This is a problem with all kinds of programming for new learners - actually writing some code is easy. But getting a development environment configured to actually allow you to start writing that code requires a ton of tacit knowledge.
I find this to be the biggest hurdle to new joiners. When I was first learning in my grad job, my company did a terrible job of addressing this and threw us into a test project with no support and expected us to navigate Git and React through our own wits and poor ability to Google. What Microsoft is trying to do by introducing live coding environments into Github is a fantastic step forward.
As a consequence what one should actually strive for, if one is aiming to become a professional software developer, is to have a good process for mastering these types of “configuration” tasks. Understanding why language ecosystems are organized the way they are, understanding the trade-offs involved etc. I believe, will make you a significantly more productive developer.
It’s where I see a lot of junior developers plateauing. They keep “banging their head against the wall until it works” instead of carefully unpacking why things are breaking in order to update their mental models.
There's no mastering configuration tasks, because it's all arbitrary unilateral decisions made by randos and committees of randos. There's no logic to finding out which arcane formatted strings need to be placed where in which text files in which directories, otherwise every single thing fails out of the gate. I used to complain about having to spend my time on this even as a senior.
I find this to be the biggest hurdle to new joiners. When I was first learning in my grad job, my company did a terrible job of addressing this and threw us into a test project with no support and expected us to navigate Git and React through our own wits and poor ability to Google. What Microsoft is trying to do by introducing live coding environments into Github is a fantastic step forward.