Elementary Programming

This is an extremely fundamental article about programming for anyone that knows nothing about programming but is interested in getting started learning. This is a work in progress.

Languages

The first descison to make is the language to learn. The following are popular programming languages.

1. C and C++
2. C#
3. Python
4. PHP
5. Basic
6. JavaScript

Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

The next decision to make is what Integrated Development Environment (IDE) to use. An IDE is the software programmers use to program. There are many IDEs and the choice depends on many things, including:

• Operating System
• Language
• Personal preference

The following are the most popular IDEs.

• Visual Studio
• Eclipse
• NetBeans
• Visual Studio Code (very different from Visual Studio)

There are many others but most of the others are designed for specific languages. If you want to learn one IDE that you can also use for most other languages then choose one of the preceding. I use Visual Studio and I am very familiar with it.

Python

Most beginner-level books about Python either do not use an IDE or they use the Anaconda IDE. It is specialized for Python and a language called R. The book Begin to Code with Python by Rob Miles from Microsoft Press teaches Python programming using Visual Studio Code. Visual Studio Code is less powerful and less complicated than Visual Studio and should make learning Python easier than what is taught by most books.

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