Learning Programming.

[ashlee84]

Hi everyone.

I have an interest in learning programming but not sure where to start. Browsing the internet in the search for the best language to start with is akin to discussing religion from what I can tell. Endless flamewars etc haven't really helped me.

I have basic knowledge of Visual Basic and Python (by which I mean very basic) but I feel like I'm missing the point here. Should I not be learning the whys and how's of programming rather then choosing one particular language?

Any direction to online material or recommended textbooks would be a great help.

Thank You.

 

[Tweaker]

Picking a direction, e.g android app development, website development, will help your choice here.

Web is the easiest to get into as you can start with just a text editor and a web browser, which requires very little of loops, booleans, variables etc. If you want to go down that root, Javascript or Ruby are solid choices for learning object oriented code.

 

[touch]

Should I not be learning the whys and how's of programming rather then choosing one particular language?

Yes.
Any modern object oriented language will do. Once you've learnt the basics of structuring code and the steps needed to solve your problem in one language, it's very easy to translate that to other languages.

 

[philip2009]

I'd also add, follow the crowd, you're going to need help and examples from time to time so pick something that's popular - then there will always be someone who's had the same problems you are having and solved them.

 

[AHarvey]

Python is a decent way to go and you might still be able to sign up to this for free.

https://courses.edx.org/courses/course-v1:MITx+6.00.1x_8+1T2016/info

 

[hargi]

I know exactly where you are coming from. I did VB,PHP,Lingo at uni when webdesign was done using tables. After I left I did work in PHP but I found it to be clunky ( probably because I was using the processors I learned at uni and not the new OOP way. I struggled on but the past years or so I have dabbled in different languages and frameworks. Codeignitor, .net , python and RoR , Swift.
One thing I have learned is that you can achive most stuff in nearly all these languages/ frameworks. Some lend themselves better to certain things and some click better with you then others.

I likje .net because of the IDE but I have found that Ruby on Rails seams to have clicked with me best.
Check out Mackenzie child on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-1HCWbu7iU&list=PL23ZvcdS3XPLNdRYB_QyomQsShx59tpc- he makes 12 web apps in 12 weeks with ruby each video is about a hour long and really shows you how simple it is to get going.

 

[Glaucus]

Got the same question, want to build a webpage, with a lot of it based around mapping (open street map as it's free). Is there many tutorials out there for not only putting maps in which can be manipulated, but also things like importing gpx, creating routes etc.

I did do some asp.net (vb) programming about 15 years ago, nothing since then and as such remember sod all.

Back then I used a book that walked you through how to build an ecommerce site. Are similar books available?

Is asp.net best way to go? back then it certainly was the easiest to pick up especially with the power of visual studios. Is that still the case or has it all changed.

 

[Scotty123]

There are many frameworks out there to use, all will get the job done. Some are "easier" than others. E.g there is Django (Python based) that focuses on fast results with minimal code. You can get results quickly and easily with Django.

Asp.net is a good (and powerful) choice too, perhaps at the expense of being a little more complicated but it's highly professional. E-commerce related API (and other areas) tend to offer their own plugins for Asp.net (c#) and php. Where as perhaps ones like Django are more third party.

Books? This is the age of internet and youtube, there's a wealth of information out there to find solutions to your problems.

 

[philip2009]

Books? This is the age of internet and youtube, there's a wealth of information out there to find solutions to your problems.

Don't forget Stack Overflow! You can either wade through documentation or solve the issue in a few minutes with a Stack Overflow search result - it's true, most of the time I can't be arsed to work it out myself ...

 

[mid_gen]

Seriously, stack overflow is amazing. Doesn't matter what language I'm working on (switching between C++/JS/Java/Actionscript on an almost hourly basis atm, much swearing at syntactic errors), banging a search into google will usually take you straight to a well-written explanation and clear example code far quicker than looking at any language reference.

 

[Scotty123]

Yeah I must end up on stack overflow 10+ times a day. It's that and a combination of blogs near the top of Google search.