Would like to learn a bit of programming

FeFiDoh

FeFiDoh

FeFiDoh

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Joined
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Swindon
Did a course with the Open University and in it I did some stuff in scratch, pretty basic (kids use it!) but it was kind of enjoyable to get working programs.

Anyone recommend the next step I could take, try and take it a bit further. I was looking at maybe doing a Java course with the OU some time next year so maybe that? Get a head start.
 
check out codeacademy, free and covers javascript, python etc.

udacity also covers bits and pieces, but I struggled with them as you already need to know programming to do them.

I've never really understood paying for courses when there's so much material for free online.

Personally, try Python, it's good fun and easy to pick up. I've been doing it on and off for a month properly and loving it. Once I'm up to speed I'll be looking at adding other languages.
 
Turns out the Open University is part of Microsoft DreamSpark and they have a ton of free software on there, some for developers. Wonder if any of that would be useful?
There are some visual C++ C# and others on there.

SoundsGood, that is one of the courses I am looking at, Object-oriented Java programming (M250) and Software development with Java (M256) afterwards.
I did enjoy parts of the coding on this TU100 but found some of it really frustrating also, it is kind of a new way of working and thinking for me and I was completely new to it so I hope it's not so bad with some practice?
 
Kinda creepy, I actually got my books for TU100 today.

Get the Visual Studio 2012. You cant use it with Java but you could use it to do the same exercises in the languages it does come with. Just to sort of round out your studies.

I was hoping to see win8 on there, no luck lol.
 
Win 8 is on there, I just downloaded it myself will check it out later.

Also enjoy Woden, when do you start? I have just about finished my EMA so have to send that in by the 20th. Glad to see the back of it ;)
 
It wasn't to bad. A lot of the course is really just study skills so be prepared for lots of reading, lots of writing and probably stuff you don't really want to be doing as much as others. Some of the Sense stuff is ok and if you have done programming before it shouldn't take you long, some of the guys doing it when I did seemed to grasp it very quickly due to previous experience.

Thanks Gzero grabbed VS now so will take a gander at that as well.
 
My personal opinion is to forget formal courses and books and just get started with a project that you are interested in and just Google questions until you understand how to progress. If you are stuck for ideas, some sort of form for entering retrieving personal details would be a good start. For myself with programming, nothing ever seems to stick unless I get stuck in with a real project. Obviously you might have a lot of questions which is fine and it might also seem daunting at first, but it really is the best way in my opinion.

The only qualification I've seen on any job application for software development is a Computer Science degree or equivalent. Even then, experience almost always holds a lot more weight so if you've got some projects that you've worked on either personal, open source or whatever, you can talk about these in interviews.
 
FeFiDoh said:
It wasn't to bad. A lot of the course is really just study skills so be prepared for lots of reading, lots of writing and probably stuff you don't really want to be doing as much as others. Some of the Sense stuff is ok and if you have done programming before it shouldn't take you long, some of the guys doing it when I did seemed to grasp it very quickly due to previous experience.

Thanks Gzero grabbed VS now so will take a gander at that as well.
Click to expand...

Hey bud, did you join the TU100 facebook group?

One week to go until it's over then onto 6 months of Maths for me.

Sense was okay and the board is pretty cool, I am thinking of doing something with it in the future maybe a bluetooth data sniffer or something. It seemed like a good way to start understanding how programming logic works.

I'm going down the software dev path so a couple of Java modules and UML stuff plus project work.

If you are doing the same, get familiar with C# as it is similar to Java (both object orientated with garbage collection) And of course XNA goes hand in hand with C# so you could start making your own games. :)

How do I sign up for Dreamspark?
 
Yes UncleRuckus I am on the FB group.
How did you find the course overall? Some of it was good (I enjoyed the gaming section and the history) but other bits were just so bad. I actually didn't bother with the argument mapping or the last 2 weeks of reading material and just went to the EMA.
What course you doing next? I am going to MU123 on October 6th.

I downloaded visual basic last night so will have a gander over that in the next few days, any recommendations on places to get started? Been trying to think of a project to start with as Mailman86 says just not come up with anything yet.
 
FeFiDoh said:
Yes UncleRuckus I am on the FB group.
How did you find the course overall? Some of it was good (I enjoyed the gaming section and the history) but other bits were just so bad. I actually didn't bother with the argument mapping or the last 2 weeks of reading material and just went to the EMA.
What course you doing next? I am going to MU123 on October 6th.

I downloaded visual basic last night so will have a gander over that in the next few days, any recommendations on places to get started? Been trying to think of a project to start with as Mailman86 says just not come up with anything yet.
Click to expand...
Hey :)

Yeah, the module was good. It sort of felt like a chocolate box with a few horrible ones! I really enjoyed learning about network infrastructure, history also the ubiquitous computing sent my mind racing with possibility.What surprised me was how much I learnt which I hadn't considered, such as writing succinctly and general skills which can be applied to everyday life.

I too didn't do the argument mapping, I plan going over it some of the parts when I do my next module, which is the same as you MU123. :)

I presume you are going down the Software Solutions path as you are trying out visual basic in visual studio? It maybe worth looking for a visual basic cheatsheet, this could help you quickly get to grips with the language syntax and transfer those skills you learnt from Scratch.

An interesting project you could do is a virtual post-it note application, which has a form that you fill and it pops up on screen at a set time with the message.
 
I have been playing around with visual basic and some c# for last few days and have worked my way through

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd492171.aspx

I can understand the code when I read it and get the ideas behind it roughly just not confident in being able to write much of it myself if any really. I guess this just comes with more practice?
Anyone able to recommend any more tutorials I can work through or maybe some books I can take a look at.
 
Best way, in my experience, to learn a new language is to come up with a practical use application that you would be interested in developing. Research and forum Q&A's will fill the gaps in along the way and it's a great way to expose yourself to new techniques/methods that you may not otherwise get from tutorials. Plus you end up with something useful.

And Python +1
 
Well I have come up with a little project to start on which I think I can achieve.
Going to make a small program that creates a buy config for CS:GO. A user can enter their preferred button choice for each weapon, press generate and it will bind the keys to the correct weapons for them. Don't think it needs anything to complex and I already have a buy config with the correct menu entries in it so only thing I need to add is the key + blahblahblah.
 
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