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Question from a naive person trying really hard to get into programming: what are good resources/where should I start, etc? I've done quite a bit on Codecademy

Question from a naive person trying really hard to get into programming: what are good resources/where should I start, etc? I've done quite a bit on Codecademy, and I get it, but there are still a lot of things I am just ignorant of, like where you actually type code (what's a good source code editor?) and so on.

rickyc091 13y ago
That's the problem with a lot of these sites like codeacademy, they walk you through coding, but they hide a lot of the process. To answer your question, the editor, etc. depends on what language you're programming in. For HTML, all you need is a simple text editor, notepad on windows, textedit on mac, gedit on windows. Sublime if you want syntax highlighting. Type in a few lines of code, save it with a .html extension and double click the file. The offline webpage should open up on your browser. Javascript is pretty similar, just save the file with a .js extension. You'll have to make sure the JS file is linked to your HTML file. I think the best resources are still books if you want to learn to program. They generally recommend software to use as you work through the book.
- tedsanders 13y ago
  It's not clear to me that skipping the editor/language setup a problem. For a beginning programmer, setting up the language/editor/whatnot is a huge barrier to getting started. If you're not dead set on learning, you may give up before you reach the fun and interesting parts. I think there may be significant value in bypassing that barrier, teaching people to code, and then later returning to the problem of how to actually get your code running. Of course, right now, sites like Codecademy never address this issue. I agree with you that that's a problem for getting people to transition into building something new.
- niels_olson 13y ago
  > they walk you through coding, but they hide a lot of the process. That's what they should be doing. Having been trying to teach myself this stuff since photo.net and Ars Digita were hot, I can tell you, I spent 10 years stuck in Windows not knowing where to turn. Then I spent ten years learning all about everything around programming: editors, OSes, managing remote servers, languages, what those languages are for, algorithms, half-adders, little-endian vs big-endian, blah, blah, blah. And only in the last few years have I really gotten a handle on actually writing code that does stuff. Now I'm at the point I realize I'm way behind the curve on data structures but I have to say, I really wish I had been learning about data structures instead of how Bill Joy developed vi to cope with a slow modem. Sure, picking up Perl now, I can grab Padre and the Llama book and within a few exercises branch off on my own and add rewrite them with recursive functions and pretty interface elements, but I wish I'd been learning about advanced parsers instead.
  - raiph 13y ago
    > Sure, picking up Perl now... but I wish I'd been learning about advanced parsers instead. Fwiw: Perl 5 is no slouch in the parsing department (via CPAN modules, including partial backports of some Perl 6 technologies). Perl 6 directly delivers a powerful but relatively easy-to-use parsing environment with its composable grammars and rules (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl_6_rules http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl_6_rules).
    - niels_olson 13y ago
      Not sure why someone downvoted you, but no worries. Thanks for the reply.
- griffinmahon 13y ago
  Thanks very much!
booruguru 13y ago
> I've done quite a bit on Codecademy, and I get it, but there are still a lot of things I am just ignorant of, like where you actually type code (what's a good source code editor?) and so on. I've noticed a lot of tech resources (tutorials, guides, manuals) routinely fail to explain basic, foundational concepts that are required for a beginner to understand what they are doing. And it drives me effing crazy.
MarcScott 13y ago
I see this as a major flaw in CodeAcademy. Running through the jQuery lessons with a few students today, I noticed that there was no mention of how to install the library or reference it on a CDN. I've often recommended the less exciting, but excellent EdX courses, if you want to "get into programming'.

rickyc091 13y ago

That's the problem with a lot of these sites like codeacademy, they walk you through coding, but they hide a lot of the process. To answer your question, the editor, etc. depends on what language you're programming in. For HTML, all you need is a simple text editor, notepad on windows, textedit on mac, gedit on windows. Sublime if you want syntax highlighting. Type in a few lines of code, save it with a .html extension and double click the file. The offline webpage should open up on your browser. Javascript is pretty similar, just save the file with a .js extension. You'll have to make sure the JS file is linked to your HTML file. I think the best resources are still books if you want to learn to program. They generally recommend software to use as you work through the book.

tedsanders 13y ago
It's not clear to me that skipping the editor/language setup a problem. For a beginning programmer, setting up the language/editor/whatnot is a huge barrier to getting started. If you're not dead set on learning, you may give up before you reach the fun and interesting parts. I think there may be significant value in bypassing that barrier, teaching people to code, and then later returning to the problem of how to actually get your code running. Of course, right now, sites like Codecademy never address this issue. I agree with you that that's a problem for getting people to transition into building something new.
niels_olson 13y ago
> they walk you through coding, but they hide a lot of the process. That's what they should be doing. Having been trying to teach myself this stuff since photo.net and Ars Digita were hot, I can tell you, I spent 10 years stuck in Windows not knowing where to turn. Then I spent ten years learning all about everything around programming: editors, OSes, managing remote servers, languages, what those languages are for, algorithms, half-adders, little-endian vs big-endian, blah, blah, blah. And only in the last few years have I really gotten a handle on actually writing code that does stuff. Now I'm at the point I realize I'm way behind the curve on data structures but I have to say, I really wish I had been learning about data structures instead of how Bill Joy developed vi to cope with a slow modem. Sure, picking up Perl now, I can grab Padre and the Llama book and within a few exercises branch off on my own and add rewrite them with recursive functions and pretty interface elements, but I wish I'd been learning about advanced parsers instead.
- raiph 13y ago
  > Sure, picking up Perl now... but I wish I'd been learning about advanced parsers instead. Fwiw: Perl 5 is no slouch in the parsing department (via CPAN modules, including partial backports of some Perl 6 technologies). Perl 6 directly delivers a powerful but relatively easy-to-use parsing environment with its composable grammars and rules (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl_6_rules http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl_6_rules).
  - niels_olson 13y ago
    Not sure why someone downvoted you, but no worries. Thanks for the reply.
griffinmahon 13y ago
Thanks very much!

booruguru 13y ago

> I've done quite a bit on Codecademy, and I get it, but there are still a lot of things I am just ignorant of, like where you actually type code (what's a good source code editor?) and so on. I've noticed a lot of tech resources (tutorials, guides, manuals) routinely fail to explain basic, foundational concepts that are required for a beginner to understand what they are doing. And it drives me effing crazy.

MarcScott 13y ago

I see this as a major flaw in CodeAcademy. Running through the jQuery lessons with a few students today, I noticed that there was no mention of how to install the library or reference it on a CDN. I've often recommended the less exciting, but excellent EdX courses, if you want to "get into programming'.