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Ask HN: Non-technical people, how did you learn to code?

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Re: Ask HN: Non-technical people, how did you learn to code?

#51

Post by freshfey »

tchock23 wrote: post #45

For me, nothing really clicked until I actually started working on something that was meaningful to me. Before that, I tried every book I could find, religiously watched the latest Railscasts, Peepcode screencasts, etc. and watched every free tutorial out there. Until I started working on something that I needed and just plowed through it until it was built, nothing truly clicked. It also helped that I locked myself…

Another excellent answer, thanks. I'd love to talk a little more but you don't have a twitter handle or your email in your profile :(

Re: Ask HN: Non-technical people, how did you learn to code?

#52

Post by eslachance »

Myself, I'm still slowly learning. Coding came out of necessity. I've been working for different technical support jobs for pretty much my whole adult life, and started off trying to automate a couple of things around the office, and then for clients (a PHP script that generated a regex which configured a client's email account in Outlook Express, for example).

I created a couple of useful things which gradually became more complex - a little voicemail queue (where we'd enter client messages and then call them from the top, in a cycle), then generated a map of our client's locations using google maps, etc.

Nowadays I'm fairly fluent in JavaScript, VBScript (don't laugh!), and I'm gradually learning Python simply because it's something that I need to learn for a project. I'm not a professional coder by any definition, I "get by" with a little help from my friend (who IS a hacker).

So my advice would probably just be "go your own speed, on your own highway". It really depends on your needs.

Re: Ask HN: Non-technical people, how did you learn to code?

#54

Post by ch00ey »

Hey Freshfey,

Over the summer I taught myself how to code (PHP). The route that I took was the following:

1) Watch screen casts without doing any coding and just understand the basic concepts and syntax. This was done via Lynda.

2) I then went to the tutorial Zend has on PHP 101 and did each and every exercise until I understood it.

3) Lastly, (this I am still in the midst of doing) is attempt to replicate a website or a certain functionality of a website. Meaning apply everything you just learnt from step 1 & 2.

By going through those three steps I've become pretty good at coding and now it's all about practising and to continue putting together things I've learnt into real stuff.

Some AMAZING resources that I highly recommend checking out (no matter what language you're learning is:

http://stackoverflow.com/ https://github.com/ The last and final tip that I can give you is stick to it and don't give up.

Re: Ask HN: Non-technical people, how did you learn to code?

#55

Post by pruett »

zedshaw wrote: post #34

I wrote this http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/ and http://ruby.learncodethehardway.org/ and am now working on this http://c.learncodethehardway.org/ so I'll give you advice that fits with what I've been doing to teach people: 1. Do every exercise, type in every bit of code, DO NOT COPY-PASTE. 2. Make the code run, fix all the bugs. 3. Repeat until you are done. Do it 1-3 hours a night. That's it. It's an old met…

+1 are you planning on releasing a paperback version of the Ruby version?

Re: Ask HN: Non-technical people, how did you learn to code?

#56

Post by cosjef »

zedshaw wrote: post #34

I wrote this http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/ and http://ruby.learncodethehardway.org/ and am now working on this http://c.learncodethehardway.org/ so I'll give you advice that fits with what I've been doing to teach people: 1. Do every exercise, type in every bit of code, DO NOT COPY-PASTE. 2. Make the code run, fix all the bugs. 3. Repeat until you are done. Do it 1-3 hours a night. That's it. It's an old met…

Zed: I've been doing your Ruby tutorial for the last three weeks, and have learned more on yours than any other. Way to go.

Re: Ask HN: Non-technical people, how did you learn to code?

#57

Post by cosjef »

Prufrock1 wrote: post #41

Learning to code is the same as learning a second language. You must recognize the amount of energy it takes to learn french, and apply it to learning ruby. Your final goal - which for the HN crowd would be something like building a SaaS web app, is equivalent to writing a novel. But before you get to your novel you must learn how to speak and think in the language. You need to know the vocabulary and how to write se…

That is a great roadmap. I'm a new Ruby dev, and am grateful for this info.

Re: Ask HN: Non-technical people, how did you learn to code?

#58

Post by makattack »

zedshaw wrote: post #34

I wrote this http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/ and http://ruby.learncodethehardway.org/ and am now working on this http://c.learncodethehardway.org/ so I'll give you advice that fits with what I've been doing to teach people: 1. Do every exercise, type in every bit of code, DO NOT COPY-PASTE. 2. Make the code run, fix all the bugs. 3. Repeat until you are done. Do it 1-3 hours a night. That's it. It's an old met…

I started learning Ruby a couple weeks ago with your book. Thanks for your help!
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