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As someone who's never really been able to break into coding my biggest problem with most of the learning material is it does not tackle a broader perspective o

by jsz0 17y ago

As someone who's never really been able to break into coding my biggest problem with most of the learning material is it does not tackle a broader perspective on problem solving. Learning syntax and libraries is easy. Knowing where to apply them and how to architect your program is the really hard part. I'm not sure how you learn that other than experience and for a novice that means countless hours of work before they can produce anything unique and useful.

jrheard 17y ago
Unfortunately, that does seem to be the case at this point, although if anyone has any good references for novices, I'd certainly love to see them. So far, the best I've ever seen the situation summed up has been in the top comment on http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=90782 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=90782 .
andrewcooke 17y ago
have you tried "how to design programs"? http://www.htdp.org/ http://www.htdp.org/ i haven't used it, but i think it's aimed at this kind of problem (where to apply them and how to architect your program).
- el_dot 17y ago
  I would also suggest Introduction to Computer Science and Programming from OpenCourseWare: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-Computer-Science/6-00Fall-2008/CourseHome/index.htm http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-Compute... It's the right approach, they teach you the concepts so that you can pick up any language and run with it. It uses Python but it's not about Python, which is a clean language that has a great support system (perhaps the most essential part in learning how to code).
- jsz0 17y ago
  Thanks I'll check both of these links out. I'm designing a little Google Maps based web app that has already had two major architectural changes due to issues I hadn't considered. Before I go forward with it I want to go through these resources and try to get the third iteration right.
  - andrewcooke 17y ago
    HTDP starts off pretty basic, but it's by the same people as SICP (a famous textbook), and if it's anything like that book, it's "surprisingly deep", so don't dismiss it too quickly as "too easy"...

by jsz0 17y ago

jrheard 17y ago

Unfortunately, that does seem to be the case at this point, although if anyone has any good references for novices, I'd certainly love to see them. So far, the best I've ever seen the situation summed up has been in the top comment on http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=90782 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=90782 .

andrewcooke 17y ago

have you tried "how to design programs"? http://www.htdp.org/ http://www.htdp.org/ i haven't used it, but i think it's aimed at this kind of problem (where to apply them and how to architect your program).

el_dot 17y ago
I would also suggest Introduction to Computer Science and Programming from OpenCourseWare: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-Computer-Science/6-00Fall-2008/CourseHome/index.htm http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-Compute... It's the right approach, they teach you the concepts so that you can pick up any language and run with it. It uses Python but it's not about Python, which is a clean language that has a great support system (perhaps the most essential part in learning how to code).
jsz0 17y ago
Thanks I'll check both of these links out. I'm designing a little Google Maps based web app that has already had two major architectural changes due to issues I hadn't considered. Before I go forward with it I want to go through these resources and try to get the third iteration right.
- andrewcooke 17y ago
  HTDP starts off pretty basic, but it's by the same people as SICP (a famous textbook), and if it's anything like that book, it's "surprisingly deep", so don't dismiss it too quickly as "too easy"...