How to Become a Programmer: Everything (Non-Technical) You Need to Know to Start Making Money Writing Code

What is Computer Programming?

If you’ve never written software before, the topic seems like a huge, foreboding black hole. When I tell people I’m a software developer I typically receive blank stares followed by a change of topic.

But it’s really not so complicated. Computer programming, also known as programming, coding, or software development (there are subtle differences between each term), is the process of writing instructions that a computer can execute.

As an example: if you’ve ever written an Excel macro, you could say you’ve programmed a computer.

If you’ve ever built an HTML page you could say you’ve written code (some would argue with this, but it fits the definition).

And if you’ve ever written code in a mainstream programming language like BASIC, Pascal, C, Java, JavaScript, or PHP, you’ve definitely been inaugurated into the world of computer programming.