Coding and its Helping Hand

Coding, the so-called future, the solution to our problems, will continue to make our day-to-day lives easier.

“Learning to code is the single best thing anyone can do to get the most out of the amazing future in front of us.” — Marc Andreessen, a famous entrepreneur, investor, and software engineer.

Can you imagine an AI version of yourself or possessing the ability to know what someone else is thinking? These realities will soon be possible through AI, one of the many aspects of coding.

WHAT IS CODING AND HOW IS IT USEFUL?

Many across the world wonder, “What is coding?” Coding in simple terms is a way of programming or directing the IDE (a coding environment) to perform a significant range of tasks.

Code is being used to make life easier in various fields and professions, more efficient, and better for people, for instance, facing medical issues. Coding is now used for a number of new developments. Code has evolved so much that there are many unique coding languages. Each language has different ways to list the programmer’s instructions on how to execute the code. The number of languages throughout the years has grown exponentially. As a result, the number of coding jobs has increased by a remarkable amount.

Coding is a rising subject that many should learn. Technology is the future, coding being its biggest sidekick. Coding is also used to create applications and useful software. You can code websites, like Youtube, that are used every day. Coding has endless possibilities.

HOW DID CODING START AND HOW DID IT BECOME POPULAR?

Fortran, the first-ever coding language, was designed by someone in one of the biggest hardware and software companies to this day, IBM. Fortran was very popular when originally released. This language was used to do many things, but not as many as you could do in the simpler and faster languages of today.

Although, that same language is being used by many NASA scientists! Even before renowned coding languages like Fortran were made, there was a more popular unofficial language called Auto-code.

Most say that Ada Lovelace was the first-ever computer programmer, daughter of famed poet Lord Byron. That was almost a century back from Fortran’s time. Only a year later, others were rushing to create new coding languages. Fast-forward a bit more, we now have over 9000 languages with almost endless possibilities; in fact, coding keeps on showing there is always something more to be done.

WHAT WERE THE ORIGINAL RESOURCES ABLE TO CODE?

At the time when only a few coding languages were around, it was hard to get a hold of a device used for coding. Even if you did, it would be huge, non-portable, and very hard to work on. Now, even most kids have some sort of a device they can code online with or download many coding apps. This was definitely not the case for many coders who were programming in that era. The resources available to almost anyone make it extremely easy to code in today’s world. People like Bill Gates, a famous coder and businessman, had to code with these limited resources. Many argue that if the new generation had to code under these circumstances, they could not find a way to print a simple statement.

WHAT ARE SOME POPULAR CODING LANGUAGES

There are many coding languages, but a lot of them are not popular enough to be used. Like python, it’s easy to learn, with a ton of different things you can do, specifically a lot of data analysis. Javascript/Java (used for a lot of game development) was used to create arguably the most popular video game ever, Minecraft.

Coding languages, HTML, and CSS are also commonly used for web development coding. Modules in python can be extremely useful for web development and created some of today’s most famous sites, like Instagram and Spotify. Most start with simple modules in Python, or JavaScript and HTML. Some of the more popular and challenging languages are C++, LISP, and C#.

Now, you know popular coding languages and the average resources available at different times, how it started, and most importantly, what is coding! Since anyone can start coding and help our future, why can’t it be you? You can make a difference. You can make the world a better place, and you can be a coder. Who knows, you might even have an exemplary impact on our world!

Samar Bhowmick(@samarsyntax) is a middle schooler that loves to code, solve complex challenges and use programming skills to make this world a lot of fun. All opinions are my own.