Codeacademy:
I cannot praise this site enough for what the creators have set out to achieve in the creation of this website. In my opinion learning to program and use a high level programming language is becoming even more fundamental as time goes on. I believe that eventually the learning of a programming language will be introduced in the educational system at a young age as maybe an optional subject to help promote children to learn how to code.
As I attended a very small school in rural Ireland my choices were limited to Woodwork or Culinary Arts but if I was given the choice of a third (computer programming) I know what I would have chosen. When I attended secondary school in England there were mandatory subjects that were rotated every month such as culinary arts, textiles, art and computers and we learnt the basics of using HTML so I believe my theory isn't totally ludicrous. I believe I have digressed enough but the point I am making is more people are wanting to learn to program and it is sites such as Codeacademy that are providing the facilities for people to do so and I applaud them for that.
Codeacademy was founded in 2011 and is a non profit organisation and the site is completely free, therefore there are no trials and subscriptions unlike other sites.
There are six different languages available that are mainly applied to enhancing web development but what you choose to do with you're knowledge is entirely up to you. I mainly used the Python language to enhance my overall programming language knowledge, practising my skills by use of console applications.
Once you have selected the language you desire to learn, you are taken to the exercise page, this is where the learning begins starting of course with the basic syntax of each of the languages. The exercises are categorised into chapters of sorts such as the "Loops" chapter will cover do whiles, for loops and while loops, "Conditionals & Control Flows" cover if statements and comparators.
Once you have selected the language you desire to learn, you are taken to the exercise page, this is where the learning begins starting of course with the basic syntax of each of the languages. The exercises are categorised into chapters of sorts such as the "Loops" chapter will cover do whiles, for loops and while loops, "Conditionals & Control Flows" cover if statements and comparators.
Once the exercise has been chosen you are taken to the exercises you will be learning from, each with an instruction bar located to the left of the websites built in Text Editor. The text editor is where you will be entering your code and running the code to see the outcome. The instructions are easy to follow and with a hint function which will eventually solve the exercise with enough pushes it is very easy to follow along and complete the exercises.
This exercise was taken from the create a Tip Calculator exercise, instructions are on the left, you code in the text editor in the middle of the page, and the output of your program is projected in the window on the right its a simple layout but effective. On the bottom an indication pops up every time you run the code and once you receive the green tick notification you can progress to the next part of the exercise.
As an extra incentive achievements and badges can be earned by programmers for completing exercises, and a percentage of how much of the course you have completed can also be seen, these are nice little features to notify a person on how much they have achieved during the course, and how much they still have left.
As an extra incentive achievements and badges can be earned by programmers for completing exercises, and a percentage of how much of the course you have completed can also be seen, these are nice little features to notify a person on how much they have achieved during the course, and how much they still have left.
Overall i think this site is a very good starting point for people to learn how to program, I set out with the ambition to learn a little more about programming languages outside of what is taught in my course. I found the site fun and useful simultaneously but due to having my own projects and exercises to do for college I found myself taking a long break from using the site. I urge anyone reading this with an interest in learning to program to start with this site and start to learn the basics at least, soon you might even start to seek out more challenging exercises with your gained knowledge.
Here's the link to the site again and thank-you for reading:
http://www.codecademy.com/dashboard
We take what we want! And after we take Peter and the Mongo, we want the gold sucka! Dan Maloney! We coming for you brotha!
ReplyDeleteVery useful information and few links that help me get through the tough life in college!
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