How Do I Get Into Programming?, any advice?

[VON]

I’m not sure if I can post this here but since it says “code” under info for this part of the forum I can only think it is, I apologise if it isn’t.

I’m really interested in learning programming/ coding but I’m not sure what’s the best method of studying & making the information make sense & stick, I will be teaching myself so that only makes it that bit harder. Whenever I look into the programming/ coding I feel overwhelmed by the amount of content In front of me which makes me feel very intimidated & rather overwhelming, this makes it very hard to get the motivation to study & learn. People have told me to find a project idea & learn a language to build it in, not stress about remembering the syntax & just code every day to get a rhythm. Does anyone with programming/ coding knowledge have any tips, tricks or advice for a beginner?

I have this sense of urge to learn but I have a bigger sense of worry that I will struggle & get nowhere which normally discourages me from learning.

Some other questions I have are:

             (1.)  Do I need to figure out what career I want to pursue before getting into it?

             (2.)  Is it beneficial to learn multiple programming paradigm languages?

[Chernabog55]

Being a self taught programmer myself I have dealt with the same struggles. 

 

If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of things are you looking to do with your code? 

 

I personally have written my own scripts to do everything from organizing files to parsing through a webpage to download all of the videos. For those examples I have used a combination of bash and Python scripting. 

 

I have 9 Python books in PDF if you are interested. They range from Python to kids to Black/Grey hat programming. (The were a humble bundle deal)

[VON]

7 minutes ago, Chernabog55 said:

If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of things are you looking to do with your code? 

I would like to learn to program/ code to bring the ideas inside my head to fruition (personal projects) &  I want to aim to get good enough to become employable (not sure which job area though), I find myself very interested in it but also very scared of it if you can understand.

[Chernabog55]

15 minutes ago, VON said:

I would like to learn to program/ code to bring the ideas inside my head to fruition (personal projects) &  I want to aim to get good enough to become employable (not sure which job area though), I find myself very interested in it but also very scared of it if you can understand.

It’s defintely a lot to take on. Although, just like someone else has mentioned it is a lot easier when you have an exact goal for a project and research what is needed to get it done. That is assuming you are comfortable jumping in blindly which it appears is not the case. Which is perfectly alright. You will get there in time. 

 

If you have an iPad I would highly recommend “Swift Playgrounds”. It’s a free app for learning Apple’s Swift programming language. The app is written for kids so it will walk you though what things are and why they do what they do. It’s amazing for learning a base level of how programming works. It covers functions, variable, if/then statements, clauses, all kinds of stuff. It even lets you program right inside the app so you can see immediately your results. 

[VON]

2 minutes ago, Chernabog55 said:

If you have an iPad I would highly recommend “Swift Playgrounds”

Unfortunately I don't have an iPad. I have an idea for a computer program & what I want it to accomplish but it instantly makes me thinks things like; how will I make it cross platform?, what language should I build it in?, will my code be good enough?, how much time will it require? etc.. . I really need a job so getting as good as possible at something like programming/ coding could help me (I know it isn't & will take time).

[† Ryutai]

as someone who is learning via an academic route (university course) largely the main factor to learning fast is exposing yourself to lots of code and writing lots of code, importantly though maintaining good practices and correcting yourself as you go is super important when you're starting out, I'm still very new to things so I won't go in to detail but start by writing super simple programs like printing words, scanning for input in the console, learn to understand and use loops etc.  (I am primarily learning java)

[VON]

1 minute ago, Scyrous's Slave said:

as someone who is learning via an academic route (university course) largely the main factor to learning fast is exposing yourself to lots of code and writing lots of code, importantly though maintaining good practices and correcting yourself as you go is super important when you're starting out, I'm still very new to things so I won't go in to detail but start by writing super simple programs like printing words, scanning for input in the console, learn to understand and use loops etc.  (I am primarily learning java)

I enrolled onto a Level 4 Course at College that's about computers & programming & I have a few units to do with programming (Object Oriented Programming) & Web Development but I want to learn more by myself & become better but like I previous said I feel very intimidated by it which normally stops me.

[† Ryutai]

5 hours ago, VON said:

I enrolled onto a Level 4 Course at College that's about computers & programming & I have a few units to do with programming (Object Oriented Programming) & Web Development but I want to learn more by myself & become better but like I previous said I feel very intimidated by it which normally stops me.

don't be, learn from the ground up at your own pace, get interested in the subject and your curiosity will soon overcome any apprehension you have. Its a big world out there and there are infinite things one can hope to learn which is daunting I get that, but honestly don't be afraid everyone starts somewhere no matter how basic your level the more you research and look into things the more informed you will become. There are so many tutorials/books/forums insert whatever medium you like here to learn programming, so just get stuck in, if you need sources I may be of less help here due to me using university restricted material a lot of the time but I can recommend a few books and places to look. 

 

also your questions

1) It helps but honestly no, learn fundamentals then specialise as you go

2) Of course the more you know the better I recommend learning one language at a high level of understanding and then learning after that should be far simpler and at that point you should be more aware of programming in general and hopefully you have an idea of what languages you wish to learn to accomplish your goals.

