A Dive into Skills, Technologies, and Tools of Computer Science
Developed through the technological architecture of electrical engineering and the computational language of mathematics, the science of computer technology has provided considerable recognition and financial gain for many of its well deserving pioneers. Computer Science has become an astounding and stretched-out field in today’s era.
As the world of technology grows, the importance of computer science also expands. Computer science and technology has much to offer in anyone of its many career paths. Thus, to know the few reasons for learning and developing your interest in Computer Science along with the it’s elemental knowledge refer here.
Moving further let’s see what it takes to enhance the skillsets in computer science. Starting from below are some of the key skills and techniques to help you get started.
1 | Programming Languages
Whether you want to improve your job prospects or just want to learn more about how computers work, learning programming languages is a great way to improve your skills. I won’t say you have to learn how to code but you should at least learn the basics and how to run some programs. So, what exactly is a programming language? Well! Simply stated, it is a notation designed to connect instructions to a machine or a computer that is mainly used to control the performance of a machine or to express the algorithms. At present, thousand of programming languages have been implemented. The description of a programming language is usually split into the two components of syntax (form) and semantics (meaning). Programming languages can be further classified as:
A quick glance at the evolution of programming languages:
A quick tip to any beginner for getting started with programming languages would be to understand the foundations. Specially, algorithms and flowcharts. In the case of choosing the language to start learning, my personal recommendation would be- C, Python, JavaScript.
2 | Internet Technologies
Odds are you might have seen one or more of these acronyms to date, IP, DHCP, DNS, TCP, UDP, ICMP, and so many more. These are all examples of something called protocols. But before that, let us know exactly the internet works?
Now, a protocol is a set of rules that governs the communications between computers on a network and in order for two computers to talk to each other, they must be speaking the same language.
3 | Web Development
Web development refers to building, creating, and an maintaining websites. It includes aspects such as web design, web publishing, web programming, database management and requires use of scripting languages- both at the server end as well as at client end. If you want to make web pages, start a career in web design, web development or even web journalism, the basic knowledge of HTML and CSS is a must have.
HTML abbreviation for Hyper Text Mark-up Language, is a Mark-up Language to put together the structure of a web page. Think of HTML as the skeleton of a webpage. There is no website or webpage on the internet that does not use HTML. Without HTML, the web would not be possible.
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. Think of it as the skin and clothing for the HTML webpage. CSS is simply a list of style properties that get applied to HTML elements. Just the way clothing is put onto a human body, similarly, CSS styling is applied on HTML elements. CSS enhances the colours, layout, and styling of the HTML webpage, making it look more beautiful and professional.
JavaScript (JS) is a lightweight, interpreted, or just-in-time compiled programming language with first-class functions.
Unlike programming languages, HTML and CSS have no competition. Here’s the roadmap for an aspiring web developer:
Please note:
HTML is not a programming language. Please don’t confuse the two concepts. A programming language has logical and computational capability to instruct a computer to do some operations. A mark-up language, on the other hand, is static and is only used to organize data in a specific structure. HTML in our case is used to give structure to a web page.
4 | Technology Stacks
Humans are constantly finding fault or opportunities for improvement in languages that we’ve used for years, in server software that we’ve used for years, and intuitively improving on it. Thus, the reality is that staying current with this whole world takes some effort even as the fundamentals largely remain constant. So what we’ll try to do here is give you a sense of some of the languages, some of the frameworks, some of the libraries, some of the overarching design decisions that are both in vogue and both here to stay right now, as well as take the lid off of some of these technologies and give you a better understanding of how some of the fundamental types of technologies from which you can choose actually work.
A technology stack is a combination of software applications, frameworks, and programming languages that realize some aspects of the program. Structure-wise, the technology stack consists of two equal elements. One is front-end or client-side; the other is server-side or back-end. When Combined, they create a stack.
Full-stack development refers to the development of both client-side and server-side aspects of a website. The professionals who do these are called your full-stack developers.
5 | Cloud Computing
The usage of the term “cloud computing” is interesting: it’s a widespread buzz word, yet its true meaning is rather nebulous for the average person.
Cloud computing, in its simplest form, can be thought of as simply outsourcing the hosting of your applications and outsourcing the hosting of your physical servers to someone else- in some other form, it means renting space and renting time on someone else’s computers.
To learn more you can check out this video:
Some quick tips:
- As a beginner, focus more on basics- semantics, data types, Logic building, algorithms and flowcharts.
- Start with C or Python as your first language. Practise as much as you can.
- For people interested in web development, initiate with HTML & CSS.
- Once Confident enough towards programming languages, You can begin with databases parallelly.
That’s it for now!
Feel free to reach out if you have questions or want additional advice.
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