Starting Programming

[mathmeister]

I've learned a tiny bit of Java and Python a while back and now I'm determined to learn my first language. Which one should I start with? I've heard I should do Python then go to C++ or something but I'm not sure. Also, is codecademy the best place to learn for free?

[Enderman]

python

when youre great at python then do C++

but start with python, codecademy.com is free

[Crig]

Python is fun, go with it, then C++ or Swift if you're into iOS.

[Linaran]

Imo the best thing you can do is pick up a good beginner C++ or C book and practice coding on simple tasks. Your focus should be on learning the basics (variables, data structures, pointers, references later on, functions etc...). Whatever you read, try implementing it yourself. Practice makes perfect. Once you feel comfortable completing simple tasks (common for loops don't give you a headache) get your feet wet with some OOP (objective oriented programming -- if you practiced in C you'll need to transfer to java or python). Make sure you understand classes, inheritance etc.

 

After that? What kind of a developer do you want to be? Web development, computer science, competitive algorithms, app development? Pick your favorite, pick the language and best of luck!

 

-- Why start with C/C++

Learn the traits that are common among all languages. Many sofisticated languages were written in C/C++.

Don't be one of those people who claim that Java has no pointers (it does they are called references and references are basically pointers). After some experience (with a strong foundation), languages shouldn't even matter to you. Percieve them as tools that are better for some things while lacking in others.

[Gachr]

There are quite a few reasons why not to go with Python, this is my reply from another topic:

Quote

 

Python is the easiest language for a beginner, but I'll disagree when people say that it's >best< for beginners. I think that it's better to learn a difficult language first, since doing anything will bring more satisfaction with a more difficult language. My first language was C++, so later learning Python and other languages was a breeze.

This is "hello world" in Python:

print("hello world")

And for a comparison, this is the same thing in C++:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main() {
  cout << "hello world" << endl;
  return 0;
}

 

 

[Azgoth 2]

Depends what you want to do with programming or what your ultimate goal is for learning it.  Python is always a great place to start if you're not sure, but if you have an idea of where you want to go, you can pick a language that's well-suited for that task, or at least very widely used for it.

 

If you want to go the software development route, something like C++, C#, or Java would be a good choice, since they're very commonly used in that field, and have very good performance once compiled (especially C++, but less so Java).  If you want to do any sort of data analysis or simulations or anything where programming is more of a tool to some greater end, rather than part of the end itself, then Python and Java are probably your best bets (and R is good to know if you ever plan on doing statistics-y things with big data).  If you just want to have some general programming experience to use when you need to get something done, then Python or Java are again your best bets since they're so ubiquitous and cross-platform.  If you want to really bend your mind into weird shapes, then there's always one of the functional languages like Haskell (which I'm learning right now, and it's awesome) or Lisp.

 

But if you don't have anything in particular in mind, I recommend at least starting with Python.  It's free, has a lot of documentation and support available online, is very easy to write and read, and is massively versatile in its applications.  Once you learn enough to get a handle on programming ideas and terminology, you can switch over to something else like C++/Java/whatever (and probably should, in all honesty, just to know more than one language).

[Gachr]

Also, take a look at this:

 

[mathmeister]

4 hours ago, Gachr said:

Also, take a look at this:

 

Yeah I saw that, that's why I asked if codecademy is the best. Should I try Lynda? Think my dad has a subscription.

[Gachr]

10 hours ago, mathmeister said:

Yeah I saw that, that's why I asked if codecademy is the best. Should I try Lynda? Think my dad has a subscription.

Read the topic carefully, codecademy and similar websites, it's not just about it, but all "course" websites for programming.

I didn't try Lynda tho, it might be fine if it's just a video site.