What does it mean that he wants to code? Are you a programmer and he looks up to you, and wants to be able to accomplish as much as you? Or does he want to be able to produce some particular type of end product like games?
Ask HN: Advice for 14-year-old who wants to learn to code?
21–30 of 36 posts
Re: Ask HN: Advice for 14-year-old who wants to learn to code?
#22I taught myself to code at a similar age (around 13, am 17 now) so this is based off personal experience.
Python's recommended a lot but personally I'd avoid it, it's a nice language but there isn't much to use it for without starting using frameworks.
What I'd recommend is starting with web development (that's where I begun). HTML can be taught easily and provides quick gratification, you can easily teach enough to produce results in a few hours, alongside HTML I'd teach the basics of CSS. I can personally recommend W3Schools[1] (though I believe codeacademy[2] is good as well), this can easily be personalised to make it appeal to your brother.
When he's got a decent grasp on this, Javascript or PHP links in perfectly (it could even be an extension of the HTML lesson - a larger project) so would work well to move onwards.
Another thing that I wish I'd have known about when I was learning is the amount of support available. I've since been involved in a local CoderDojo[3], if there's one where you are, I'd highly recommend going along to one with him! Even without any coding experience, I'd recommend it.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask :)
Re: Ask HN: Advice for 14-year-old who wants to learn to code?
#23My son, who is a little younger than your brother, wanted to learn to code and I tried a number of things but they didn't really stick. He kept "wanting to" but never really learned past regurgitating the tutorial. Finally, he picked up my TI NSpire CX CAS and started playing with it. For us really old guys it's like the next, next, next gem TI 82 graphing calculator. The TI has always included a programming language…
That sounds pretty cool.
I found C for Dummies at my uncle's house and got lucky. I loved it.
I've always wondered what alternatives there are. Most of the college textbooks I had were too dense to get into, but I think I remember the Deitel and Deitel ones were descriptive enough, but kind of dry.
Maybe I'll keep this TI NSpire CX CAS in mind next time the question comes up.
About 1.5 years ago someone posted this discussion of a related article on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6303654
Re: Ask HN: Advice for 14-year-old who wants to learn to code?
#24When I was 17 at my junior/senior high school, I taught about 20 entering 7th grade class programming and it worked out very well.
Downey's Think Python might be a good place to start (free download, but I'd recommend getting the hard copy) http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython/
For reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Think-Python-Allen-B-Downey/dp/1449330...
You might consider this book or related ones listed on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Python-Kids-Playful-Introduction-Progr...
There is this Intro iOS/Swift programming book that claims to teach non-programmers..... http://www.amazon.com/Introducing-iOS-8-Steve-Derico/dp/1491...
This book also seems very interesting and doesn't seem to require much/any programming experience:
Analyzing Baseball Data with R http://www.amazon.com/Analyzing-Baseball-Data-Chapman-Hall/d...
I do think it is very important that somebody be readily available to teach/help with some of the concepts....
Re: Ask HN: Advice for 14-year-old who wants to learn to code?
#25I am a highschool freshmen. I would say to learn HTML and CSS from W3 schools. Then learn Python from http://www.learnpython.org/, until he can use dictionaries. Then move to javascript and web development from MDN. Use node.js for server side so you only need to learn one language and can make a working app faster.
Unless he wants to make games, then just learn Processing, then maybe C. Or brag to colleges, then just learn Python.
Python makes the transition from HTML to Turing Complete languages much easier since you don't need to worry about syntax. I am speaking from experience, I couldn't learn JavaScript until I learned the basics of Python.
Also, a large project is important. Working on my large TSA project has taught me a lot more than I would have learned by fiddling with smaller things.
Avoid web app tutorials that make you pass a test before continuing. Code Academy, Khan Academy, and similar things are nearly always horrible for actually learning. For example, Code Academy starts its CSS turorial with a CSS3 animation, and has 5 screens for a Python tip calculator, with cryptic instructions that make coding seem a lot harder than it actually is.
Re: Ask HN: Advice for 14-year-old who wants to learn to code?
#26I started in OSes and filesystems, but I recommend hitting Cmd+Alt+i on this page and typing: var comments = document.querySelectorAll('.comment'); [].forEach.call(comments, function(comment){comment.style.backgroundColor = "#ffaa44"}) Instead.
Array.prototype.forEach.call(..) is more efficient because it doesn't create a new array.
Re: Ask HN: Advice for 14-year-old who wants to learn to code?
#27One great framework is http://pygame.org which is a flexible game and graphics Python module. It's great for learning Python and it's very easy to use (while still giving you a lot of control).
Re: Ask HN: Advice for 14-year-old who wants to learn to code?
#28Have you tried Codecombat.com? I think this is a great way to get started, have fun and at the same time learn the basic concepts of computer programming.
Once he understands this, you should encourage to hack into Minecraft hacks.
Later you can ask him about start their own projects and help him when he got stuck.
Programming should be fun and using a language only a tool for their mind, so help him become passionate about build things for himself.
Re: Ask HN: Advice for 14-year-old who wants to learn to code?
#29Tell him to join a local open source community and learn to work in group projects and to code in a team close to other people (Like the GDG, for example. It's free and in my town every week or two they organize meetings, hackatons, workshops and many interesting talks which they post on youtube in case you cannot attend that day). He can be useful even if he knows nothing, by being assigned the most trivial tasks or watch and help. Tell him to find a mentor and to get used to version control, code reviews, test writing, quality assessment, applying design patterns. Those are every bit as important as just learning how to code algorithms. I believe coding by yourself tends to make you a "bad" coder, in the sense that unless you are amazingly self disciplined you can take on a lot of bad habits that are very difficult to get rid off later on.
Re: Ask HN: Advice for 14-year-old who wants to learn to code?
#30My son, who is a little younger than your brother, wanted to learn to code and I tried a number of things but they didn't really stick. He kept "wanting to" but never really learned past regurgitating the tutorial. Finally, he picked up my TI NSpire CX CAS and started playing with it. For us really old guys it's like the next, next, next gem TI 82 graphing calculator. The TI has always included a programming language…
That sure sounds pretty cool