It might sound crazy but I firmly believe that anyone who knows english and has a decent logical brain can learn to program in any language. OK, if you haven’t got the point yet, then this article is not for you. Skip now.

My History

I learnt programming in GWBASIC at a very young age (probably 3rd/4th std). By 8th std, I was expert in BASIC and had also picked up C programming. Today, I know so many programming languages that a new one I can just pick up in 30 mins. How is it possible? I have a simple methodology. Read on …

Think of an App

You cannot learn anything and remember it for  a long time unless you set yourself a real goal. Before you learn a programming language, set yourself a goal. Plan on implementing a real application which will help someone you know.

There are a lot of things in a programming language. Learning all at once might sound daunting to many. Thus, start learning only those things that are needed to get the application done.

Look for a Mentor?

It is very difficult to unlearn things once you have learnt it. Without a mentor you will not know what is right and what is wrong? Learn things correctly the first time. Take help of a mentor and consult him/her on a weekly basis. Ask him/her to review your application code. Ask him/her difficult questions. Ask him/her to explain a few concept that you are not able to understand.

DO NOT rely solely on the Internet. The Internet is a vast pool of everything – good and bad and you couldn’t know the difference.

Make a Plan

Pitch to a potential customer for the application (even it you are giving for FREE). Get their buy in. This is very important. Otherwise you will be developing your application in a dream world with dreamt feature which nobody wants. To get your feat on the ground, you need a customer who will check it out and approve.

Make a solid schedule of development and stick to it. Publish this plan to the customer and follow up.

Learn to Test from the Start

Finally, if you are the best programmer in the world –

You need to write code only once.

If you find yourself coming back to a piece of code again and again and change it, then you are not ready yet. This means you have not thought through clearly what could be needed in future. As a programmer, you have to know how your application is going to be used. You will have to have a testing mentality from the start. You need to come up with all different scenarios under which your application need to perform.

When this happens, believe me – You will be amongst the best in the world!