this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2023
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I’d actually start by playing around with the automation and customization functionality you already have. Learn to set email sorting filters, get some cool browser extensions and configure them, maybe even start by customizing your windows preferences or making some red stone stuff in Minecraft.
Computers are just tools. Programs are just stuff you tell a computer to do over and over again. All the fancy programming languages give you really good control over how you talk to a computer but I’d start with the computer equivalent of “Me Tarzan, you Jane.”
What language would that be?
I'm not talking about any particular language.
Modern programming languages are as complex as natural languages. They have sophisticated and flexible grammars. They have huge vocabularies. They're rich enough that individual projects will have a particular "style". Programming languages tend to emphasize the imperative and the interrogative over the indicative but they're all there.
Most programming languages have a few common elements:
Some way to remember things
Some way to repeat sets of instructions
Some way to tell the user what it's done
Some way to make decisions (ie if X then do Y)
Programmers mix and match those and, depending on the skill of the people involved, end up with Shakespear, Bulwer-Lytton, or something in between.
The essence of programming is to arrange those elements into a configuration that does something useful for you. It's going to be hard to know what kinds of useful things you can do if you're completely fresh to the field.
Python and Javascript are great. The main reasons I wouldn't recommend them for an absolute beginner is that it takes some time to set up and, even after that, there's a bit of a curve before you can do something interesting.
If they go and change configuration settings in an app, they're learning to manipulate variables.
If they click a "do this N times" they've learned to create a loop.
etc.
They aren't talking about a programming language, just the graphical tools in the programs you already have.
If you are interested in simple automation for your computer, learn python. If you are interested in simple automation in a browser, learn JavaScript.
I don't know what needs to be automated though.