The Whole Cybernetic Digital Enchilada; Or, Entry Into The World Of Programming

Becoming a Programmer requires class, and above all patience.

You have to teach yourself, not to finish as soon as possible.

Rather, delay as much as you can, while you study all the important things.

You need an operating system, anything that costs money, is not worth the time.

You need Debian, a GNU/Linux based OS, because nobody here will sell you out.

There are other distributions of GNU/Linux, but Debian is the most popular and least annoying.

On a closed operating system, you maybe forced into learning a programming language...

On a documentation website, that is just full of ads, it can happen.

Open Source has a very kind and respectful culture, closed source will try to turn you into profit.

You will need powerful hardware, open, friendly, and beautifully intimidating.

In 2020-whatever the 8GB Raspberry Pi 4, priced at a hundred bucks was the best (You will need a monitor).

The kit version is two hundred, but it comes with a keyboard, neat case, a fan.

Once you put it in a case, it is about the size of two decks of cards.

It comes with Debian pre-installed, and it has extras you can get, cameras, sensors, tiny touch-screen, etc.

You will need to pick your first Programming language, you have to pick the Language of The Web.

Because it will be around the longest, 50 years from now the language of the web.

Will be intricately connected, to the language the web uses today.

Currently that language is called JavaScript, but when you search for code you call it ES2023.

And ES stands for ECMA Script, it is a broad standard, JavaScript is just an implementation.

JavaScript used to be slow, and it got a bad reputation for it.

But all the other languages are worse, slower, more mixed up, too half backed lacking memory management.

Or overcooked, an only in rotation, because large corporations invested money in it.

And some incompetent teachers, brought it into the already questionable standardized education setting.

Once you fell comfy with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, you can explore other languages.

But be mindful of their longevity, and usefulness in the modern world.

JavaScript is a friendly and relaxing language, with syntax that has become very beautiful in recent years.

Plus, because it covers many areas, it always tries to invites you to a new adventures.

From colorful UI-kit or Theme creation, to novel code editors, and tiny Linux command utilities.

And there is one more thing, and I implore you to take it seriously.

Please, choose vim as your code editor, it may eventually become your fallback editor.

But it will always be there for you, and I recommend the SpaceVim distribution because it is simple.

The main thing about editors like vim and emacs, is that they use the primitive terminal for user interface.

That means you can connect to a remote server, and launch the vim it has, and type or program away.

It is also trustworthy, I personally believe, that vi of which vim is an improvement of.

Has been around, since before computers were invented, possibly when Humans first entered the Neander Valley.

And started painting in earth tones, on cave walls.

I am sorry, it will be tough at first, and please resist the arrow keys, just use hjkl... sigh.

Just treat it as a game at first, give yourself plenty of time.

You will never ever, ever, regret having learned vim.

In 2022 openvim.com, had a neat tutorial.

It takes about 20 minutes to skim over the firs time, and if you repeat it, and make some notes.

You won't have too much trouble at all, vim will only try to eat you, if you have no time for the tutorial.

In closing, I would like to recommend, that your first programs are Linux command line programs.

Use nodejs, which is JavaScript, for the Operating System, and not the Browser.

And the commander module, which has some useful examples, to get started, with your first command.

And then perhaps make a little program, that uses the sharp module to just optimize images.