Edited November 13, 2017 by Scyrous's Slave

[VON]

4 hours ago, Scyrous's Slave said:

don't be, learn from the ground up at your own pace, get interested in the subject and your curiosity will soon overcome any apprehension you have. Its a big world out there and there are infinite things one can hope to learn which is daunting I get that, but honestly don't be afraid everyone starts somewhere no matter how basic your level the more you research and look into things the more informed you will become. There are so many tutorials/books/forums insert whatever medium you like here to learn programming, so just get stuck in, if you need sources I may be of less help here due to me using university restricted material a lot of the time but I can recommend a few books and places to look. 

 

also your questions

1) It helps but honestly no, learn fundamentals then specialise as you go

2) Of course the more you know the better I recommend learning one language at a high level of understanding and then learning after that should be far simpler and at that point you should be more aware of programming in general and hopefully you have an idea of what languages you wish to learn to accomplish your goals.

Ok, Thank You. Also how will I know that my learning material will still be relevant?, for instance I don't to learn say CSS3 & then find there is CSS4 which replaces alot of things from CSS3. How will I know that the material I have in front of me is up to date?

 

Also how long have you been programming for & are you doing to get a specific job?, if so what job?

[† Ryutai]

1 hour ago, VON said:

Ok, Thank You. Also how will I know that my learning material will still be relevant?, for instance I don't to learn say CSS3 & then find there is CSS4 which replaces alot of things from CSS3. How will I know that the material I have in front of me is up to date?

 

Also how long have you been programming for & are you doing to get a specific job?, if so what job?

Fundamentals will remain relevant whatever, more specialised/current stuff not so sure, but that is the case with all fields and professions they are never completely static, (well there probably are exceptions but you get the idea). How do you know if its up to date, hmm if you are looking at something that is constantly developing then you will have to check yourself, not all material on everything is always up to date of course but again a lot of programming is built around principles which shouldn't shift too often.

 

I haven't been programming very long at all, less than a year, I am hoping to pick up programming as a career path yes, I'm not 100% sure exactly what I want to go into just yet but I have a good idea.

[VON]

4 hours ago, Scyrous's Slave said:

Fundamentals will remain relevant whatever, more specialised/current stuff not so sure, but that is the case with all fields and professions they are never completely static, (well there probably are exceptions but you get the idea). How do you know if its up to date, hmm if you are looking at something that is constantly developing then you will have to check yourself, not all material on everything is always up to date of course but again a lot of programming is built around principles which shouldn't shift too often.

 

I haven't been programming very long at all, less than a year, I am hoping to pick up programming as a career path yes, I'm not 100% sure exactly what I want to go into just yet but I have a good idea.

What got you into it?, How often do you code?, How long do your own projects take? (sorry for so many questions). I have also been told by a few people on the r/Programming page that I shouldn't worry about remembering the syntax but the actual concepts involved, I was also told that because I alreay knew some web dev I should learn Electron to build cross platform programs but it seems that alot of projects that are built with it are either shockingly slow (Atom IDE) or incredible fast (Visual Studio Code) but the code wouldn't be written exactly the same as it would for a website (slightly confusing).

[† Ryutai]

2 hours ago, VON said:

What got you into it?, How often do you code?, How long do your own projects take? (sorry for so many questions). I have also been told by a few people on the r/Programming page that I shouldn't worry about remembering the syntax but the actual concepts involved, I was also told that because I alreay knew some web dev I should learn Electron to build cross platform programs but it seems that alot of projects that are built with it are either shockingly slow (Atom IDE) or incredible fast (Visual Studio Code) but the code wouldn't be written exactly the same as it would for a website (slightly confusing).

My best friend was studying computer science, I have interest in technology and its applications and I played around with .bat scripts and other stupid stuff and enjoyed it so thought I would give it a try. Every other day give or take. Not very long as usually I'm working on coursework which is small short term stuff, nothing too complex. As for the other stuff you said you can learn whatever you like but imo learn to create useful well-made programs before doing cross platform stuff. Yes syntax isn't as important the concepts for sure but not knowing syntax will kill any kind of workflow tbh. Also should note I am really not qualified to give technical advice I am still new to this myself, I am sure there are many others on the site who can help you far more than I can.

[EccentricOne]

If you want an introduction you're going to want to start with something easy like a PHP script or if you want something that'll run on windows something like Visual basic or my personal favorite Delphi

 

Programming is a mostly logical task, here's a bit of pseudo-code

Store "17" in X

If X is equal to "17" then

  show message on screen "Yes, it is 17"

Else

  show message on screen "It is not 17, which isn't even possible... what is this I don't even"

 

If you can grasp most of that, that's more or less what you'd be doing. Here it is in an actual language
 

Spoiler

Function TalkAboutSeventeen();

var x:integer;

begin

  x := 17;

  if x = 17 then begin

    showmessage('It is indeed 17');

  end else begin

    showmessage('WHAT? It has to be 17');

  end;

end;

 

The most useless function in existence! I might have made an error in it because I haven't done it in ages but it looks mostly like that

 

 

Edited November 15, 2017 by EccentricOne

[Dulus_No]

http://cs50.tv/