Is learning to code becoming harder? originally appeared on Quora, the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus.
Learning to code is easier than it has ever been.
• Teaching methods are more polished. Whether you’re self-teaching or taking formal courses, the information and examples available today are better and more varied than ever.
• Development tools are better. When I started coding, IDEs didn’t exist. Now they’re taken for granted: a single facility which includes an interface/program builder, compiler, support libraries, documentation, debugging and profiling. It’s paradise! Intellisense alone… so much easier.
• You can do remarkable things with very little work. You can draw GUIs and graphics, handle input, make and play audio and video, and even control devices so much easier now!
• Every question has answers online. If you get stuck, a few keystrokes at a search engine (provided you know how to phrase questions) quickly and easily finds the answer to almost every question, common or obscure. And often, entire articles discussing the question, why it’s interesting, and different answers to it. I (heart) the internet.
Learning to code is becoming easier. Developing typical apps is becoming easier.
At the same time, the ease of learning to develop and universal access to distribution of software means all the easy things have been done. Even if you can program, there’s a lot more work required to make an application that stands out. But learning how to do the programming? Easier.
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