Despite not considering myself a programmer, I've being using it in my daily work on ecological and geographical analysis. But now I am starting a different project: teaching kids "programming". Actually, the goal of the project is not the technical programming skills, but the broad concept that comes with programming (this is why programming in quotation marks).
By thinking about this "broad concept" of programming, I could realized that I learned much more then automate boring stuff with R or Python...
So, I decided to spread the question and hear from you: Which skills do you learn when learning programming?
Top comments (4)
The ability to break down a problem into smaller parts which are individually solvable. Then arranging those small parts into an overall solution to the problem. And the ability to express the solution in code.
Nice, point!
Basically programming is about converting data in one model to another. Get it from the user, transmit it over the network, store it somewhere and do all the same in the reverse.
You massage it in the middle. But this is why this is called information technology. Computer science and programming manipulate information and is the language of information.
That why you need it for your research, and that's why most scientist need it at some point as a tool. It like maths but on steroids. Math does the theory. Computer science make it a reality.
A bit like other building block of our modern set of technology, without it most of the things we are used to use everyday heavily would not work anymore. But because it is still new, there still lot of interresting new things to do with it. For how much time, that I don't know.
Programming, more than anything else if the craft of our modern world. Being part of that, of the future, is exiting...
But if anything I'd say the data, and direct data manipulation is the next step with statistics and IA. More pure data and what can be done with it, rather than the business logic and administrative software we did in the past.
Thx Nicolas! I linked your contribution bringing the ideas of data and models,and what comes next!