Computer programming is a great skill. The right computer programs can change the world! By writing a helpful computer program and making it available to others, you can help people all over the world do things. How powerful is that - as a computer programmer you can be a force for good in the world!
Microsoft has lots of stuff online to help you get started in the world of computer programming. There are all kinds of videos and articles for you to watch and read to help you start to program. You might want to create a web site or a Windows program. The key thing is all you need to get going is a Windows computer - we provide the programming tools and fun teaching materials for free!
Step 1: Go have a look at the Kids Corner
Here you will find direct links to materials introducing computer programming - what's it all about, how to think about computer programming and project ideas. There are also links to e-books that will teach you how to program using Microsoft's professional programming languages - these are the programming languages real programmers use to build web sites, games, mobile phone applications, Windows applications and even robot control programs!!
The Express editions of Microsoft's professional programming tools are all available for free. You can download all of them or just the ones you are interested in. The key programming tools are Visual Basic and C# (pronounced C Sharp). There is also the Web Design tool - which helps you build your own web sites obviously - and a database program called SQL Express (a database is like a chest of draws - somewhere you keep things safe and get to them when you need them).
Step 3: Download a programming project guide!
There are lots of programming courses and projects for you to try. Each one has an indicator to show who should try it - Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. We suggest you work your way through all of them to get a good understanding of programming. Each guide has a video and a worksheet to take you step by step through the activity - helping you understand a new area of programming each time. Programming courses are here and programming projects are here!
Learning to program is fun. Once you can program a little, you can turn your computer into a really useful tool to help you and others do stuff!
Here are some top tips to help you get going:
1) Break things into small tasks. Every program can be broken down into small tasks: ask the user for input, read the input, test the input, use the input, tell the user the result. If you think a programming task is to difficult look to see if you can break it down into smaller and smaller tasks. At the lowest level you should be able to describe a programming task in a simple sentence, and translate that sentence into one or two programming commands, making writing the program easy.
2) Read more. Programming languages, tools and errors all come with lots of documentation telling you about them. Before trying to use a new command, tool or when you get a programming error, look it up in the documentation and read about it. As a programmer you will never stop learning new stuff and will read lots to help you learn.
3) A second pair of eyes. If you get stuck with a bug in your program ask a friend to help. Often when you talk a friend through your program you or they can spot your mistake. Its good to talk!
4) Bugs happen! Every computer program can have a bug - an error. Sometimes identifying the bug is really hard, even when you've asked a friend to help (3). At times like this you need to go small (1). Test each little step in your code to see if it does what you meant it too. The programming tool you use should be able to help you. Run your application in Debug Mode and use the Step keys to run each command of your program one at a time, while you look at the results to check each command is doing what it should be. You can read about 'Debugging' (2) to learn an important programming skill ;-)