coding

[WHITEROOMENERGYMINE1]

Hey DaoBums, I'm looking to learn how to code on the computer. Does anyone know online resources for such a thing? I'm trying to find the right books and teachings for the architecture. Thank you.

 

theNERD

[rideforever]

code what for what reason ?
i remember there were some torrents with dozens of coding books in them sorted by language

[thelerner]

https://www.coursera.org/ has many relatively cheap (or frequent sales) programming courses  Youtube also has many series for programming beginners in many languages.   Most computer languages have sites with series of video and manual lessons.

 

Still, programming is alot like learning a language.  There's a big hump to get over before you're literate enough to write sentences and complete stories..ie program. 

[DreamBliss]

At YouTube you will find series by these users:
https://www.youtube.com/user/thenewboston
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8butISFwT-Wl7EV0hUK0BQ
https://www.youtube.com/user/elithecomputerguy

 

Microsoft has their Hour of Code:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/digital-skills/hour-of-code

 

Microsoft also has stuff at their Virtual Academy.

 

Udemy has a variety of free, cheap and expensive courses for programming. Try to avoid the guys from India unless you can understand them well enough:
https://www.udemy.com/

 

Finally check your local library, as they will have a lot of books on the subject. The library in my area just made Lynda training available to patrons. Lynda also has video training courses, but none free that I am aware of, unless you are able to access them through your library.

 

If you figure out or know exactly what language and how you want to learn it, post here with these details and maybe I can find something more specific. This is a subject I have looked into and collected lots of materials for over the years.

[WHITEROOMENERGYMINE1]

thanks guys checking it out

 

[Lost in Translation]

I would start with a good textbook. Read each chapter and work on the exercises. Javascript is probably the best first language, since it's incredibly forgiving and on every computer. I have programmed professionally for twenty years. Feel free to PM me, or I can help you in this thread. 

[joeblast]

lol type learn to code in internet search, find a whole crap ton of links

 

I dont know if they teach that one in class, though

[Nintendao]

On 6/4/2019 at 6:26 PM, WHITEROOMENERGYMINE1 said:

thanks guys checking it out

 

 

Have you found a good fit? If you want to jump into an instant gratification activity with little to no real world pay off, but is actually the way a great many pros were initially exposed to, load up BASIC - Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code.

 

An Interpreter: http://www.quitebasic.com/

A Compiler: https://www.portal.qb64.org/

 

Spoiler

 

 

You can just study the samples, read a bit of the HELP file, and start pounding away to get a feel for the essential concepts:

Input/Output, Variables, Conditionals, and Loops.

 

Beyond that, the subject really has gotten quite big and it can be tricky to define the best entry point. I agree that depending what goal is in mind really refines what material would benefit. You want to make a game? Web sites? Process a database? Solve math stuff? Understand how computers work? Model complexity and intelligence? Turn the monitor into a strobe light?

[Lost in Translation]

In my opinion, this is the very best book to start your learning into programming.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Language-2nd-Brian-Kernighan/dp/0131103628

 

The book is small, concise, and covers the basics (variables, functions, iteration, etc) very well. I won't teach you anything about graphics for web development, but it will show you the foundation needed to build on top of. I highly recommend it.

[dawei]

I taught myself to code without books...  created a program used by state and federal partners...  and may be why one of my best friends said, 'you are an accidental coder'.   

 

Code to your hearts desire 

[Lost in Translation]

1 hour ago, Wuschel said:

the direction i'm going into at the moment is raw js, css, html & react

 

These are all front-end technologies. For best results, consider full stack. This means back end technologies (Java/.Net REST API & SQL/No SQL databases along with server-side dev, e.g. Linux and corresponding web servers). I also suggest learning a low level language (C and C++, possibly assembly), a logical language (e.g. Prolog), and extensive learning in functional programming (LISP, scheme, Haskel). It's a lot to take in, but take it slow and in a few years you will be able to do it. Then you can focus on the business side of programming (e.g. domain knowledge and project management). Finally you'll be in a position to learn the "soft skills", e.g. communication and leadership. If you want a successful freelance career then this is the path. It's a lot of work, but that's life.

[Lost in Translation]

2 hours ago, Wuschel said:

thank you for your reply @Lost in Translation,

 

for the moment i want to gain just a basic skillset which enables me to make at least some money through freelancing, in less than 6 months ideally. and then build opon that. what would you (or anyone) recommend for this short-term goal?

 

  Hide contents

as soon as i have income independent of location, i can live in places & ways which require very little money, which in turn opens lots of freedom to invest time into other things than paying rent etc

 

 

Web development has changed a lot since it first became a thing twenty years ago. Back in the '90's, all you needed was HTML, a bit of CSS, the ability to copy/paste JavaScript enough to make image rollovers and the ability to embed a plugin or two. If you had some PERL and could whip up a CGI program then you were set!

 

Today is radically different. Today you need HTML, CSS, and JavaScript still, but you also need knowledge of JavaScript frameworks, for example Angular. You also need to fully understand asynchronous programming. For example, your UI makes a REST call to some API to get data. Back in the day you would make that call and wait for a response. Not anymore. Now you pass a callback to that call and immediately return. When the data are available, the Ajax framework you are using will invoke your callback, passing the data as an argument. This is easy to do when you have just one call, but modern websites usually make several calls, and the data often depend on each other. In other words there is a chain of dependencies. Lots of bugs show up when programmers don't get this right...

 

What I'm trying to say is web programming is still programming. I can teach someone the basics in six months and get them reasonably competent in one domain, but it takes a lot longer than that to be generally competent. As a freelancer, you will be expected to operate either as an expert in one niche, or be highly competent across the board. Both take time.

