Best Way to Start Learning Code?

[cichington]

I am a senior in high school just starting my second semester of my last year.  Next year I am going to college to become a software engineer and I just wanted to get a head start on knowing code and all that because I have always wanted to learn.  What is the best way to learn it and how has it worked for you?

 

Thanks.

[AlwaysFSX]

Books, books, and more books.

[aidenrelkoff]

if you are brand new then learn HTML in depth, it is very usfull to know how to do stuffs 

[Flyguygamer]

Start with python. Their website has some tutorials. www.python.org

[T.Vengeance]

For me, it was just creating my own projects. Every single line of code you type, gives you a better understanding of it. And you'll develop a style of coding (oddly enough...like a style of writing.)

 

Started small (all in visual basic):

1. Calculator

2. Tic Tac Toe

3. Tic Tac Toe with cpu AI

4. A tanks game with destructible grounds almost like Gun Bound using arrays

[Ssoele]

Started small (all in visual basic)

 

That is the worse advice ever, VB is a horrible coding language, you're far better off learning JAVA, C#, PHP, Python, ... . VB is nothing like other languages, so you would only be able to work in that.

[T.Vengeance]

That is the worse advice ever, VB is a horrible coding language, you're far better off learning JAVA, C#, PHP, Python, ... . VB is nothing like other languages, so you would only be able to work in that.

Are you ripping on the code or how I went about learning programming?

[lukeptba]

That is the worse advice ever, VB is a horrible coding language, you're far better off learning JAVA, C#, PHP, Python, ... . VB is nothing like other languages, so you would only be able to work in that.

Java is just as shit as VB.

[bradscoolio]

I remember watching a college lecture on YouTube for computer science introduction 101 and the professors advice to all the students was that if you have had any previous programming knowledge forget it, because you would only have to re-learn it and learn it properly from scratch anyway.

Which seems sensible to me unless you're already really fluent and experienced, in that case it would actually make it easier for you but at this point I would recommend waiting.

 

If you have an awesome idea for a project that you're super keen to work on, or you think could help a lot of people, or make a lot of money, then by all means chase your dream. An Idea is a great way to kick off your learning journey  

[Rassilon]

That is the worse advice ever, VB is a horrible coding language, you're far better off learning JAVA, C#, PHP, Python, ... . VB is nothing like other languages, so you would only be able to work in that.

Who uses PHP outside of servers?

[Craftable124]

I just started in JBASIC (Better to start with python) and gave myself a goal. Think of a basic task, and try to make a program to do it. If you don't know what to do, look up commands that will help you with the goal. Just experiment, i guess.

[Craftable124]

For me, it was just creating my own projects. Every single line of code you type, gives you a better understanding of it. And you'll develop a style of coding (oddly enough...like a style of writing.)

 

Started small (all in visual basic):

1. Calculator

2. Tic Tac Toe

3. Tic Tac Toe with cpu AI

4. A tanks game with destructible grounds almost like Gun Bound using arrays

I started in JBasic, the free version of liberty basic. Needless to say it was terrible. I wish i'd known to try C++ or Java instead.

[Ssoele]

Are you ripping on the code or how I went about learning programming?

 

Just on VB, other then that, your method was fine.

[Ssoele]

Java is just as shit as VB.

 

Nope it's not, at least it looks a like the other languages. Also keep in mind all Android apps are coded in JAVA.

[Ssoele]

Who uses PHP outside of servers?

 

No one, PHP can only be run on servers.

[Markmjb]

First year student of an IT-study so I might be able to help you out.

The best way to get to know a language is DO it.

If you know the exact study you are going to do, check the curriculum to know which programming languages they're gonna teach and focus on those. 

 

Some recommended websites:

http://www.tutorialspoint.com/index.htm   - as said before, books are the best. as a second option, This website gives basic tutorials of great quality. 

http://homeandlearn.co.uk/csharp/csharp.html  - an excellent starting point for c# as well.

http://it-ebooks.info/   -a website of it ebooks about any language in particular. The head first books read a bit weird, but overall get the job done. You can search for other books too

 

EDIT:
This book is good for a starting programmer because it has a lot of images to show what a particular code does. It's for HTML and Css btw. 

Since this forum probably does not like "illegal" links to particular ebooks, here is the amazon link. In theory, you could find this book online, the authors took some dropbox links down quickly tho, so might as well buy it :

http://www.amazon.com/HTML-CSS-Design-Build-Websites/dp/1118008189

[Helly]

for me personally starting to program from scratch with nothing never worked. i could never remember how to start. What really worked for me was getting example programs and looking through their code and just start editing... change a few things and see what happens. soon enough you'll realize what line of code does what, and more importantly WHY it does what it does. cuz just knowing what does what isn't enough if you have no clue of why it works like that.

