Ask a developer who is working in the area that you are interested in to give you some guidance. My girlfriend decided to become a web designer. Do she asked an experienced developer, me. I said HTML, CSS, JavaScript and JQuery. She added Photoshop and some image creation tools. She learned the parts I suggested and decided to go to a community college to get some focus. (Actually, she originally signed up to get the student discounts on the software.) In a few months she will get a job to get some practical experience. Then she will tackle her own projects.
The 2 Biggest Mistakes I Made When Learning to Code
61–70 of 90 posts
Re: The 2 Biggest Mistakes I Made When Learning to Code
#62Great insight. Every time someone says, "I want to learn to code." They should have a project/task in mind and just go. The stack that Suneel lays out is a good foundation for web dev, but as he admits, he like many others invested more time than was necessary in books/documentation/tutorials. More people need to just jump in. If you get to a point that you want a feature from jQuery, look it up and implement it, but…
That point reminds me of Kathy Sierra's distinction between just-in-time learning and just-in-case learning: http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/0...
Re: The 2 Biggest Mistakes I Made When Learning to Code
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
What was the order of learning for loop, function and class? Did those proceed architecture, algorithms, data structures, etc...? Personally, the challenge of learning the more base knowledge and gaining a deeper understanding of computer science is that until you are really good at making things, you honestly cannot tell the difference.
We can certainly agree to disagree, but I don't think that being "really good at making things" is a pre-requisite to understanding some of the principles underlying said "things". In many ways they are related-yet-distinct disciplines (Computer Science vs. Software Engineering). I readily admit that I may suffer from some bias in this regard, since I find more abstract topics to be a lot of fun. There are many roads…
I have some friends/colleagues like that, and they are a certainly a minority. All very deep thinkers and great to work with. I could see how learning all of the abstract material would help with that learning type, so I don't think we disagree. Everyone should use whatever approach works best for themselves. This is probably a better point than anything else.
I was focused on my own experience and the experience I've had with the majority. Generalization and such.
Re: The 2 Biggest Mistakes I Made When Learning to Code
#64Step 1 in learning to code:
10 PRINT "COCKS"
20 GOTO 10
Step 2 in learning to code:
10 INPUT "How many cocks do you want",C
20 FOR I = 1 TO C
30 PRINT "8===========D"
40 NEXT I
I'm not recommending that your first steps into programming be in BASIC, or involve cocks. (On both accounts I would recommend the exact inverse.) But this is how a million programmers got started: useless programs that amused us. Never, ever, ever underestimate a useless program, especially for beginners. The author of this article seemed to want to focus on building a prototype for his Web startup. And that's fine, as a long-term goal. But if you're brand new to the world of programming it's probably a good idea to start with the basics, like printing or drawing stuff on the screen, doing some simple (or, later mor complicated) mathematics, or munging or transforming data in interesting ways. This helps keep the budding programmer focused on the patterns and "shape" of their language, which knowledge they can then later direct to a specific purpose like Web or smartphone apps.
Re: The 2 Biggest Mistakes I Made When Learning to Code
#65Step 1 in learning to code: 10 PRINT "COCKS" 20 GOTO 10 Step 2 in learning to code: 10 INPUT "How many cocks do you want",C 20 FOR I = 1 TO C 30 PRINT "8===========D" 40 NEXT I I'm not recommending that your first steps into programming be in BASIC, or involve cocks. (On both accounts I would recommend the exact inverse.) But this is how a million programmers got started: useless programs that amused us. Never, ever,…
I totally disagree. I can't stand tutorials or classes that present useless stuff as exercises. It's so much easier to work on something that you can at least imagine would have some value. And it is much, much easier to work on something that you think is either cool or have always wanted to build, etc.
Also, 1/2 a downgrade for the lame, childish example.
Re: The 2 Biggest Mistakes I Made When Learning to Code
#66If you have been starting to write code and study code for a year, you are still learning to code. You have not learned to code, you are not even a journeyman yet.
I've been in the industry about 9 years, and coding since I was a child. My parents caught me staying up late with a flashlight under the covers as a teenager reading books on C instead of nudie mags. My first program with an event-driven UI ran on a NeXT Color Station. This is not to brag, it's to say I've been doing this basically since I could decide what to do, and I still have a lot to learn about coding, computer science and software engineering.
So you've made your third biggest mistake; you've vastly underestimated what you are in for. You have never "learned" to program, you are "learning." Every year will ask you to acquire new skills and use new models and learn new domains.
Re: The 2 Biggest Mistakes I Made When Learning to Code
#67Step 1 in learning to code: 10 PRINT "COCKS" 20 GOTO 10 Step 2 in learning to code: 10 INPUT "How many cocks do you want",C 20 FOR I = 1 TO C 30 PRINT "8===========D" 40 NEXT I I'm not recommending that your first steps into programming be in BASIC, or involve cocks. (On both accounts I would recommend the exact inverse.) But this is how a million programmers got started: useless programs that amused us. Never, ever,…
Yeah, it's obviously natural for a young man to start with smth along the lines of:
10 PRINT "chicks"
20 GOTO 10
:)
Re: The 2 Biggest Mistakes I Made When Learning to Code
#68If you have been starting to write code and study code for a year, you are still learning to code. You have not learned to code, you are not even a journeyman yet. I've been in the industry about 9 years, and coding since I was a child. My parents caught me staying up late with a flashlight under the covers as a teenager reading books on C instead of nudie mags. My first program with an event-driven UI ran on a NeXT…
Absolutely right, there's no end to it. What I hope the reader will achieve is the basic ability to prototype their ideas. That's where I am. In no way do I think I've learned all there is to code. Every day I'm learning precisely how little I know. Heck, I just started learning Lisp and truly enjoying how unfamiliar and powerful functional programming can be.
Re: The 2 Biggest Mistakes I Made When Learning to Code
#69I think the problem is a lot of people jump in, start coding and then never go back and learn about the nuances of a language. Case in point was myself when I was learning Javascript. Sure, I could get the JS to do what I wanted, but it was clunky, used a lot of memory and was slow. Fast forward a few years and I've gone back and read Crockford's books several times, and with more studying, I've gotten much better at…
You make some valid points. However, had you not taken the road you did, the material you read much later on probably wouldn't have made much sense and probably could have made you turn away from it all right at the start, right? You get excited when you see results right away. Once you do enough things that begin to make you wonder, "Gee, there's gotta be a way to do this faster or more efficiently." When your curio…
You're right, there's always some retrospective bias, but I'll never get back those days of reading about PHP, since reading Python accomplished the same and actually was much nicer for a beginner. The truth is, your MVP will evolve and will require you to learn things, new languages and new technologies. The fun is never over. For me it's continuing and im so glad of that.
Re: The 2 Biggest Mistakes I Made When Learning to Code
#70If you have been starting to write code and study code for a year, you are still learning to code. You have not learned to code, you are not even a journeyman yet. I've been in the industry about 9 years, and coding since I was a child. My parents caught me staying up late with a flashlight under the covers as a teenager reading books on C instead of nudie mags. My first program with an event-driven UI ran on a NeXT…
A recovering non-coder?