 

So where are you now in your skills? Have you already learned programming basics? Have you worked on projects before? This matters in determining the pathway before you.

Edited June 22, 2019 by Lost in Translation

[Lost in Translation]

8 hours ago, Wuschel said:

i'm pretty much still on ground zero. i've been getting started a few weeks ago. after some general research i thought it a good idea to go into frontend first, and start with raw js, css, html, and react as first framework. so far i've been only getting into general principles of css & html, understanding the syntax and memorizing some of the basics. no projects yet

 

I suggest you start with the basics. Learn about variables and basic types (char, int, float, etc), iteration (if/else, for, while, do), functions, and aggregate types (structures, classes, etc). This is why I think all programmers should start with C, even if you won't actually be a C programmer. As I mentioned above, the K&R book "The C Programming Language" is an excellent intro to the basics for this reason. After learning the basics, you can give your hand at JavaScript.

 

In the meantime there is no reason not to being with HTML and CSS. Learn what it takes to build static websites without any framework or JavaScript.

 

Check out the CSS Zen Garden website for examples of what can be done using only basic HTML and no programming.

 

http://www.csszengarden.com/

 

 

[rideforever]

Hmm ... I am wondering about doing some computer work again.

I made a very good salary coding casino game front ends, often in Flash ... but now Flash is dead.

Should I go back to coding or am I beyond it ?
I am a little tired of the climate of young excited internetty people that I used to work with, it was exhausting maintaining contact with all the fashions and whatever.

Perhaps I missed my calling as a programmer of less flamboyant things, in a lower level language.

I wonder what that would be like.

I am a very gifted programmer ... could I go back ?   And what to ?
What opportunities are there ?
I even thought of learning COBOL to get myself a niche market.  Or QT/C++ to migrate front end work to something more serious.

Hmm ...

I don't know how much of the world I need to live in.

I used to think about coding all evening and weekends, and have no life, it really took over my mind.

Hmm ???

[rideforever]

5 hours ago, Wuschel said:

myself

 

And are you still coding, and being like that ???

[Lost in Translation]

12 hours ago, Wuschel said:

 

my question then would be, which niche is the fastest to get good enough in to get the jobs properly done, and also has a reasonable demand for freelancing coders and likely won't disappear anytime soon?

 

Software Programming is a very dynamic field. The technology in demand today might have very little demand in five or ten years. It's common to spend a few years working on a project with cutting edge technology only to find that same technology is out of fashion when you finally release.

 

For example, in 2013-2016 I was working with JSP (Java Server Pages) and JSTL (JSP Standard Tag Library ) for web development. We used various Spring libraries to build a nice financial application running locally hosted WebLogic, then Tomcat servers. Since then we have moved on to Angular 4 (2017-2018) and now Angular 7 (2019), both with Spring Boot / JPA (Java Persistence Architecture) based APIs (application programming interface) - both running on the Amazon Cloud. We've also migrated from Java 7 through Java 11 in that same timeframe. (Java 8 was a big change since it introduced Lambdas (nameless functions), which really simplify coding in some ways).

 

What technologies will we use in a year or two from now? That's impossible to know. The only thing I can guarantee is that I will need to continuously learn new technologies in order to remain competitive. It's literally never ending, and this, above all else, is what drives people away from software engineering. I have seen many bright programmers get chewed up in this churn of learn, unlearn, and relearn. Many of them move on to positions in management, or become business analysts, or move on to quality assurance.

 

What niche will serve you best to allow you to start working as a freelancer? At your current skill level there is none. You would be in a far better position to spend time learning the basics. If formal university training is not an option, then learn HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Learn a bit of Node.js, perhaps spend time learning the basics of SQL. Then look for an entry level position at a small or medium company (less than 200 employees). Take whatever job you can get. Do whatever is asked of you, and let the programmer or programmers at that company mentor you. Consider it a kind of apprenticeship. After a couple years you will have a much different understanding of technology and might be in a position to start freelancing.

 

[Miffymog]

This thread is really hitting close to the mark for me at the moment. 20 years ago I spent a year working at an electrical engineering firm, 6 months of that was coding. For the first 3 I was simply given ‘The C Programming Language’ and told to complete it. After 3 months working on it, I’d done all the exercises except those from the last chapter on Unix. I then spent another 3 months working on some company code with little success.

 

The book gave me a very good overview of the language, but gave me no confidence as programmer. I now realise that was because those 3 months was not enough to get to a confident level. Anyway, after that I decided that I did not want a job that was primarily spent just sitting at a computer so I went off to do other things.

 

Strangely enough though, during the last 9 months, I’ve found myself studying web design quite intensely. I have been using a website called ‘Free Code Camp’ and it covers a large number of aspects of web design, all be it quite superficially.

 

I’m now at a stage where, along with a basic proficiency of the front end, I can just about put up a full stack website which deals with login and registration, either using MySQL and PHP or node, express and Mongo.

 

But just in the last two weeks my massive motivation to do this has completely disappeared. I just don’t know if this is the direction I want to continue in my life. I’ve had this uncertainty for some months, but I just pushed through it, but I can’t any more.

 

…

 

It’s been very interesting reading what ‘Lost in Translation’ has been saying as I can clearly see where he is coming from with everything he has said and it has given me good food for thought.

 

I’m just going to have a couple more weeks off coding while I ebay sell all the junk in my flat. Then I’ll return to it just so that I have a basic portfolio to show for the last year so that if I do feel the desire, I could then start applying for some entry level job…

 

I’ll then have to take it from there – maybe just try it out, maybe not.