What is a good starting point for an aspiring programmer?

Robert · 2006-08-02 01:06:48

I figured if there was a group of people out there who could help me with this it would be those tech savvy folks at the TXP forums. In all seriousness though I would like to learn a little programming and I really have no idea where to start. I stopped in at Barnes & Noble, but the vast quantity of topics (Ruby, Rails, PHP, PERL, Java, etc.) confounded me as to where to I should start. I’m not a complete tech noob (I can put a PC together, and set up a local web server). I just need someone to point me towards square one.

hcgtv · 2006-08-02 01:32:59

Hi Robert,

I think square one is grabbing an old PC and putting Linux on it, cause it all starts there. Yes, you can dual boot but having a dedicated server is so much better.

Then it comes down to learning dynamic web apps:

HTML
CSS
PHP
SQL
Javascript

I recommend Debian for a headless server, Ubuntu for a graphical workstation and Komodo for a really nice IDE that’s easy on your pocketbook.

Good luck.

zem · 2006-08-02 02:10:54

I made a few PHP book recommendations here.

Best general advice I can give is, stay away from “learn x in 24 hours/7 days/etc” and “secrets of” type books. They date quickly, and will wind up gathering dust after a quick read. Buy good quality reference manuals, and borrow tutorials or read them online.

Walker · 2006-08-02 03:14:36

I would suggest learning C (or some variant) first. Then getting into the things mentioned above. That is….if you want to have the foundation for “real” programming skills properly laid.

zem · 2006-08-02 03:26:42

[ed: pointless flamebait removed by the author]

Pick a language that suits your goals.

Wikipedia has some good information about programming languages, maybe that’ll help.

Last edited by zem (2006-08-02 03:38:59)

maniqui · 2006-08-02 05:16:03

Thanks Robert for asking the question.

I want to start learn programming too.
I learnt a bit of Pascal many years ago, and with that poor knowledge I achieved to do some ultra-minimal Actionscript during the time I have played with Flash.
I understand the concepts of variables and if/then, and maybe some more of that programming words…

That’s my “background” in programming.
Now, I want to learn PHP and MySQL, mostly for playing and understanding TxP deeply.

No money for real books, so I think I will try to grab every resource there is online, like this one:
http://www.hudzilla.org/phpbook/

I will follow hcgtv’s advice and will install an Ubuntu on this machine (right now, I have installed the 5.10 but I want to do the total switch by installing the 6.06). I will try to move away from Windows.

I would like to complement my programming lessons with some of that GTD brainwash…

This were just my daily thoughts said loud at the TxP forums…
thanks for the time and the space!

xjosie729 · 2006-08-02 14:48:12

I think you should go from the easy to the hard. For me, PHP is very easy, but C++ seems really hard.

hakjoon · 2006-08-02 16:54:17

There is absolutely no need to combine the complication of learning a new OS to the complication of learning to program.

You can very easily work with PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby on windows. While most of these languages tend to have some optimizations towards Posix based systems they all run very well under windows. I was using Perl to script Homesite on windows 7 or 8 years ago.

If on OSX it’s almost all there out of the box since OSX is BSD based. That’s not to say installing Linux is not worthwhile but it’s a completely different issue.

I think the O’reilly Learning books tend to be good intro books as they walk you through the foundation elements of the language.

Last edited by hakjoon (2006-08-02 16:57:57)

hcgtv · 2006-08-02 19:58:57

hakjoon wrote:

There is absolutely no need to combine the complication of learning a new OS to the complication of learning to program.

Well it teaches you one very important thing, to be self reliant in looking up information.

Also, there’s a ton of free software to be had, like Quanta+

I do some of my work on my Windows laptop, rolled my own AMP platform but it doesn’t always behave like a true Linux system. So I use it for tweaking templates and such, but from my own experience, after installing hundreds of dynamic apps, it’s much better to run them on a *nix system.

Case in point, have you tried phpMyAdmin 2.8.2 on Windows, what’s up with the fonts?

hakjoon · 2006-08-02 23:15:50

Sorry but wrangling with conf files in order to get my wireless card working or my video card recognized by X has nothing to do with programming. Granted it’s not anywhere near that bad anymore but any new OS has a learning curve, and conquering that learning curve will not make you a better programmer.

How someone else’s web apps run on a specific OS has nothing to do with how easy it is to program on that OS.

Pick an OS you are comfortable with, Pick a text editor you like and start trying to build tools. Once you build something, build it again, it will be better the second time. Read, read and read some more.

Running *nix or not is a separate decision then learning to program. Plus FreeBSD makes a better headless server anyway :)

Mary · 2006-08-03 00:07:59

Robert, I suggest you take a look at PHP and Ruby. Pick the one that you seem to like best, and learn it. Once you learn one language, it’s usually easy to pick up new ones, since they tend to use the same concepts.

Robert · 2006-08-03 00:50:42

Wow. This is more feedback than I expected. Thanks. I have played with Linux a bit (Ubuntu-Breezy Badger). While I understand that learning a new OS is an excellent experience it would be a bit much with learning to program at the same time. I know that Windows may not be the best environment to work with but it is familiar territory. What I am more interested in is what would be an easy place to start. I like what I have read about Ruby. Anyone have any thoughts on Ruby versus PHP, Python, C etc.

I think I will just go ahead and give Ruby a try, but anything else anyone wants to add will be appreciated.

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#1 2006-08-02 01:06:48

What is a good starting point for an aspiring programmer?

#2 2006-08-02 01:32:59

Re: What is a good starting point for an aspiring programmer?

#3 2006-08-02 02:10:54

Re: What is a good starting point for an aspiring programmer?

#4 2006-08-02 03:14:36

Re: What is a good starting point for an aspiring programmer?

#5 2006-08-02 03:26:42

Re: What is a good starting point for an aspiring programmer?

#6 2006-08-02 05:16:03

Re: What is a good starting point for an aspiring programmer?

#7 2006-08-02 14:48:12

Re: What is a good starting point for an aspiring programmer?

#8 2006-08-02 16:54:17

Re: What is a good starting point for an aspiring programmer?

#9 2006-08-02 19:58:57

Re: What is a good starting point for an aspiring programmer?

#10 2006-08-02 23:15:50

Re: What is a good starting point for an aspiring programmer?

#11 2006-08-03 00:07:59

Re: What is a good starting point for an aspiring programmer?

#12 2006-08-03 00:50:42

Re: What is a good starting point for an aspiring programmer?

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