Any self-taught programmers here?

[Deleted member 7448]

I've been trying to get into programming lately but I have failed.

The problem is, I can't find anything that's beginner friendly and doesn't skip over parts that are important, assuming that you already know them.

Everything that r/learnprogramming recommends either does what I just said, or is in Python. I don't want to learn Python, I want to learn a better language that has more uses and isn't basically a niche for scientists and people that work at Google or Yahoo.

I've tried guides that have been praised for their awesomeness, like the uni of Helsinki http://moocfi.github.io/courses/2013/programming-part-1/material.html . These fuckers skip shit too, the moment they introduced the scanner thingy things went downhill.

Even codeacademy for Java confused me when it got to classes, the constructor method and instance fields.

Is every guide out there too complicated and skips stuff, or am I 'tarded?

 

[Deleted member 5333]

php is good to go if you want to make websites

 

[Guest2]

I guess it depends on what language you want to learn.

'tarded

 

[Deleted member 7448]

I guess it depends on what language you want to learn.

 

[Reimu Hakurei]

Try python or javascript. They seems to be retard-proof, even trannies and pajeets can learn them. You can also try some meme language like Lua or Haskell.

 

[Deleted member 7448]

Try python or javascript. They seems to be retard-proof, even trannies and pajeets can learn them. You can also try some meme language like Lua or Haskell.

Ehh, might as well not learn it at all than waste my time learning python. Java or any of the C-based languages are the only ones that seem worth learning to me.

 

[Dionysus]

i know a small bit of coding but thats from yt videos that I eventually lost interest in

 

[RopeShow]

CScel here. I'm not self taught but I can give you some pointers. You gotta decide what you want to build with code, you wanna go front end? Back end? Full stack? Physics? Game dev? That kind of stuff.

Second you need to master basic programming concepts like variables, looping, conditionals, recursivity. Then queues, stacks, decks, linked lists, binary trees...

These can be learned with virtually any programming language, so you gotta decide what you want to do first and then get on the language that will give you the tools you need.

There's a bunch of resources online for all this like the open source CS major, udemy, yt...

 

[GameDevCel]

Then queues, stacks, decks

how much i hate those

 

[RopeShow]

how much i hate those

Without recursivity they are a pain x-x
@anon1822 Here's some of the stuff i talked about above:

- Open source computer science degree;

- Udemy (If you want to buy the courses and they are not 90-something% off, just add them to your wishlist and wait - or you can always sail to the high seas);

- Youtube videos: Try to always use the ones that are a compilation of classes in one video, and from the same author. You might get confused if you have to video hop all the time.

- Some video exemples:
C Programming
C++ programming
GNU/Linux complete

- Some channels i like:
Stefan Mischook
Javidx9

- Assorted programming lunacy that i like:
Suckless
cat-v - harmful software
Mayfrost alternatives to bloatware
Cybrary - Free Cybersec training

If you need pointers to stuff or help PM ya boyo here (or we should create a programmercel megathread hmm...)

 

[Deleted member 7448]

Without recursivity they are a pain x-x
@anon1822 Here's some of the stuff i talked about above:

- Open source computer science degree;

- Udemy (If you want to buy the courses and they are not 90-something% off, just add them to your wishlist and wait - or you can always sail to the high seas);

- Youtube videos: Try to always use the ones that are a compilation of classes in one video, and from the same author. You might get confused if you have to video hop all the time.

- Some video exemples:
C Programming
C++ programming
GNU/Linux complete

- Some channels i like:
Stefan Mischook
Javidx9

- Assorted programming lunacy that i like:
Suckless
cat-v - harmful software
Mayfrost alternatives to bloatware
Cybrary - Free Cybersec training

If you need pointers to stuff or help PM ya boyo here (or we should create a programmercel megathread hmm...)

Thanks mate, gonna look into those.

 

[Deleted member 17419]

Yeah you are going to want to know exactly what you want to make, specifically and detailed enough so that you can break obstacles and gaps in knowledge down into small enough parts to feel manageable to you, if that makes sense.

Good links and tips by RopeShow above, and yeah, language doesn't really matter too much, you mostly probably have a problem with conceptualizing how to convert your idea of how a program would work for the enduser into loops and conditionals etc as stated above. You are required to understand this first, at least in a general way, regardless of language (mostly).

Good luck.

 

[Gengar]

What do you want to do bro? I'm a self-taught programmer and not bad at all if I may say. PM me, I'm glad to help.
I also have ton of free books on programming if you want I can send some to you.

 

[Deleted member 7448]

What do you want to do bro? I'm a self-taught programmer and not bad at all if I may say. PM me, I'm glad to help.
I also have ton of free books on programming if you want I can send some to you.

Thanks, but I just use http://gen.lib.rus.ec/ and I get any book I need. Try it, it's a very good source.

 

[Gengar]

Thanks, but I just use http://gen.lib.rus.ec/ and I get any book I need. Try it, it's a very good source.

I use that one too .

 

[Deleted member 16455]

Nah i fuckin suck at it. But i have to take an intro class because its required for my major

 

[blackcel]

A lot of online tutorials focus on the syntax of a language and not actual programming. Learning programming languages is easy once you understand the basics behind giving instructions to a computer.

head on over to MIT ocw and look at their 6.001 course. Watch the lectures, do the homework. If you make it all the way to the end you will have a solid enough foundation that'll allow you to easily follow any programming language tutorial you'd find online. At the very least you will learn how to program in python.

And there is nothing wrong with python. I am a scientist and most people just use wtfever they are comfortable with. One guy uses fortran, another may use C. Language doesn't matter because most of the programs we write are just to test theories. Matlab is an extremely common baseline language in the lab I work at, though.

 

[Gengar]

Nah i fuckin suck at it. But i have to take an intro class because its required for my major

But you are already a Major broooo....

 

[boojies]

Learning Python is learning Java. Learning any programming language is learning every programming language. There are three primary sorts of higher than assembly level programming language (numerous others if you count obscure proof of concept and research languages). They are procedural, object oriented, and functional. Many languages, especially modern ones, are hybrids of all three styles. Even languages that are more procedural, such as C, can be used in object oriented manners, and almost invariably are to one extent or another by the advanced programmers of them. They can also usually be used in functional like styles (to some extent anyway) just by implementing the functional constructs.

The programming language itself is just the discrete form that the underlying concepts take. It's just the precise way to express the same thing. You are better off learning an easy language that will teach you the underlying concepts rapidly, and then after this learning a more complicated language that gives you lower level control over things. Learning to drive a car is a lot like learning to drive a professional race car I imagine. They are both similar to learning how to drive a go-cart. A lot of the concepts are the same. You have breaks. You have a gas pedal. You have a steering wheel. But before you learn what a steering wheel is and get some practice with a go-cart, you are just going to cause yourself to crash and burn if you use a race car for practicing.

You can learn programming with a harder language like C first. But I believe you are doing a disservice to yourself by doing so. Don't feel bad that you are learning a language other than the one you ultimately want to learn. You are learning the language you ultimately want to learn at the same time. Because almost certainly there will be massive conceptual overlap between the two -- especially if you start with a beginner friendly multiparadigm language. Probably at least 80% of what you learn will be trivially transferable to the next language you learn, and then it is just a matter of looking up the way to express the concept you already know, rather than learning how to express a concept in a language that makes you deal with more of the tiny details that are not fundamental to the underlying concept, which obfuscates the concept in the details of the more complex language and makes it harder to learn than if you come to the language with the underlying concepts and then just need to learn the details of expressing it in the complicated language, and can clearly delineate the language from the underlying concepts.

I've been self teaching myself programming and related matters for seven years now. It takes a lot of effort and time to get good. I am still not an expert, but I am starting to get close to it. It probably takes about eight years of regular practice and study to be a truly professional and elite programmer. And it is not just study of programming languages required, but rather of numerous things such as software architecture, algorithms and data structures, and so on. However, you can just learn programming -- you will just not ever be that good of a programmer. But even with six months you can start making decent little toys and stuff, so don't be too discouraged. You can start making cool things and probably even be competent for some entry level jobs within six months if you really work hard at it, but you are going to suck until you have about four or five years.

 

[GameDevCel]

Learning Python is learning Java. Learning any programming language is learning every programming language. There are three primary sorts of higher than assembly level programming language

they have different syntaxes, and libraries

for example it would be much easiert to make a neural network on python than C, and would be much easier to make a weebpage in HTML+JavaScript than in Java

 

[Deleted member 7448]

Learning Python is learning Java. Learning any programming language is learning every programming language. There are three primary sorts of higher than assembly level programming language (numerous others if you count obscure proof of concept and research languages). They are procedural, object oriented, and functional. Many languages, especially modern ones, are hybrids of all three styles. Even languages that are more procedural, such as C, can be used in object oriented manners, and almost invariably are to one extent or another by the advanced programmers of them. They can also usually be used in functional like styles (to some extent anyway) just by implementing the functional constructs.

The programming language itself is just the discrete form that the underlying concepts take. It's just the precise way to express the same thing. You are better off learning an easy language that will teach you the underlying concepts rapidly, and then after this learning a more complicated language that gives you lower level control over things. Learning to drive a car is a lot like learning to drive a professional race car I imagine. They are both similar to learning how to drive a go-cart. A lot of the concepts are the same. You have breaks. You have a gas pedal. You have a steering wheel. But before you learn what a steering wheel is and get some practice with a go-cart, you are just going to cause yourself to crash and burn if you use a race car for practicing.

You can learn programming with a harder language like C first. But I believe you are doing a disservice to yourself by doing so. Don't feel bad that you are learning a language other than the one you ultimately want to learn. You are learning the language you ultimately want to learn at the same time. Because almost certainly there will be massive conceptual overlap between the two -- especially if you start with a beginner friendly multiparadigm language. Probably at least 80% of what you learn will be trivially transferable to the next language you learn, and then it is just a matter of looking up the way to express the concept you already know, rather than learning how to express a concept in a language that makes you deal with more of the tiny details that are not fundamental to the underlying concept, which obfuscates the concept in the details of the more complex language and makes it harder to learn than if you come to the language with the underlying concepts and then just need to learn the details of expressing it in the complicated language, and can clearly delineate the language from the underlying concepts.

I've been self teaching myself programming and related matters for seven years now. It takes a lot of effort and time to get good. I am still not an expert, but I am starting to get close to it. It probably takes about eight years of regular practice and study to be a truly professional and elite programmer. And it is not just study of programming languages required, but rather of numerous things such as software architecture, algorithms and data structures, and so on. However, you can just learn programming -- you will just not ever be that good of a programmer. But even with six months you can start making decent little toys and stuff, so don't be too discouraged. You can start making cool things and probably even be competent for some entry level jobs within six months if you really work hard at it, but you are going to suck until you have about four or five years.

Very well written, thank you. I hope you can make a lot of money with these skills of yours.

 

[Modafincel]

I would recommend learning python as your first language. It has a ton of libraries that could do useful things from machine learning to backend web development. A lot of people teach in python too, since python is almost like pseudocode. The MIT datastructures and algorithms lectures on Youtube teaches with python. I recommend "Think Python" by Downey as a beginner into to programming book. Then I recommend "Automate the Boring Stuff with Python," since it will teach you useful things to do with python. A good text editor is VScode.

After that, pick your poison and learn Java or C#. They are about equal in things they can do. I wouldn't recommend learning C/C++. C/C++ have specific use cases which you probably won't do. If you're gonna be a web developer like most people then learning C/C++ is pointless.

I self-taught myself like this: Python -> Java -> data structures and algos in Java -> SQL -> JavaScript/front end.

 

[RollD20]

Might programmercel than ldar for the summer, since my courses are done. A megathread for codecels would be a neat idea.

 

[boojies]

I made a large post with lots of code in it and the WAP of this site blocked it as potentially malicious because of the code in it, so I will pastebin my post and link to it instead.

I would recommend learning python as your first language. It has a ton of libraries that could do useful things from machine learning to backend web development. A lot of people teach in python too, since python is almost like pseudocode. The MIT datastructures and algorithms lectures on Youtube teaches with python. I recommend "Think Python" by Downey as a beginner into to programming book. Then I recommend "Automate the Boring Stuff with Python," since it will teach you useful things to do with python. A good text editor is VScode.

After that, pick your poison and learn Java or C#. They are about equal in things they can do. I wouldn't recommend learning C/C++. C/C++ have specific use cases which you probably won't do. If you're gonna be a web developer like most people then learning C/C++ is pointless.

I self-taught myself like this: Python -> Java -> data structures and algos in Java -> SQL -> JavaScript/front end.

C and C++ are being moved away from even by many of the domains that had specific uses for them, though the sheer volume of the already existent code is such that it will take several decades before anything can seriously replace them. They are used primarily for what is called systems programming, perhaps the best example of this being operating systems. Also, for libraries they are commonly used -- even the libraries that are called by languages like Python and whatnot are oftentimes written in C or C++ and simply wrapped with an FFI. They are also used for many major desktop applications, including web browsers, and many instant messaging programs. They are also used for the web server itself, and in many cases for writing the higher level languages that web development is done in. It's also crucial to know them to be a serious hacker. C++ is also commonly used in game development.

They have numerous other use cases as well, but due to their history of security issues and stability issues (as well as their general state of being dated) they are being moved away from in many circles; though again, the process of switching to something like Rust will take decades probably (and many people think such languages will never seriously deprecate C and C++).

they have different syntaxes, and libraries

for example it would be much easiert to make a neural network on python than C, and would be much easier to make a weebpage in HTML+JavaScript than in Java

Also, HTML isn't a programming language but rather is a markup language. Many websites are written with Java engines that serve HTML pages. I think there are javascript engines as well that serve the same function, but javascript is also used in more of web script manner. I am not that versed with web programming, though I have several hundred hours of experience with PHP and have done some web stuff.