Best to learn?

Viro · 18 Aug 2014 at 21:31

Hi, I'm 17 and I really want to start being able to learn programming and was wondering what you think is best to learn first and perhaps where you learnt it or any tips would be great

As of right now I know HTML and CSS.
Any help would be much appreciated.

robotSocks · 18 Aug 2014 at 21:57

javascript - definitely.

GravyMonster · 18 Aug 2014 at 22:36

Yeah, JS is the logical progression from there. Learn at least the basics of plain old javascript before picking up any frameworks though.

Mynight · 18 Aug 2014 at 22:50

Flash?

seriously though what's said above will be your best bet.

McBain · 18 Aug 2014 at 22:57

Another vote for JS, especially considering the areas you're already comfortable with.

Vegeta · 18 Aug 2014 at 23:17

Just out of curiosity how do you go about self teaching yourself HTML and CSS I would love to be able to create web pages seems like a fun hobby.

Mynight · 18 Aug 2014 at 23:23

http://www.w3schools.com

My favourite place to learn what I didn't learn from MySpace

.

Start with an idea and work out what you need to learn to create it.

Vegeta · 18 Aug 2014 at 23:41

Thank you something for me to do at work when it's the quiet days

Whitewater · 19 Aug 2014 at 00:32

The Microsoft Virtual Academy has a couple of HTML5 and CSS3 tutorial videos.

AHarvey · 19 Aug 2014 at 01:54

w3schools used be a terrible place to learn anything, full of errors and bad practice. Codeacademy is good for absolute beginners, covering everything from HTML to Python.

Mynight · 19 Aug 2014 at 02:36

O I didn't know that

.

It's worked ok for me :confused:

admittedly I've only been into it in the last 7-8 months.

Hopefully it's changed or I've mainly learnt flawed practises. I don't like relying on the "well it works doesn't it" mentality.

mouroboros · 19 Aug 2014 at 08:46

It depends what you want to do - but for general purpose (and as something which will scale into serious projects) - python. (not that javascript will do any harm either ...)

A good first course for Python is the Headfirst Python book which takes you from "hello world" to a simple Android app in around 12 chapters. A chapter a day would give you a good base in under two weeks.

AJK · 19 Aug 2014 at 09:00

Viro said:
Hi, I'm 17 and I really want to start being able to learn programming and was wondering what you think is best to learn first and perhaps where you learnt it or any tips would be great
As of right now I know HTML and CSS.
Any help would be much appreciated.

Could you provide us with any less information?

What are your interests? Why have you decided that you "really want" to learn programming (is there something you want to accomplish, a project that you have an idea for, or are you trying to get into a career in software development)? What do you actually think programming is? (Hint: HTML and CSS are not programming languages.)

Seriously. As you can see, there are plenty of people here who are willing to offer advice, but giving us a little more to go on would be useful.

GravyMonster · 19 Aug 2014 at 09:53

Mynight said:
http://www.w3schools.com

NO! BAD MYNIGHT! BAD!

W3schools is a terrible site. Not only are they trading off the name of the W3C, who have no involvement with them, but the information on the site is often outdated and sometimes just plain wrong. See here for more info: http://w3fools.com

As stated, Codecademy is the best place to learn HTML and CSS these days. CSS tricks also has some nice tutorials and guides too.

xbenjiiman · 19 Aug 2014 at 10:06

+1 for JavaScript. Then when you feel confident enough, have a look at node.js.

FoxEye · 19 Aug 2014 at 22:03

Not sure where this hate for w3schools is coming from. When I've used it as a reference the information has been correct.

Perhaps one of you guys slating it will care to cite some inaccuracies?

Tripnologist · 19 Aug 2014 at 22:08

FoxEye said:
Not sure where this hate for w3schools is coming from. When I've used it as a reference the information has been correct.

Perhaps one of you guys slating it will care to cite some inaccuracies?

W3Fools, which was made by a huge number of respected industry people, used to list tons and tons of innacuracies. Apparently w3schools has managed to sort them out over the last 5 or 6 years though.

Still, there are much better places out there to learn from.

FoxEye · 19 Aug 2014 at 22:39

Tripnologist said:
W3Fools, which was made by a huge number of respected industry people, used to list tons and tons of innacuracies. Apparently w3schools has managed to sort them out over the last 5 or 6 years though.

Still, there are much better places out there to learn from.

So they've worked hard to improve and develop their site. Something that ought to be commended.

I know from experience people are quick to judge and condemn, and negative reputations tend to stick around long after they are no longer justified.

In the case of w3schools, as said, I've used it a lot and continue to use it as a reference resource. I can't say anything bad about it.

davetherave2 · 19 Aug 2014 at 22:39

well if you are sticking with web technologies then the JavaScript, JQuery, Bootstrap et al route is probably easiest.

I would probably also suggest you learn a server side language as well eg php, Ruby, Node, MVC and maybe a client side framework like Knockout, Angular.

It really all depends on what floats your boat and if you are looking to pursue this as a career then learning a server side technology is a must and is down to personal preference. I'm a Microsoft person myself so I would say c#.

As for JavaScript resources I can't recommend Jon Duckett's JavaScript and JQuery book enough. It has helped me so much over the past couple of months and is really easy to follow the concepts, language and features and is well laid out and presented.

Tripnologist · 19 Aug 2014 at 23:00

FoxEye said:
So they've worked hard to improve and develop their site. Something that ought to be commended.

I know from experience people are quick to judge and condemn, and negative reputations tend to stick around long after they are no longer justified.

In the case of w3schools, as said, I've used it a lot and continue to use it as a reference resource. I can't say anything bad about it.

It took other people to point out their mistakes, which they then ignored for many years.

They only bothered to fix them after a huge number of important industry people started to publicly rebuke them, which started to have an impact on their advertising income.

They've also tried to capitalise on the good name of the W3C and even though W3C has asked them multiple times to disaffiliate themselves, they refuse to do so.

I'll admit that I'm happy to see that they've finally started cleaning up all their inaccuracies, but with so many GREAT resources out there, I'd much rather support a site that wasn't okay with knowingly spreading false information until it started to effect the money they earn.