Step 25 - What Next?¶
By now, you should have completed your programming journey and the content of this course!
Take a moment to congratulate yourself on your hard work and dedication. You have learned a lot and should be proud of your accomplishments!
First, Thank you¶
Being able to build and share this course material with you means a lot to me - the journey of learning to enjoy programming is exciting for me! A special thanks to the students who signed up for my first 3010 class. Without you, this wouldn't exist.
I don't expect all of you to fall in love with programming like I have, but I hope that at least you've learned about and have grown to appreciate the role that programming plays in your life.
Looking for more?¶
There will be likely those among you who have experienced the "spark" of programming - that feeling of excitement when you build something that works. If you're one of those people, I want to encourage you to keep learning and growing as a programmer. This can be self-directed, and as fast or slow as you want it to be!
The feeling like you can build anything is incredibly exciting. In the sections below, I'm sharing the resources for learning I've found over the years. I've only been able to use a small fraction of them, but all of these places are there for you to go, learn, and dream!
JavaScript¶
You might want to dig into JavaScript if you like the idea of building something awesome that lives on the web. JavaScript is the language of the web, and it's a great place to start if you want to build websites, web apps, or even mobile apps.
To learn about JavaScript, I'd recommend you first go to Mozilla's Developer Network (MDN) and check out their JavaScript Guide. It's a fantastic place to start.
If you get the hang of JavaScript, you might want to check out React, a JavaScript library for building user interfaces. It's a great way to build interactive web apps - and many of the apps you've used run on React.
More Python¶
If you want to keep learning Python, I'd recommend you check out the Python documentation. It's a great place to learn more about the language and its features.
There are really great libraries you can dig into as well for diving into some interesting topics in Python - one of which is Django, a web framework for building web applications. You can check out the Django documentation to learn more.
Data Science¶
If you're interested in data science, you might want to check out Kaggle. It's a great place to learn about data science and machine learning, and they have a lot of great resources to help you get started.
Machine Learning¶
Related to Data Science, if you're interested in machine learning, you might want to check out TensorFlow. It's a great library for building machine learning models, and they have a lot of great resources to help you get started.
For something a bit more "wild west", check out any of the following links:
Game Development¶
If you're interested in game development, you might want to check out Unity. It's a great platform for building games, and they have a lot of great resources to help you get started - I've used and coached students through their tutorials and they're fantastic, check those out here: Unity Learn.
If you're interested in a slightly more difficult game development platform, you might want to check out Unreal Engine. It's a great platform for building games, and they have a lot of great resources to help you get started.
Mobile Apps with Flutter¶
If you're interested in building mobile apps, you might want to check out Flutter. It's a great platform for building mobile apps, and they have a lot of great resources to help you get started.
Flutter runs on the Dart programming language, a python-like language that's easy to learn, developed by Google. You can check out the Dart documentation to learn more.
Take on the Universe with Rust¶
If you're interested in a language that's a bit more challenging, you might want to check out Rust. It's a great language for building systems software, and it's designed to be safe, concurrent, and practical.
Rust is absolutely one of the most important programming languages of the future, and if you're really excited about coding, I'd definitely recommend you check it out!
If you want to dive into learning, check out the book.
Finally: Free and Open Source¶
A final thought I want to leave you with is the power of free and open source software. The programming community - the world - is built on top of free and open source software. It's a powerful idea that anyone can use, modify, and distribute software for free.
Check out the GNU Operating System's Philosophy page and the GNU GPL 3 license "why" page. These both provide detailed and practical explanations of why free and open source software is so important.
The story of working in the open source space is fascinating to me, if it sounds interesting to you, I highly recommend checking out this book, Working in Public.
If you want to contribute to the open source community, check out GitHub.