Coding: Where To Start?
If you have never done any coding, you might have no idea where to start. Do you need a PC, Mac, Linux? Do you need to pay for software? How do you run your code? I had so many questions when I started coding. This is a guide that will help you setup your equipment to start coding.
PC, Mac, Linux?
Yes! now you can code any popular language in any platform. There are online code editors like Github Codespaces where you only need a web browser to get started, these are not meant to be your main development environment by any means but it gets you started. Other notable free web based Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) are Theia, Codiad, AWS Cloud9. Subscription based web based IDEs include CodeAnywhere, CodeTasty, Gitpod.
If you are looking for a OS native IDE you have many options as well.
Visual Studio Code - Win, Mac, Linux (Free)
Atom - Win, Mac, Linux (Free)
Eclipse Java IDE - Win, Mac, Linux (Free)
Visual Studio - Win, Mac ($) Community edition is free to use
XCode - Mac (Swift language, development for Apple products) (Free)
JetBrains - Multiple IDEs for popular languages Win, Mac, Linux ($)
Hello World!
Let's walk through setting up your IDE and writing your first line of code. We are going to do this on C# using Visual Studio Code.
First, we need to install the .NET Software Development Kit (SDK) Latest Version, download the installation package and follow the instructions.
Download and install latest version of VS Code
Open VS Code, install the C# extension (This is not required but makes editing code easier).
Open VS Code, select a folder for your project
Create folder called of your preference, I created one called "Hello World" in my Documents/Code
Go to "View" menu and select "Terminal", in the terminal type dotnet new console
This uses the .NET Core Command-line Interface (CLI), it will create the necessary files in the folder you selected previously.
You will see the files created by the CLI on the left panel of VS Code, select "Program.cs".
On the right panel you will see the code and the line Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");
This will output "Hello World!" in the terminal.
Now you can do any logic you like, here is an example of adding up two numbers.
For Microsoft guide click here
You got your first coding experience! Now it is up to you to create whatever you want.
As you can see, coding is easier than ever. You have the tools needed to start right away.
Check out Coding 101 category for more in depth tutorials and how-to.
Looking to learn what software development is and what is like to be a software developer? Check out Software Development Philosophy category.