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I'd love to learn how to code, but I grew up with BASIC (TRS-80 CoCo variety) and I'm a linear, spaghetti-code thinker. I've dabbled in VB (back in 1991), used

I'd love to learn how to code, but I grew up with BASIC (TRS-80 CoCo variety) and I'm a linear, spaghetti-code thinker. I've dabbled in VB (back in 1991), used Prolog for a law school AI assignment, made great use of WordBasic (Office 95) to save a company thousands of dollars a year by autogenerating indices... More recently I played with Android App Inventor and created a basic "English Nanny" (shake the baby) app, which took a couple of hours. C++, C#, Java etc. just seem too difficult to learn. Any advice would be appreciated, of course :)

endtime 16y ago
What AI assignment were you given in law school?
- FiddlerClamp 16y ago
  As I recall, creating an expert system for personal injury cases...it was pretty limited.
jdminhbg 16y ago
"C++, C#, Java etc. just seem too difficult to learn." In a lot of respects, they are -- there's a lot of ceremony and boilerplate around getting started that's there to please the compiler (and programmer job security) rather than the programmer. If you want to learn to code, I'd try something like Python, Ruby, or JavaScript first -- you say you're a "linear, spaghetti-code thinker," but that pretty much describes everyone who's starting out. Something in the Python/Ruby/JS mold would make it easier for you to see relationships between different parts of your code and make the leap from linear thinking to something more organized, without the noise that languages like C#/C++/Java impose on you. Good luck!
- FiddlerClamp 16y ago
  Thank you for the tip - I guess I should've been clearer and say, "I'm interested in Android programming and some basic Windows 7 stuff, but Android Java's too hard and App Inventor's too limited." :)
deleted 16y ago
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ams6110 16y ago
Try a functional language, before you throw in the towel. If you've got some background in Prolog, look at an Erlang tutorial, e.g. http://learnyousomeerlang.com/ http://learnyousomeerlang.com/ OO doesn't harmonize with my brain. I find it much easier to get into a flow with functional languages.
- FiddlerClamp 16y ago
  What's the difference between functional and OO?

endtime 16y ago

What AI assignment were you given in law school?

FiddlerClamp 16y ago
As I recall, creating an expert system for personal injury cases...it was pretty limited.

jdminhbg 16y ago

"C++, C#, Java etc. just seem too difficult to learn." In a lot of respects, they are -- there's a lot of ceremony and boilerplate around getting started that's there to please the compiler (and programmer job security) rather than the programmer. If you want to learn to code, I'd try something like Python, Ruby, or JavaScript first -- you say you're a "linear, spaghetti-code thinker," but that pretty much describes everyone who's starting out. Something in the Python/Ruby/JS mold would make it easier for you to see relationships between different parts of your code and make the leap from linear thinking to something more organized, without the noise that languages like C#/C++/Java impose on you. Good luck!

FiddlerClamp 16y ago
Thank you for the tip - I guess I should've been clearer and say, "I'm interested in Android programming and some basic Windows 7 stuff, but Android Java's too hard and App Inventor's too limited." :)

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

ams6110 16y ago

Try a functional language, before you throw in the towel. If you've got some background in Prolog, look at an Erlang tutorial, e.g. http://learnyousomeerlang.com/ http://learnyousomeerlang.com/ OO doesn't harmonize with my brain. I find it much easier to get into a flow with functional languages.

FiddlerClamp 16y ago
What's the difference between functional and OO?