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http://www.cprogramming.com/begin.html http://www.cprogramming.com/begin.html This was one of the first results I got searching for "how do I learn to program"

by wisty 15y ago

http://www.cprogramming.com/begin.html http://www.cprogramming.com/begin.html This was one of the first results I got searching for "how do I learn to program". The other results were Norvig's "it takes 10 years", the University of Phoenix, and a wikihow page recommending SICP. If you know how to program, it's easy to get into it. If you don't know, you won't know where to start. You'll get tutorials saying "Install Linux, apt-get build essentials; open vi ...." Once you know how to program (hello world, for loops), you can calculate fibonacci numbers. Wow. Then you need an application. People will think "you're a programmer, so, can you write me a game? Hack the Pentagon? No? LAMO!".

einhverfr 15y ago
I am teaching my 8 year old son to program. He's really into robots so I figured we'd be pushing towards getting him mindstorms once the programming clicks. I am teaching him C and Perl. First things we did were simple loops and hello world programs. Next was a simple number guessing game (one screen of code in Perl). Next will be the number guessing game in C. Really, what helps early on is a teacher. I am able to give him assignments. Ask him to make changes to his code, etc. He is starting to get it but it is a lot of work at first. Maybe an apprenticeship model would be ideal?
zcid 15y ago
Baby steps
tikhonj 15y ago
I dunno. I started programming on the web, with JavaScript. The very first thing I did was make an admittedly trivial interactive web site. Of course, I didn't set out to "learn programming", I set out to make a website. Still, if I was able to fairly easily pick HTML/CSS/JavaScript up and do stuff I found cool in sixth grade, it has to have a pretty low barrier to entry. This is especially true because I never was a hard worker :P That said, I think starting from SICP instead of outdated JavaScript tutorials would have been more awesome. But maybe more difficult. And really, all that stuff: Linux, SICP, Emacs (I'm too cool for Vi :)) was easier than it was made out to be. People say Linux is difficult, but I found it about as easy to pick up as Windows and easier that OS X. After all that rambling, I think I lost my point. All I really have to say is that, in my experience, it's easier than it seems as long as you don't let people intimidate you ("ooh, Linux is difficult" and other nonsense like that).

by wisty 15y ago

einhverfr 15y ago

I am teaching my 8 year old son to program. He's really into robots so I figured we'd be pushing towards getting him mindstorms once the programming clicks. I am teaching him C and Perl. First things we did were simple loops and hello world programs. Next was a simple number guessing game (one screen of code in Perl). Next will be the number guessing game in C. Really, what helps early on is a teacher. I am able to give him assignments. Ask him to make changes to his code, etc. He is starting to get it but it is a lot of work at first. Maybe an apprenticeship model would be ideal?

zcid 15y ago

Baby steps

tikhonj 15y ago

I dunno. I started programming on the web, with JavaScript. The very first thing I did was make an admittedly trivial interactive web site. Of course, I didn't set out to "learn programming", I set out to make a website. Still, if I was able to fairly easily pick HTML/CSS/JavaScript up and do stuff I found cool in sixth grade, it has to have a pretty low barrier to entry. This is especially true because I never was a hard worker :P That said, I think starting from SICP instead of outdated JavaScript tutorials would have been more awesome. But maybe more difficult. And really, all that stuff: Linux, SICP, Emacs (I'm too cool for Vi :)) was easier than it was made out to be. People say Linux is difficult, but I found it about as easy to pick up as Windows and easier that OS X. After all that rambling, I think I lost my point. All I really have to say is that, in my experience, it's easier than it seems as long as you don't let people intimidate you ("ooh, Linux is difficult" and other nonsense like that).