From Building Chatbots To Becoming a Developer
When we first designed CSML, we wanted it to be a very high-level programming language with a very simple goal: making it easy to develop rich chatbots. Little did we know that within months, not only developers would use CSML but also non-developers would get into coding thanks to CSML!
Today, we're talking to Leonardo. He started coding with CSML and then learnt other languages to eventually become a web developer.
Let's discover his story.
Hello, can you introduce yourself?
My name is Leonardo Barbieri I am 20 years old and for the moment I am following a course to become a backend and frontend developer.
How did you get into programming?
About 1 year ago I discovered the world of chatbots and I immediately got into it. I created my first bot with a bot builder and I offered it as a lead generation product for people who build networks ... unfortunately bot builders do not allow you to have full control over your bots and because of this I subsequently came across CSML and started coding.
So when you actually started coding with CSML, no experience before?
Not much, because I was and still am a beginner.
How long have you been coding with CSML?
About a month and a half now.
How long did it take you to get your first (chatbot) to run?
For an easy chatbot...less than 5 minutes, obviously I had to learn the syntax.
Talking about syntax, what aspect of CSML did you like best as a new developer?
The syntax feels like human language with words such as say Question
to ask a question to the user, Button
to create a button, or remember
to get the chatbot to remember stuff.
Right, and on the contrary what has been the most difficult thing you had to learn?
The various functions you can do with bots such as Airtable or Dialogflow. Each integration has its own peculiarity to use within your bots but these are more specific concepts to which you need to spend more time in order to make the most of them.
Well to be fair and as a side note, it’s difficult for everybody, we know about it and we’re working on making it easier.
How long did it take you to understand concepts like variables and conditions?
For me, it was not too difficult because I knew a slightly bit of programming. Learning a simple language like CSML helped me strengthen the basis of programming which is difficult to do quickly with other more difficult programming languages. It was also helpful to understand some more difficult concepts that I never fully understood before.
Do you feel that starting coding with CSML has been beneficial to you in learning other languages like Javascript?
Oh yes! When I discovered CSML I was just starting to learn javascript and I was really lucky because many concepts and simple paradigms are similar plus it allowed me to keep focusing on coding while building chatbots.
Would you advise a friend to learn CSML to discover programming?
Yes, it is certainly an easy and practical language that anyone with a little bit of flyer can learn, plus there is well-made documentation that allows anyone to simply start.
Thanks a lot for your time Leonardo 😎
If you'd like to follow Leonardo's track and get into programming with CSML, here are some useful links for you: