From Scratch, Purely seeking recommendations and experiences. Options

[ilyria109]

I've always been fascinated with programming, and have only had very short experiences creating "hello world" in various languages.
It's come to my attention that it may actually be very useful for me to learn at least one or two languages, even if it is just for the experience and being able to say "yeah i did that"
But my question is, "where do i start?" i know this is a vague question. but by that i mean, how do i go about learning, where do i go for the content, whether from library books or internet or whatever.
Going to CIT(TAFE) or Uni is out of the question, working 6 days a week 9-6:30 :P
I think "where to start" is a vague question because i really dont have any experience with it, i don't know which language would be best suited for me, and i don't know which would look better on a resume(for instance)

Just seeking some advise on the first steps.

Oh btw, i only have access to windows 7 atm. (i dont know if that makes any difference)

[NukeJockey]

What sort of job do you have? If you're in I.T as a sys admin, powershell would be a good, easy language to learn and very handy for making the life of a sys admin easier, as for other languages, no idea.

[ilyria109]

What sort of job do you have? If you're in I.T as a sys admin, powershell would be a good, easy language to learn and very handy for making the life of a sys admin easier, as for other languages, no idea.

Technician/Desktop support for a small shop atm.

[NukeJockey]

Powershell would be a good start then. If you ever end up in a sys admin role where you are supporting windows environments, it will become invaluable for scripting. Its also really quite easy to learn.

http://www.powershellpro.com/powershell-tu...l-introduction/

[ilyria109]

Cheers man ^^

[sponger]

PowerShell is probably a good first choice if you have a Windows admin background. It's not really a programming language, it's a...shell, like BASH. You can achieve some cool stuff piping commands and there are simple control structures available.

However, it's important to realise that programming is more about solving problems. There are whole books and university subjects devoted to it. Translating a solution into instructions that the computer can understand is usually the easiest part. If you're as interested as you say and you don't have time for uni, maybe check out some of those free online computer science courses that various unis deliver.

[ilyria109]

Yeah i understand what programming is about. IT kinda runs in the family, i just don't have any experience at all with them. i think i did a few basic programs with pascal in highschool.

[.:Cyb3rGlitch:.]

Choose a language what suits your needs. If you want to write Android apps, learn Java or Scala. If you want to write iOS apps, learn Objective C. If you want to write Windows programs, learn a .NET based language or something cross platform like Java. If you have an appreciation for well designed languages, learn Haskell (it's probably my favourite language of all, despite the fact that I'm still learning it).

Stay away from C++, PHP, Perl and anything else that will drive you insane due to poor language design decisions. Unless you absolutely must use them, they're usually more pain than they're worth.

I suggest you pick a project you want to achieve and then choose a language to learn accordingly.

This post has been edited by .:Cyb3rGlitch:.: Jul 14 2012, 10:20 PM

[robzy]

If you want to write iOS apps, learn Objective C.

False. If you want to write iOS apps, set yourself on fire. It is a far better option than learning Objective C.

While that is a joke, Cyb3rGlitch is quite correct about trying to avoid C++, PHP or Perl. They are all good languages in their own way, but they don't teach you "programming" as easily as other languages.

Everyone is correct when they suggest that you should learn a language that will help you in day-to-day life. I don't know anything about PowerShell, but I'd hazard a guess that its a good start.

Rob.

[Opy]

This isn't advice, just an option of something to play with at home. For a language to get into it definately depends on what you want to make of it.

While VBA is a bit of a joke in the programmers world (I don't think it even qualifies as a programming language) it is easy to get your hands into and get your head around some of the intricacies you'll run into in the future.
You can just record a macro in Excel and then view the code, look up some web forums for advice and clean up the code. Write functions that your code will call and so forth. There is a great online community to help you out.

But if you want to get into serious programming, you'll soon learn why VBA is considered a joke. That and SQL are all I deal with at the moment and I'm finding VBA to be a challenge in patience. Not a challenge in working out the write code, but when I need to run a fairly simple macro 2 or 3 times to get the correct result, I really feel like quitting for the day. Admittedly I'm on a cheapo mass produced corporate PC, which doesn't help.

So, yeah. Easy to get your hands on and do some useful stuff, just not stuff that is really cool and runs reliability. And perhaps there are bad habits that people will ward you off, but you can usually relearn stuff the right way later.

I wouldn't mind getting into .NET. For personal reasons, I'd also like to learn XML and C++ to help me mod settings files in some games. Maybe Flash too.

[ilyria109]

Picked up a book that i bought purely on impulse yesturday called "SamsTeach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache" i know these have a web design priority but the way it is set out, i must say, i don't know much about it yet, but i'd recomend it ... costs $39.00 and you get a software package to test and set up in different situations.
Seems pretty good, i'll let you know how it goes.

[.:Cyb3rGlitch:.]

The list of bugs and inconsistencies in PHP is probably larger than that whole book. :P

http://me.veekun.com/blog/2012/04/09/php-a...-of-bad-design/

[ilyria109]

The list of bugs and inconsistencies in PHP is probably larger than that whole book. :P

http://me.veekun.com/blog/2012/04/09/php-a...-of-bad-design/

Here's hoping i just pick up the fundamentals of what it's about, and that SQL and APACHE are a bit more helpful to me :D

[drago13666]

This isn't advice, just an option of something to play with at home. For a language to get into it definately depends on what you want to make of it.

While VBA is a bit of a joke in the programmers world (I don't think it even qualifies as a programming language) it is easy to get your hands into and get your head around some of the intricacies you'll run into in the future.
You can just record a macro in Excel and then view the code, look up some web forums for advice and clean up the code. Write functions that your code will call and so forth. There is a great online community to help you out.

But if you want to get into serious programming, you'll soon learn why VBA is considered a joke. That and SQL are all I deal with at the moment and I'm finding VBA to be a challenge in patience. Not a challenge in working out the write code, but when I need to run a fairly simple macro 2 or 3 times to get the correct result, I really feel like quitting for the day. Admittedly I'm on a cheapo mass produced corporate PC, which doesn't help.

So, yeah. Easy to get your hands on and do some useful stuff, just not stuff that is really cool and runs reliability. And perhaps there are bad habits that people will ward you off, but you can usually relearn stuff the right way later.

I wouldn't mind getting into .NET. For personal reasons, I'd also like to learn XML and C++ to help me mod settings files in some games. Maybe Flash too.

+1

I'm in the process of teaching myself VBA, its a reasonable starting point and very usefull for me considering my job is heavily reliant on database work (mostly through excel) and telephony which conveniently can work with scripts written in VBA.