I’ve always wanted to understand what is actually meant by this. I have wanted to get into programming for years, did some basic python and c, but could never really progress. Not necessarily a linux question but I know since most distros come with libraries already, it’s popular to use for programming.
I have trouble understanding what people are actually programming if it isn’t their job. Like, you go to your computer and start working on…what? I don’t know enough to make an entire program or debug a game, so im just unsure what people do especially when starting out.
Also I don’t really want to learn it for a job. I just want to learn it to know it. But im not sure how to apply it to anything realistic.
A lot of the programming that I do for fun is programming challenges like Advent of Code. They’re more like games or puzzles than projects. You don’t have to wrestle with build tools or old libraries or other people’s crappy code or learn complicated frameworks.
I like the art of programming. I like to find elegant ways to express ideas. I like to learn new paradigms and language features that allow me to think differently about problems. It’s nice to find a way to make the code readable by matching the code to the problem statement.
Or there’s the challenge of fluent style, where instead of the code reading in the typical programming style with caveman grammar, you go out of your way to make read like English.