Are you ever too old to learn to program?

Rameses

Rameses

Rameses

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
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Hello.

My situation at the moment has given me plenty of time to learn something new. I'm 30 years young and have never really done any programming. I can build PC's, set up and manage Windows / OSX systems, but never programmed.

Specifically I'm interested in OS X and iOS Apps.

Where is best to start as a complete novice? (books,website resources etc..)

Any insight welcome.
 
I would say books chap, web tutorials can be great but sometimes you will learn bad habits. Also it can be kind of distracting( for me anyway) if I'm trying to focus I'll start looking at a tutorial and then quickly check my twitter; next thing you know 30 mins have passed and nothing has been achieved.
 
I'm in a similar position to you (though, 28yo with substantial RDBMS experience), and I've recently started learning to program.

I've found the tutorials on 3dbuzz.com very helpful, I'd recommend them - especially the C# tutorials, which provided a great introduction to object oriented programming :)
 
Your never too old to learn, it all depends on if you have the motivation to do it, especially when you get stuck. As already suggested a combination of web and books is a good way to learn.
 
Download the Stanford University iPhone programming video lectures and lecture notes. They are really top notch.
 
AmTechFox said:
just registered on 3dbuzz, currently watching iphone dev videos just to get a sense of whats what.
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I'd recommend doing the first .NET C# tutorial on there (Hyperion Project). It's a different language to Objective C that you'll be using for iOS dev, but it's a fantastic project in that it teaches you the ideas and meanings behind OOP, and the basics of using libraries and whatnot.
 
As other have said try C# first. There's more tutorials and support and will give you a good understanding of OOP before launching into C/C++/Obj-C.

BTW I find Obj-C an awful abortion of a language. Given the choice of getting cancer or writing Obj-C... we'll I'd go for Obj-C. But it'd be close.
 
:rolleyes:

Learn the concepts behind programming rather than "a language" this will benefit you far more in the long run.

There were so many students on my ComSci degree who could only program in java because they hadn't learnt the concepts, and just "learnt" java. When we came to have to use other languages they really struggled to learn/adapt.

Any specific language is a means to an ends to program for a specific platform/device/situation. Pick the language based on what you want to be able to do.
 
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You are never too old. As long as you have the self motivation to persevere and push on you'll be fine.

Most of programming is learning the logic behind it, learn and understand the logic and you'll be picking up languages pretty fast.

Just make sure you pick a language and stick with it, don't keep picking new ones up and dropping them. Stick to one and learn it well.

Obviously depending on what you want to achieve reflects upon the programming language you'll want to learn.
 
ok good stuff thank you, understand the logic first cool but where/what can help me achieve this? :D

typeing programming in amazon/google is overwhelming! :D

I guess I should lean towards C++ though since that is the basis of ios/xcode no?

Would any of you kind people point me towards a good, simple starting BOOK perhaps?

TYVM!
 
You can still make iOS / OSX apps with other programming languages other than C++.

For example, Java, C# or even Python. All can do either, I'm not saying go with these languages, but just letting you know you have options.

Personally I'd stay away from C++ as a first language, though some people will say the opposite, it depends on the person.
 
You're never too old, I'd say focus on either C# or Java, then go from there. It's important to learn the concepts of programming as well instead of the actual syntax.

AHarvey said:
Not sure if they have one on c++ but I know they have ones on c#, programming concepts etc:

http://headfirstlabs.com/
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+ 1 with these range of books. I have two of them and they have been extremely helpful. The books aren't all full of information, it's actually nice to read through, that's coming from someone that hates reading books :)
 
the language is just a tool - it's the programming concepts that you should learn first and foremost

if you don't understand the OO paradigm then you won't get very far

i'd go with C# first - the C# SDK is free and you can develop some simple console programs

Java could be a good choice too, but it's more of a PITA to set up (and nowhere near as nice a language as C# these days)
 
Ive spent the last like 6 months trying to get my head round java, Dont feel anywhere near a good level yet :( I really miss C# I jumped ship to concentrate on android dev. But thinking of going back to C# as its a nice language :)
 
AmTechFox said:
ok good stuff thank you, understand the logic first cool but where/what can help me achieve this? :D

typeing programming in amazon/google is overwhelming! :D

I guess I should lean towards C++ though since that is the basis of ios/xcode no?

Would any of you kind people point me towards a good, simple starting BOOK perhaps?

TYVM!
Click to expand...

No it's a combo of Objective-C and C.

Start with Objective-C it's not difficult.
 
Jimfowler82 said:
Ive spent the last like 6 months trying to get my head round java, Dont feel anywhere near a good level yet :( I really miss C# I jumped ship to concentrate on android dev. But thinking of going back to C# as its a nice language :)
Click to expand...

:confused:

Java and C# are very very similar.
 
Interesting thread. I've been presented with the opportunity to take a career change and learn Java initially. It is something I'm considering after 7 odd years of sys admin stuff.

Not sure if I can be bothered to start from the beginning and learn stuff all over again though.
 
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