Since a very young age, I have been fascinated by the thought of tech and how great of an impact it would have in the future. I do not have close family members who are software engineers and thus wanted to explore the space myself. When I entered High School, I learned about programming and how it works. As cool as working on a software to build a program sounded, I did not know where to begin. It wasn't until I realized how many languages there are that I began to get overwhelmed. So I began to research on my own by trying all the languages. Here are the opinions of a High School student on programming languages.

Python: Arguably the most known language to beginners and gaining much popularity, Python is a very easy-to-learn programming language. Syntax, which is basically the wording and spelling of certain commands, is really simple here. Compared to other languages on this list, the code you write is readable and understandable to many extents, which makes it an ideal language to start learning how to code. Other benefits of such simple syntax include that it is easier to explain your code to a non-programmer and also that you can discuss your program with other coders if working on a team project for a competition. Additionally, although it may seem that such an easy language has the primary focus on beginners and is not useful for advanced programs, a huge portion of software engineers- over 8 million according to SlashData’s statistics- are python developers. The language can thus be used to help you learn how to print “Hello World” for the first time, along with helping build advanced web applications and GUI-focused websites. This was the first language that I learned and it gave me a solid overview of what programming is and helped understand some basic concepts that I could apply to other languages.

Java: Perhaps one of the most famous languages out there, Java is a relatively balanced language: it has a syntax which is understandable to some extent but is certainly more complex than Python’s. One major reason this disparity occurs is due to the dates the two were released and the purposes they served to fulfill. Java was released in the mid-1990s, over a decade before Python, and wanted to be the easier language to understand and write than the dominant languages C and C++ (will be discussed later) at the time. It is also relatively easy to grasp through tutorials, lessons, and practice but requires more experience and effort to master. One major benefit of knowing this language is that it is used in the AP Computer Science A course available to High Schoolers. If you understand the syntax and all aspects of this language- including complex ones like polymorphism- they can truly help you gain an advantage over your peers in college. Personally, this is my favorite language because of how balanced it is and how it helps me learn computer science concepts easier than other languages. Having many updates and additions, this language is also used by web developers and is widely understood in the computer science field in general.

C++: One of the oldest and most powerful languages in the realm, C++ started in the early 1980s to have strong system programming from the language C, along with new features that made its overall performance better. As you learn programming, one basic operation that you will use extensively will be incrementing a variable, which basically means adding 1 to a number and is usually carried out by typing “++” next to it. Therefore, C++ is the advanced version of its predecessor, also making it easy to understand and program in general. One of the most useful advantages of this language is the fact that it is used in such a wide scope that almost every program and application would have used it either in its current or past model. In contrast, it isn’t very interactive or object-oriented compared to the other languages discussed here, making it rather archaic. My experience while working on it was simple: the language is really difficult to understand and code in. As a result, I wouldn't recommend starting off learning programming through this language due to its coding complexity. Most importantly, the syntax involved, especially that about pointers, is almost impossible to memorize or comprehend it without looking at the internet or learning it somehow.

Visual Basic- This language might be one of the least popular ones on this list since it is not used by many tech-companies or talked about in the computer-science community. One of its most useful applications for beginners is that it gives experience for front-end developments in applications. Unlike most other languages, where it isn’t graphic-based and you cannot visualize objects on a screen as easily, Visual Basic allows one to add objects to a screen and code its functions. It thus helps a learning-programmer to understand the differences in front and back-end coding and how the two can be connected. Visual Basic is a proprietary product of Microsoft. Also, to be able to code with front-end forms, you would need to download the Microsoft Visual Studio (which contains many languages including C, C++, C#, and Visual Basic) and install the correct parts. Once one starts to learn the language and syntax, it is not extremely difficult to create live actions on the screen, such as making games. This language mainly helped me make games for the first time as a High-schooler and understand the extent of Math and Physics that is involved in making small actions occur on the screen. Also, the applications you make are rather uncomplicated to use or show others, as they can be exported as simple .exe files that don’t take up much size at all. Thus, Visual Basic would be a great language to learn for those interested in learning how the front-end of applications connect to the actual code. The language Visual Basic does not have as hard of a syntax as C++ and many operations can be carried out with not much coding experience at all.

Swift- Just like Visual Basic is a Microsoft Product and is by those in possession of Windows OS, Swift can be used by those who have MacOS instead. Swift shares many characteristics of Visual Basic: it is used to develop IOS or MacOS applications. For those interested in real-applications of programming, Swift makes it really facile to develop applications like those available on the Apple App Store. Apple has made it really for new developers to learn programming using their software. The main way to do so currently is to download the application Xcode (which is free) on a macOS computer and code away. It also has a front and back end programming where you can add objects on a screen and code what the purpose of each object is. However, unlike visual basic where you can add any object wherever you want on the screen (which could also be of practically any size), there are many constraints placed on each object placed on the front-end of the application here, which limits possibilities and makes coding a little more complicated. The language Swift is really versatile and easy to use since the syntax uses direct words and language instead of complicated codewords. It could thus be considered a beginner’s language as well but needs more experience than Python. I used Swift and Xcode to develop apps that ranged from those showing facts (where users to interact through email) to educational video games. In order to actually publish an application to the Apple store, a developer account is to be made through their website, which costs $100 per year to maintain.

How I learned to code many new languages and concepts was mostly through the coding classes available at my High-school and online videos. I truly believe that anyone could start to code without taking any actual courses or entering summer camps since there are millions of videos available online to learn along with hundreds of websites designed to learn for beginners. Also, computer science is a growing field and ideal for those interested in creating new things, who also love mathematics and physics.