is it a bad idea to teach myself a programming language?

[mythicalbeast]

Hi, so I am 15 years old, and have decided that I want to learn Java. I shouse Java as it is a simpler language, and a good starting point (have I heard). And I am planning on most likily learn C++ if I ever get that far. But I am not sure wheather it's a good idea or not. I am not reffering to the possebility of giving up, but wheather being self-thaught itself is a good idea. I would greatilly apreachiate if you would share your, or maybe even others, experiences with teaching yourself a language, and if it would be a far smarter idea to go to school and learn it instead. The only problem is that I am currently in 10th grade, and there won't be anny oppertuneties for learning a language at school untill university, which is over 3 years from now. So again, how good of an idea is it to teach myself, and how will it affect my knowlage? I have done a lot of research up front, so I know a bit of the andvantages of formal education, such as greater knowlage, and understanding of the hardware. Greater knowlage of the language itself, etc.

[Bluejay0]

Not a bad idea. Take a few online courses so you learn at your own pace. I took up an AP Computer Science class in school but I regret it :'c

[helping]

Nope, you might want to start or take a look at what languages are easier first though. 

 

As for self taught versus being taught? You're better off self taught, you'll be doing that later in college anyway. The sooner you can teach yourself the better off you are. 

 

The role of a teacher should be to enable the students to teach themselves in the first place. 

[Nineshadow]

Learn Java,it's an OOP(Object-oriented programing) language,and it will help you understand the OOP concept and how a programming language works.

C++ and Java mainly have libraries and syntax as a difference.

[hawaiims]

Hi, so I am 15 years old, and have decided that I want to learn Java. I shouse Java as it is a simpler language, and a good starting point (have I heard). And I am planning on most likily learn C++ if I ever get that far. But I am not sure wheather it's a good idea or not. I am not reffering to the possebility of giving up, but wheather being self-thaught itself is a good idea. I would greatilly apreachiate if you would share your, or maybe even others, experiences with teaching yourself a language, and if it would be a far smarter idea to go to school and learn it instead. The only problem is that I am currently in 10th grade, and there won't be anny oppertuneties for learning a language at school untill university, which is over 3 years from now. So again, how good of an idea is it to teach myself, and how will it affect my knowlage? I have done a lot of research up front, so I know a bit of the andvantages of formal education, such as greater knowlage, and understanding of the hardware. Greater knowlage of the language itself, etc.

Learn python instead. 

[jdrage97]

not at all it a great idea, im doing an ITcourse in collage and it would of been such a help if i learned it early to help me for now

[SJBijzitter]

Learn Java,it's an OOP(Object-oriented programing) language,and it will help you understand the OOP concept and how a programming language works.

C++ and Java mainly have libraries and syntax as a difference.

[Ssoele]

Learn yourself the basics and get familiar with it, then in collage you will be way ahead.

[fizzlesticks]

Learn Java,it's an OOP(Object-oriented programing) language,and it will help you understand the OOP concept and how a programming language works.

C++ and Java mainly have libraries and syntax as a difference.

And pointers and memory management.

 

I always recommend Python as a first language (it's also OO), it just seems like the easiest for beginners to learn. And once you learn 1 language learning the syntax of another shouldn't be hard.

[alpenwasser]

Honestly the biggest factor (in my personal experience) will be motivation

and perseverance. In principle, there is nothing wrong with teaching yourself

programming. Pretty much all the basic knowledge you need is available online

or book form for you to work through. The trick is to keep yourself motivated

to actually follow through (or at least it was for me). Have a look at our

programming resources thread, there are a few pretty decent resources there.

But it's not like anything bad is going to happen (like say, you wish to teach

yourself maths and accidentally teach yourself that 1+1=3 or something like

that :lol: ).

As for what language to use: It honestly doesn't matter all that greatly IMHO.

While the syntax between languages can vary to some degree, in principle many

are rather similar and once you've learned one you can pick up more without

too much effort (this is leaving out esoteric things like functional programming

obviously).

Naturally, if you truly wish to master a language there will be no other way

than to do lots of reading and (even more crucially) lots of coding.

Just my 0.02$.

[rashdanml]

Try not to restrict yourself to a programming language; instead, learn common programming concepts. Different languages implement these concepts differently, but they're all essentially the same. Once you've gotten a good grasp of the concepts, and how to fully take advantage of it (as well as when it's not appropriate), learning one or more languages is trivial. 

 

Good places to start: C. It's basic, but can be powerful when used right. Java, Python, and C++ are three other languages that'll help explain many common programming concepts. 

[Marolt]

Programming is cool! Go for it!

[Unknown_Guy]

Try not to restrict yourself to a programming language; instead, learn common programming concepts. Different languages implement these concepts differently, but they're all essentially the same. Once you've gotten a good grasp of the concepts, and how to fully take advantage of it (as well as when it's not appropriate), learning one or more languages is trivial. 

 

Good places to start: C. It's basic, but can be powerful when used right. Java, Python, and C++ are three other languages that'll help explain many common programming concepts. 

Good suggestion. Would not start with python and not because I'm a ruby developer. High level languages hide basics so Java or C++ in my opinion would be better starting point. Of course in high level languages you can visible results faster (like Rails 5 min blog) but I don't think it's best for learning principles.

[Lyons]

Learn something object oriented first. Every CS educator I have had says that it's a better learning path.

[arkon]

Why would it be a bad idea?

