Andy White
1d ago
I write about Returning to IT after a long career gap, Practical AI for professionals over 40, and Programming fundamentals in the AI era.
3 Steps For Building Your First Small Program Using AI
Choose something familiar, such as a simple personal expense tracker, and see how much you've spent.
Follow these three steps to get started:
Step #1: Describe what you want the program to do in plain English
For example, if you're building an expense tracker, you might want users to enter their expenses, calculate the total, and see how much they've spent.
Step #2: Break the project into three small features
Build one feature at a time, run your program, and check whether it produces the expected results.
Step #3: Don't ask AI to generate the entire application in one go
Instead, use it to explain unfamiliar concepts, suggest ways to approach failure, and help you understand errors.
And here's something important to keep in mind: Your program probably won't work perfectly the first time.
That's ok and it's normal!
You may encounter syntax errors, unexpected results, and logic mistakes.
When something breaks, resist the temptation to ask AI to fix everything immediately.
Read the error message. Examine the code. Think about what might be causing the problem.
Then ask AI to explain what you're seeing and suggest what to investigate.
Make the correction yourself and run the program again.
Andy White