I'm not a programmer, yet!

But what does that mean? I can write some code, but that doesn't make me a programmer, yet.

Computer programming is, according to Wikipedia is: the process of performing a particular computation (or more generally, accomplishing a specific computing result), usually by designing and building an executable computer program. Programming involves tasks such as analysis, generating algorithms, profiling algorithms' accuracy and resource consumption, and the implementation of algorithms (usually in a chosen programming language, commonly referred to as coding).

The source code of a program is written in one or more languages that are intelligible to programmers, rather than machine code, which is directly executed by the central processing unit. The purpose of programming is to find a sequence of instructions that will automate the performance of a task (which can be as complex as an operating system) on a computer, often for solving a given problem. Proficient programming thus usually requires expertise in several different subjects, including knowledge of the application domain, specialized algorithms, and formal logic.

Programming Languages

The reason I'm writing this post is because I am only, pretty comfortable with two programming languages: HTML and CSS. Which is what I'm using to write this post now.

Computer Code

HTML

This is HTML. HTML is just The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaScript. Read more here, from Wikipedia.

This is very simply, english with some indicators to specify what words do what. |p| stands for paragraph. You use that when you want to start a new line of text. |h2| is for a heading and the numbers after the |h| delineate the font size. |a| is for linking things together, whether that is different files in folders, or websites, or really anything. To make all of this code look different, that's where CSS comes in.

CSS

CSS Computer Code

This is CSS. CSS is, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language such as HTML or XML (including XML dialects such as SVG, MathML or XHTML). CSS is a cornerstone technology of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and JavaScript. Read more here, from Wikipedia.

CSS styles the particular set of code. Whether that's the width, font-size, letter-spacing, and so much more. That's why my site looks like it does. I designed it that way.

To write all this code, you need a Text Editor. I like Visual Studio Code for HTML and CSS. But for bigger programs (like video games, apps and more) those need a full programming environment like Eclipse!

Visual Studio Code

Text Editor

This is Visual Studio Code, made by Microsoft. I like it because it's so easy to use. I've added some extensions that allow for spell check! A necessary item when you spell like I do.

There is so much to say about text editors, so I'll just add what Microsoft says about vscode: Visual Studio Code is a lightweight but powerful source code editor which runs on your desktop and is available for Windows, macOS and Linux. It comes with built-in support for JavaScript, TypeScript and Node.js and has a rich ecosystem of extensions for other languages and runtimes (such as C++, C#, Java, Python, PHP, Go, .NET). Read more here, from Microsoft!

Why I don't consider myself a Programmer

I don't consider myself a programmer because I only use HTML and CSS. I would consider myself a programmer if I used programming languages like Java, C++, Python, and more. That will take some time to learn and understand those programming languages. If I wrote programs, I'd be programmer. But I don't write programs, I write. I write words, take pictures, then type them up and make them look presentable. That's easy. What's not easy, is writing programs.

That's the goal in going to college, for me. That's why I'm studying Computer Science and Software Engineering. That's what I want to do, I want to write programs. I want to work on products that the public use. I want to be a computer programmer. But I'm not, yet.

What's Next?

I'm going to start working on programs, besides my website of HTML and CSS. I'm going to start with Java. I work at Mercer Transportation, as you may know, and we work on a product for Mercer: MercerWeb. We write in Java and SQL. I know very little of both of those programming languages. I took a few classes that taught Java and SQl, but I'm by no-means an expert or a novice. I would say I'm a beginner at best.

That's why I need to push myself to write these programs with Java and SQL, so that I can work my way towards being a Computer Programmer for Mercer Transportation!

Extra

But watch this, I really appreciate JavaScript too. JavaScript is the third programming language that people typically learn when they want to start working as a web developer. Something that I really like is when I know what the date is... using javascript!

So, today's date is: .

The date will change everyday you look at this post. I have very little understanding in Javascript, I learned this from a quick google search!

Todays Date in Javascript