[paulsterio]

Remember that most of the beginning stages of learning programming is just learning algorithms and basic structures that are uniform to all programming languages. 

 

The first things you'll learn about are your If...Then...Else clause, then probably your different loops, then your sorting algorithms...etc. These are applicable to all languages and once you understand how to code, you will be able to pick up new languages easily. I learned programming with VB .NET, it was an easy language to learn, I got my head around all the algorithms. So now when I think of a programming problem, I think of how to solve the problem in English first in my head, i.e. the algorithm, then I just translate that to whatever language I'm working with. It took me a couple of weeks to learn Java after already being familiar with VB .NET. 

[Nallown]

Java was my first proper programming lanuage which I used and after I mastered the basics of it, I was able to learn any other programming language at ease! Most of the time I don't even have to learn the other programming language I can just read through it and would understand it.

[YouRezz]

take a look at codecademy, its kinda great, i learned java from it

[fizzlesticks]

take a look at codecademy, its kinda great, i learned java from it

Codeacademy doesn't have Java.

[YouRezz]

Codeacademy doesn't have Java.

javascrip.. i meant javascript.. sorry

[SirPaul]

Congratulations,

You've been born at the best Age, where you can find resources online.

So, first of all, learn java . Nope no python, Learn java, the language you are familiar with its the language you get into your veins.

 

Now, Buy youself a book to learn from.
No, no that kind of books which says " Learn java in 24 h" Nope, the proper java language, maybe with usefull libraries, debugging and all those topics.

The only advantage to have a course that you have something that is commanding you and you dont need to worry about loosing focus.

Because the worst thing for me learn alone was,that I have come up to some issue i could'nt solve. I couldn't find anything on the web. And it was really important to go forth in the education.

So i abandoned the learnung for a while, because i lost my temper.

 

But thats the worst thing.

And its even best, when you come to collige already with the knowledge in your head. Also if you will be really good at learning, you can be self employed as freelancer, even before college, which is best, because money when going through college are really helpful

 

Lets say you can create some Android Apps, or intercactive websites, and monetize it, so basically, you can be really succesfull with good idea and knowledge. At least those were things which worked for me as motivation

 

GL and HF with development

 

 

PS: And just ignore the guys who said you should try codeacademy ...

[tbc]

online schools are REALLY bad.   I had to go search through them for work training programs and they sucked horribly.  at best, the instructor can show you exactly one topic and totally mess everything else up (eg, knows JS, but can't do HTML/CSS).

 

 

the thing with learning programming is that it's really really easy to think that you know everything and that you know everything that you don't know too.  in reality, there is far more depth than you can possibly comprehend (there will ALWAYS be unknown unknowns).

 

the key to learning programming (and anything really) is to be MODEST.  accept that everything you've learned to this point is completely wrong and has been a complete waste of your life.  do that several dozen times and you might be qualified for a job.  THIS is why it's always a horrible idea to learn how to program just for the purpose of making a 'killer app.'  you WILL fail, you are NOT special.`, the more you believe you are, the more of your life you will waste.

 

 

it's a good idea to teach yourself a little and then learn things formally.  the teaching yourself part isn't so much to learn as to find out whether or not you like the tedium enough to stick with it to the point where you have actual useful skills.  without an instructor (and classmates), you'll never realize your flaws (because your current way worked once and nothing else did).

 

EDIT:

 

ps there are ALOT of misconceptions about programmers.  for example, programmers work alone in the dark.  anyone who thinks this spends too much time watching TV and trying to be a hacker wannabe.   interpersonal skills are EXCEPTIONALLY important for developers (ESPECIALLY for freelancers); i am not wrong in any way about this.

[BrightCandle]

I really recommend a beginners book to begin with. Its perfectly possible to get snippets of code and introduction tutorials to get started online but a a decent book goes beyond just showing you how to get things done it teaches you the fundamentals you come to rely on. The best resources for this are still good olde fashioned books and it just so happens code is better to read on a bigger piece of paper verses say a Kindle/tablet which is too small to fit code and architecture diagrams.

 

I taught myself to program when I was a kid, then I went to university and did computer science and now I teach myself everything. Learning by yourself is a fact of the industry and its best to start learning how you personally learn best (video or book or being taught).

[R4STABAN]

You need to learn concepts, not languages.

 

One you learn concepts you can apply that knowledge to programming in various languages, picking up a new language is as simple as learning new syntax and conventions.

 

I would start with something procedural (code is executed in a strict sequence), like javascript, to study the very basics and foundations of programming: variables, functions, simple algorithms, data structures, flow control etc.

 

Once you understand these concepts you could start to look at Java, which is Object Oriented, not procedural. Learn about Classes, Packages, Methods (functions) etc. The key thing will be understanding the concept of Object Oriented Programming itself.

 

I actually started with Javascript for basic concepts, then moved on to a completely custom language to study concepts of software engineering: preconditions, post conditions etc etc, before studying concepts utilizing Java (OOP as mentioned above, GUIs, Software Eng, Concurrency and distribution, testing etc).

[polyx95]

Dont start with java, it is fine to learn it when you already learned all of the basic concepts. The reason for that is that java will try to force somewhat complex concepts on you and it can be confusing when you are only starting out. My recommendation would be to start learning Python, because it will not force more advanced concepts on you until you want to use those concepts yourself, and it also will allow to code in functional paradigm although you might not care about functional programming if you are just starting out. Also those of you who say that he should learn java first and that it is good idea COME AT ME BRO. No seriously java is not very good when you are starting out.