 

What language you choose really doesn't matter. All the basics are the same for all languages. They just look different but hey all do basically the same thing. Of course if you know what language you'll be learning at the collage you're going to it would be a good idea to start learning that language a little. Cuz a year is not that long and you won't learn a whole lot of it in that time. But as you said you just want a head start so learning the basics and probably a little more is entirely possible in a year.

 

so good luck with that

[Hellstinky]

I have to say the HTML really peaked my interest in coding. So I went on to other stuff I would say try HTML since it is a bit easier (I feel).

[xXxYOLOxSWAGxXx_420BlazeIt]

Books, books, and more books.

 

I have to say the HTML really peaked my interest in coding. So I went on to other stuff I would say try HTML since it is a bit easier (I feel).

HTML isnt coding.

 

 

Java is just as shit as VB.

That is such an idiotic thing to say.

 

 

I learnt by thinking of something, and using online documentation and a few PDF books to make it work.

 

I would not recommend paying for a book, unless its the K&R for C.

[Snapy1]

Who uses PHP outside of servers?

You cant even use PHP outside of servers lol 

[Hellstinky]

I didnt mean coding my bad lol. I was on my phone writing that haha. Im just saying I started out in HTML. I shoudve said I started to do things in HTML, Then C#, Java, C++, then SQL, now im here. Dont need to be a dick

 

HTML isnt coding.

 

 

That is such an idiotic thing to say.

 

 

I learnt by thinking of something, and using online documentation and a few PDF books to make it work.

 

I would not recommend paying for a book, unless its the K&R for C.

Also dont need to be such an ass to people honest mistake.

[Aho]

If you're looking to do software engineering, HTML would not be the way to go. There is one simple reason for this: HTML isn't a 'programming' language, it's a markup language. Arguably, you could make the case that it is but it's completely unrelated when we're comparing it to OO-languages like Java, C++, and C#. It won't teach you anything about OO-design, data structures and types, things like bits and bytes, etc...

 

The most popular programming language for beginners is (probably) Python. Its syntax is incredibly simple and consistent and it allows you to start building programs very quickly, mainly because it's very easy to grasp the basic concepts. For example, to print (a string to the screen), it's simply print "stringhere"

 

Whatever you do, just don't start in C++ or C, absolutely not C. Learning something in C++ could take you twice as long as learning the same concept in a language like Java. There's also the issue of whether you're learning correct C++ or not, a big issue with lots of developers. There's many ways to do things in C++ but few ways to do it 'right.' I, personally, started out in PHP. I don't recommend it because, well, it's mainly used to build web applications and I see the future with Rails and other well-built frameworks. PHP is just starting to catch up with recent frameworks like Laravel.

 

The way I learn best is by looking at lots and lots of examples and picking apart the code. I can't sit down and read some 500+ page textbook on a programming language. It's ineffective because you will get bored. If you decide to start Python, check out the 'Learn Python the Hard Way' HTML book. It's a book filled with Python code examples that you run and pick apart.

[Nallown]

No one, PHP can only be run on servers.

Who uses PHP outside of servers?

I run PHP on the clients system, yea how does that sound. you jelly?

Joking PHP is a server side programming language so on request a certain task gets executed and certain specified elements get returned to the client such as whether the username received is correct or not. The main reason to using PHP is to have a secure setup where the code cannot be read to avoid crackers from cracking into your site so using it on the clients system would defeat the point.

 

I'm not explaining this to you guys I'm just saying this in general for people who may be new to server side programming languages such as php or python.

 

 

I am a senior in high school just starting my second semester of my last year.  Next year I am going to college to become a software engineer and I just wanted to get a head start on knowing code and all that because I have always wanted to learn.  What is the best way to learn it and how has it worked for you?

 

Thanks.

There is no best way, as long as you manage to learn how to code then it would be the right way so for example I started of with vb.net which is a horrible programming language but if it wasn't for that then I wouldn't of understood the concept of programming language so how a program is based of algorithms and you'd execute certain tasks depending on certain occasions but someone else might dig straight into something like python which is a useful and good language to learn but isn't the greatest for things such as gui applications.

 

It really depends on whether you'd want to physically see results or you'd want to gain experience in result. I myself started of by wanting to gain physical results so that's mainly why I used vb.net at first but now I'm more into experience so I don't just dig into the code but also ask question and explanation of how certain things functions such as how a remote control stream would work in more advanced details so from pretty much binary to the physical results.

 

If you're really into the technical side of computer science such as how a programming language functions then I'd recommend reading Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software and if you're interested in how computer languages got around then I'd recommend reading Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution and if you'd want to learn every technical part of computer science even the maths behind it then you should try reading The art of computer programming.

 

In terms of books about how to use programming languages them selfs I really don't have any. For things like this I'd say just get googling. I learned how to use programming languages by watching starter tutorials and combined multiple tutorials together to make 1 big project and after this I used to experience I gained from it to create my own projects.