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Python. Do not do the official guide. Do not read the documentation. Do something that forces you to program examples of increasing difficulty. In short, do th

Python. Do not do the official guide. Do not read the documentation. Do something that forces you to program examples of increasing difficulty. In short, do this course: http://cs.northwestern.edu/~akuzma/classes/EECS110-s10/index.htm http://cs.northwestern.edu/~akuzma/classes/EECS110-s10/index... All the labs and assignments are online. You get to make maze solvers, generate fractals, implement Conway's Game of Life, lots of genuinely fun stuff. Just work through it and tell yourself you are doing it for fun not for work. You'll be done before you know it. Good luck!

augustflanagan 16y ago
If you do start with Python I found Zed Shaw's Learn Python The Hard Way to be incredibly helpful when I first started learning to code some months ago. http://learnpythonthehardway.org/ http://learnpythonthehardway.org/
- metamemetics 16y ago
  I like the link I posted because it's an intro to Computer Science in addition to Python. So in addition to introducing more and more complex Python, the problems you have to solve are meant to symbolize actual areas of CS research instead of text-based adventure game development. And your code often gets to control graphical libraries to spice things up.
ajankovic 16y ago
When talking about python I found http://diveintopython.org/ http://diveintopython.org/ to be an excellent book for beginners.
- jhck 16y ago
  Supposedly it's pretty dated, though; see the author's comment here: http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/bv9gt/dive_into_python_must_die/c0oqask http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/bv9gt/dive_into... I would recommend http://diveintopython3.org/ http://diveintopython3.org/ instead.
jessor 16y ago
I began with "Dive into Python" and switched over to Zed Shaw's "Learn Python The Hard Way" after 20 pages. His concept works great for me, somehow I manage to come up with enough discipline to actually do every exercise and the extra credits.
imp 16y ago
The MIT course for Intro to Comp. Sci is pretty good too. There's a bunch of people working through it on my website, Curious Reef, if anyone is interested: http://curiousreef.com/class/mit-opencourseware-600-introduction/ http://curiousreef.com/class/mit-opencourseware-600-introduc...

augustflanagan 16y ago

If you do start with Python I found Zed Shaw's Learn Python The Hard Way to be incredibly helpful when I first started learning to code some months ago. http://learnpythonthehardway.org/ http://learnpythonthehardway.org/

metamemetics 16y ago
I like the link I posted because it's an intro to Computer Science in addition to Python. So in addition to introducing more and more complex Python, the problems you have to solve are meant to symbolize actual areas of CS research instead of text-based adventure game development. And your code often gets to control graphical libraries to spice things up.

ajankovic 16y ago

When talking about python I found http://diveintopython.org/ http://diveintopython.org/ to be an excellent book for beginners.

jhck 16y ago
Supposedly it's pretty dated, though; see the author's comment here: http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/bv9gt/dive_into_python_must_die/c0oqask http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/bv9gt/dive_into... I would recommend http://diveintopython3.org/ http://diveintopython3.org/ instead.

jessor 16y ago

I began with "Dive into Python" and switched over to Zed Shaw's "Learn Python The Hard Way" after 20 pages. His concept works great for me, somehow I manage to come up with enough discipline to actually do every exercise and the extra credits.

imp 16y ago

The MIT course for Intro to Comp. Sci is pretty good too. There's a bunch of people working through it on my website, Curious Reef, if anyone is interested: http://curiousreef.com/class/mit-opencourseware-600-introduction/ http://curiousreef.com/class/mit-opencourseware-600-introduc...