learning

[waggythegeek]

So, I wanna learn a programming language that is pretty generic and will help me along in ask shirts of places, be it robotics, command prompt, modding, or customizing my telnet. Preferably it would be cheap or free. Ideas?

[Goldensapling]

http://www.codeacademy.com

I learned HTML and learning Java from here

[waggythegeek]

http://www.codeacademy.com

I learned HTML and learning Java from here

Actually asking what language I should learn... Was gonna make a separate thread about where to learn the language, once I had decided.

[TechFnatic]

Actually asking what language I should learn... Was gonna make a separate thread about where to learn the language, once I had decided.

Learn python, SUPER simple, very easy to understand and an all around great language

[madknight3]

Normally I would suggest Python as a good first language. I just don't know enough about modding and robotics to know how applicable it is to those uses. Maybe it's great, maybe C/C++ is better. Hopefully someone who knows more about these topics can weigh in.

 

 

http://www.codeacademy.com

I learned HTML and learning Java from here

 

Javascript not Java. Two very different languages.

[mathijs727]

Normally I would suggest Python as a good first language. I just don't know enough about modding and robotics to know how applicable it is to those uses. Maybe it's great, maybe C/C++ is better. Hopefully someone who knows more about these topics can weigh in.

 

 

 

Javascript not Java. Two very different languages.

There are lots of things you can do with python apart from robotics.

At my university we use it to write simple webservers, image processing and linear algebra.

With some libraries like numpy and opencv2 python is perfect for experimenting.

For bigger project i would definetly learn java, c# or c++ (c++ is fastest but most complicated, c# is mainly focussed on windows (have a look at mono)). All of these languages will be faster then python and have stronger type checking.

[HerrSubset]

c# is mainly focussed on windows (have a look at mono)

According to the guys developing mono, it's almost fully compatible with .NET stuff. So learning it on Linux/OSX should be fine (apparently).

 

On topic: if you ask for a generic language, python is the one that jumps to mind for me. However, I have no idea what you'd need for robotics. It probably also depends on what exactly you'd want to do.

 

As far as modding goes, the language you'll need probably depends on the language the game was written in (more or less).

 

Question, do you already know some programming language?

[DotoreN]

Normally I would suggest Python as a good first language. I just don't know enough about modding and robotics to know how applicable it is to those uses. Maybe it's great, maybe C/C++ is better. Hopefully someone who knows more about these topics can weigh in.

 

 

 

Javascript not Java. Two very different languages.

 

Different languages indeed.. they don't even have anything similar apart from the name.

[DotoreN]

There are lots of things you can do with python apart from robotics.

At my university we use it to write simple webservers, image processing and linear algebra.

With some libraries like numpy and opencv2 python is perfect for experimenting.

For bigger project i would definetly learn java, c# or c++ (c++ is fastest but most complicated, c# is mainly focussed on windows (have a look at mono)). All of these languages will be faster then python and have stronger type checking.

 

Not trying to hijack the thread, but i'm also learning Python now (stepped away from java). Are you able to list some awesome things you can create with python and what python is used for mainly? probably also interesting for the OP.

[waggythegeek]

According to the guys developing mono, it's almost fully compatible with .NET stuff. So learning it on Linux/OSX should be fine (apparently).

On topic: if you ask for a generic language, python is the one that jumps to mind for me. However, I have no idea what you'd need for robotics. It probably also depends on what exactly you'd want to do.

As far as modding goes, the language you'll need probably depends on the language the game was written in (more or less).

Question, do you already know some programming language?

Nope

[waggythegeek]

Not trying to hijack the thread, but i'm also learning Python now (stepped away from java). Are you able to list some awesome things you can create with python and what python is used for mainly? probably also interesting for the OP.

Yeah, def interesting!

[mathijs727]

Not trying to hijack the thread, but i'm also learning Python now (stepped away from java). Are you able to list some awesome things you can create with python and what python is used for mainly? probably also interesting for the OP.

I wrote my own webserver (to learn http protocol, there's also a build in webserver in case you'd wanna use that) and i wrote a simple mail script to learn smtp protocol. I also made a simple image stitcher using SIFT in OpenCV.

We use python mainly for learning new things (techniques and algorithms) because its easy and most things are elegant to write. For bigger projects and production software i would not recommend it because its not as fast and most importantly: it doesnt have type checking

[HerrSubset]

Some easier projects that I did were following:

• A small script that downloads the list of teams in my volleyball club. The script extracts all the team names. The user enters one of the team names and the script then generates an ical file containing the games of that team. Now I can easily get my volleyball calendar in my google calendar.
• My grandfather keeps a little book about our family, listing when people were born, married, etc. It also has a calendar with an overview per month (all the same events) and it has a family tree.
  I decided to make a tool in python for him, so that it would be easier to maintain it. There would be an export function to put it all in a word document or smth.

These kind of things are purely solving your own problems. Try to find things like that, that way you'll stay motivated

[echtogammut]

Learning programming is about learning programming logic, so picking an easy to read language is important. Generally speaking I recommend Python, because it is easy to read and there are a lot of free tutorials out there. Also Python is used in a lot of different markets, game development, mobile app development, business logic applications, the list is really long. Just look at the job listings for Python programmers.

 

Learning Python is step 1, step 2 is learning algorithms and data structures, and step 3 is write lots of code. Seriously come up with stupid pet projects and write code for them. Python can be used for programming Arduinos, so make yourself the smartest alarm clock in existence. Write yourself an app to manage all your grocery shopping and house budget. The important thing is to push yourself until you have that aha! moment where things start to click. I always have two or three personal projects going on, usually in different languages and different environments.  

 

As for resources:

CodeAcademy - A decent interactive environment and you don't have to install anything on your computer. The lesson are incomplete and there are bugs, but free is good.

Coursera - A free University class, taught either by Rice University. This looks like a more general guide, designed to get people doing projects rather than focusing a programming logic.

Edx - Another Free University class, taught by MIT. This one is a more formal introduction to computer programming, which would be good if you don't have any background. I have used Edx courses and if you take them live, you get access to community chat forums and GSIs who answer questions. A word of warning University courses usually mean the homework involves math, I only say this because I come across a lot of people who don't get programming means lots of math.

 

As an alternative Microsoft has a lot of free classes as well:

http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/

- They have a guy that does a lot of their intro courses, Bob Taber, whom I paid for a seminar on WCF. I was really impressed with his instruction and if his intro stuff is as good as his more advanced topics I would highly recommend him. Everything on MVA is free, so is Visual Studio Express (the best IDE on the market imho). 

 

I would recommend with all the choices try a couple and see which one seems the best. But once you make your choice commit to finishing the course, I was reading an article on these courses... roughly 70-80% of people who start an online course don't finish.

 

Also read the Python library... whenever you are doing something always ask yourself "I wonder if someone has already created a function to do this"... chances are someone has and it is there in the library. In my professional life, I see lots of "creative" code to solve a problem that there was already a better solution written defined.