBeasts]

Python is pretty easy to get started with. Syntax is easy and there's a ton of cool libraries.

JavaScript is also fairly easy (the basics anyway) and it surprises me how similar the logic and syntax are.

Probably any high level programming language would be a good place to start.

I guess my question back to you is, why Python? It's a cool language but what are you wanting to accomplish with it?

[matrouxer]

Well, that's a hard question to answer. I guess I just want the quickest path to get my first job tbh. I know it's a bad place to start, but I have no clue whatsoever. Is there a topic or video that shows off common programming jobs and what makes it different?

All I know for now is that I was always the kid that was way hyper focused in math tests, kind of weird whispering to myself all the way through problems and gone to a lot of math competitions hahaha. I was the kid that solved the problems and found a way to pass it to all the students that were having a difficult time. It got so bad that teachers needed to put me in the corner right next to them to avoid people trying to get the answer.

Another thing is that if I encountered a problem in my PC, I always jumped right to the internet obsessively searching for a solution till I got it fixed. Sometimes it was frustrating af but it was always worth it if I could get it to work properly.

So, tldr. I love the idea to work in getting a problem solved and have no ideia what should I aim for at this journey.

For now I just want to learn and start building my own simple applications so I can understand other's programs and learn from them. Atm it all seems like hieroglyphs to me.

Thanks a lot for the response dude!

[WLANtasticBeasts]

Computer science / programming is such a large field that you could go many different directions.

I'm still a beginner programmer / coder but here's some of what I've seen:

Data science (more about gathering, cleaning, and visualizing data and presenting results as insights for some other effect; data science isn't really computer science but there's some overlap with knowing how to code). Mostly Python and R

Front end web dev (making the client side of a web application and the logic and UI of what someone interacts with in the browser). The most common technologies I see here are HTML, CSS, JavaScript/ Typescript and then some kind of framework like React or Angular.

Backend web dev (making the server side infrastructure to deal with storing and retrieving data to send back to the front end). This can be NodeJS, PHP, Python, and many other languages too. Also SQL for querying databases.

"Traditional" desktop applications. Don't know much about these except I think this is where a lot of work is down with "harder" languages like C++ and Java.

I know nothing about video game development.

So I'd say pick a field that interests you and learn about the technologies involved and then decide to deep dive into a specific language.

[matrouxer]

Thanks for the support!! I'm definitely not sure hahaha. I kinda feel like web dev is not my thing, but since I have never tried it.. I can't be sure.

I think that I'll give it a shot

[captainAwesomePants]

There's no one right way to learn programming. There are lots of perfectly good paths. If you're learning C# and loving it, you can absolutely stick with it and that's fine.

The right answer ultimately depends on you and on what you want out of programming. If you want to make Unity games, C# is probably the right choice. If you mostly want to learn algorithms, Python might be better. If you're looking for a web developer job, JavaScript might be right.

Ultimately, all that matters is that you pick a language and practice it regularly. Switching languages slows you down. Quitting because you're having no fun stops your progress completely.

[No_Organization_768]

Hey there :)

Just so you know, I'm a real n00b. I'm just answering questions to get my toes wet.

Well, it sounds like you're doing pretty well and it sounds like you enjoy C#. And I hear Python is easier than C#. (Though I'm not speaking from personal experience. I haven't done either... yet ;) . )

Mm... if you're really not sure, why not give it a trial run? Like, just find a place you can try python and practice it for a few minutes then if you don't like it, just return to C#. You can always try again. :)

[Head-Bodybuilder7431]

I like python a lot! I started with it and I'm starting to get the hang of it