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I wouldn't call this a "definitive" guide. Because there's a lot that's not covered. I mean it's great and helped me through the projects in a networking course

I wouldn't call this a "definitive" guide. Because there's a lot that's not covered. I mean it's great and helped me through the projects in a networking course, but I had to look elsewhere for a lot of stuff like multi threading. For similar content I think this is something we've lost with the modern Internet. The web used to be full of people posting tutorials and how to's. Seems like hobby and indie game dev generated a lot of this type of content. I remember flipcode and gamedev.net had a lot of material on a lot of subjects (including networking) in their article and tutorials sections. These are probably archived somewhere. Edit ok look like it's been updated since 2004, I'll have to read it again!

chatmasta 10y ago
I'm not sure how you arrived at this conclusion. As someone who started learning to code around 2004, I remember exactly what you are talking about. There were tons of tutorial websites (I liked spoono, anyone remember that?), tutorial aggregators (good-tutorials, pixel2life), and programming communities (phpforums, neverside, sitepoint). I learned coding by following tutorials to create an example project, then modifying features to my liking. It was nice, but there was a lot to be desired, and if you ran into an esoteric bug you pretty much had no option but to post to some random phpBB board or IRC channel and hope for a response. StackOverflow and GitHub didn't even exist! It seems that nowadays it's easier than ever to learn to code, with many different resources and communities at the disposal of the newbie. StackOverlow is amazing and 99% of the time you google some esoteric error message you'll find a SO post; no need to post to forums or ask in IRC. GitHub is full of open source projects, tutorials, and example code. If you prefer learning with videos, there's tons of open source material. And in terms of guides "like this," there are thousands of new posts every day across the blogosphere by developers sharing their experience. Not to mention many old pieces of content still exist, the OP being just one example. I really think that access to educational technical content has exploded in the past ten years, and I completely disagree with your conclusion that the state of this content was any better in 2004 than it is now.
- pm90 10y ago
  Yep. And for those who can afford it: SafariBooksOnline is just too awesome to learn new skills.
- squarefoot 10y ago
  > you pretty much had no option but to post to some random phpBB board or IRC channel and hope for a response. StackOverflow and GitHub didn't even exist! Usenet baby, Usenet. Still alive today although doomed beyond any optimistic hope.

chatmasta 10y ago

I'm not sure how you arrived at this conclusion. As someone who started learning to code around 2004, I remember exactly what you are talking about. There were tons of tutorial websites (I liked spoono, anyone remember that?), tutorial aggregators (good-tutorials, pixel2life), and programming communities (phpforums, neverside, sitepoint). I learned coding by following tutorials to create an example project, then modifying features to my liking. It was nice, but there was a lot to be desired, and if you ran into an esoteric bug you pretty much had no option but to post to some random phpBB board or IRC channel and hope for a response. StackOverflow and GitHub didn't even exist! It seems that nowadays it's easier than ever to learn to code, with many different resources and communities at the disposal of the newbie. StackOverlow is amazing and 99% of the time you google some esoteric error message you'll find a SO post; no need to post to forums or ask in IRC. GitHub is full of open source projects, tutorials, and example code. If you prefer learning with videos, there's tons of open source material. And in terms of guides "like this," there are thousands of new posts every day across the blogosphere by developers sharing their experience. Not to mention many old pieces of content still exist, the OP being just one example. I really think that access to educational technical content has exploded in the past ten years, and I completely disagree with your conclusion that the state of this content was any better in 2004 than it is now.

pm90 10y ago
Yep. And for those who can afford it: SafariBooksOnline is just too awesome to learn new skills.
squarefoot 10y ago
> you pretty much had no option but to post to some random phpBB board or IRC channel and hope for a response. StackOverflow and GitHub didn't even exist! Usenet baby, Usenet. Still alive today although doomed beyond any optimistic hope.