In the previous lesson, we did some simple math in a spreadsheet – we started with two values, then computed their sums and averages.
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In the previous lesson, we did some simple math in a spreadsheet – we started with two values, then computed their sums and averages.
Let’s do some math with Google Spreadsheets. The OG of programming is doing math, and the practice of learning how to do math well, is very similar ot the practice of being a good programmer. Spreadsheets are a handy way to see the connections, and incidentally, if that sort of thing is relevant to you, to learn a tool that lets you do some real fancy math.
You might not know it, but if you have used Google Spreadsheet (or its much more powerful equivalent, Microsoft Office Excel), you have already programmed. And if you like using these products a lot, then you know you are hooked! It’s a sure way to find out if you are a nerd in hiding – if a pivot table makes you excited, you know you will come jonesing back for more.
Once you use a sufficient number of software applications, you will notice something new – or at least if you don’t notice it yourself at first, it’s worth being aware of it – that many applications contain other mini-applications within them. The easiest way to understand this is to dig a bit deeper into the one of the most popular software applications out there – the browser.
In the previous “installment” in this series, we looked at how searching on the Internet is a form of “programming.” With Internet searches, it’s not easy to see the tools you are manipulating – they are all computers that are in “the cloud” (more about that later.) If you are going to learn how to think like a programmer, you will eventually need to have a computer at home. But most of us do already and we have plenty of tools on it that we make ourselves familiar with everyday.
Another way of thinking about programming is to consider a task that we all do, multiple times a day – using a computer, of course, but more specifically, by using the Internet. That task is searching for some information on the Internet.
Most of our searches for information tend to be on Google. But perhaps you might not notice that you are also searching on other sites, partly because “searching on the Internet” has become synonymous with the word “Googling.”
It feels self-evident to say this, perhaps, but learning to be a programmer will mean understanding what it feels like to think like one. Everyone comes to this realization on their own, but eventually they do – there is something different to approaching the world using a “programmer,” or more generically, “an engineer’s” mindset, compared to how you might usually do things.
When asked, many programmers will say one or more of these things:
Programming involves talking to a computer. That’s why we call them programming languages, because that’s what we use when communicating with each other – languages.
The act of programming is learning the building blocks of a computer’s language, and usually it involves learning the building blocks of the languages of multiple computers. You won’t necessarily learn all these languages to the same level, but you will learn them to some extent.
Some languages are more intuitive for us to understand than others, and some area easier because we have gotten so used to them in our daily lives. Even when you are just turning a computer on, you are speaking to it in a specific language.