Best Way to Learn Programming?

[Halei-Helai]

Hello. I hope this isn't considered a duplicate thread for the current programming thread. I think this one has a different focus.

I am really, really interested in learning programming. For a long time I have dabbled in it, but it never has gone much further than that. In my tweens I screwed around with QuickBasic and made some crude text adventure games which was fun. By high school I took a programming course in Visual Basic and showed real aptitude for it. We had to make a game for our final project and mine was a 5,000 line hard coded monstrosity of an RPG that had to read file names of images in the game that determined whether or not you could move there. It was actually a really fun experience for me to learn and to craft this thing.

In college I actually took a course in C++ which was an intro course, essentially, and focused entirely on console programs. That was actually my first exposure to functions and pointers, but not having any GUI to play around with was a little soul crushing, ha ha!

Anyway, I want to learn more about programming. VB and C++ seemed like good languages to me that I could wrap my head around, but there is a problem. Right now I am not all that good with programming. When I am first learning something I have motivation issues where I am so self-conscious about my lack of skill that it is difficult for me to keep going. The same thing happened when I taught myself guitar, but I was able to bust through that one at any rate.

How did you all learn programming? Sadly, I don't have access to classes at this time. Are any of you self-taught, and if so how did you learn? I think I would focus on C++. Is that advisable? Are there any resources I can use to learn and is there a good free IDE available?

Thanks!

[Toxicdog]

There's plenty of nice places to learn online now!


https://www.codecademy.com/
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-00-introduction-to-computer-science-and-programming-fall-2008/
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-087-practical-programming-in-c-january-iap-2010/
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-092-introduction-to-programming-in-java-january-iap-2010[size=78%]/[/size]
[/size]https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming[size=78%]

[/size]All are free! ^.^[size=78%]

[anoni]

Check out www.openlearning.com particular this course: https://www.openlearning.com/courses/unsw/computing1

Programming is one thing that's sort of cool to learn but if you really want to get into it you should learn about the whole shebang of computer science. Programming, algorithms, security, hacking, it's all interesting stuff and a great introduction is on that link. The language they teach you there is C, which is basically a more bare-bones version of C++. The site has lecture videos for you to watch as well as activities, I'm not sure if that course is currently running, but if it isn't just look for other "Computing 1" courses and you'll see more.

If you prefer to just see the lecture videos there is a series by Richard Buckland, the guy who runs openlearning (and my current computing lecturer!) which offers an awesome introduction to compsci here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE7l6Adoiiw&list=PLEEAD1D187A7CCD6C

 

[Orlando]

I first got into programming when I was 11 years old. I've always wanted to make my own video game, but I didn't know how and I didn't know what tools I needed. I saw an article on how a game was made, and I noticed that computer programming was vital for game developing. So I looked for an easy language to learn, and I found Python. My dad bought me a book to learn how to program in the language. I couldn't understand it at the beginning, but I eventually knew what the syntax meant, and I was eager to code more.

Programming then became part of my life. Now, I know Python, Java, JavaScript, and C++. I still haven't made the game I wanted to make, but I just got to keep learning. There's always something new you can learn, like finding a new word in a dictionary.

I used a book called "Python for Kids" to teach me Python. The name is silly, but it teaches programming to anyone who has absolutely no idea how to even write a Hello World program. For C++ I used "C++ Programming in Easy Steps". It teaches programming with a little more complication, but it all makes sense when you understand it. Codecademy was where I learned JavaScript, and I used SoloLearn for Java. These are just my opinions on where to start with those languages, even though you probably know C++ already.

Now for the IDE: The best one (in my opinion) for C++ is Code::Blocks. Not only does it support C++, but C and Fortran as well. I use Eclipse for Java, and I use the official Python shell for Python from the official website. For JavaScript, I just make an HTML page and use JavaScript within the body of the page. Everything here is free.

[anoni]

I would recommend NOT learning python as your first language. Python has a lot of simplicities like automatic memory management and type inference, basically python sort of "does everything" for you, which may sound good on paper but if you're trying to learn something, do you just get something that does it all for you? Learning C or C++ is a really good way to go, I'd probably learn C as there's less "stuff" so it can be a bit easier to learn, C++ is just C with added stuff so it's generally better to start with the basics then move onto the advanced stuff.

  Learning Java or C# might also be a good bet if you find C is too difficult to learn, but those Richard buckland lectures I linked should help a lot!


  EDIT: Also consider getting Linux if you're serious about programming, you can install it on a virtual machine (I can link you tutorials if you'd like)

[Fauxtrot]

I would support Java for being a very good first programming language. I would try looking for a book or service for starting out (some people recommended Code Academy, which is a very good option). Personally, I learned everything I know thus far through "Starting Out With Java: 5th Edition" by Tony Gaddis, and it was a very good start for me.