Surely there's something here for everyone: http://programming-motherfucker.com/become.html
is that site owned by zed shaw?
How to Start Learning Computer Programming
21–23 of 23 posts
Re: How to Start Learning Computer Programming
#22I stopped taking this article seriously at "If you want to do serious commercial development, you’ll have to spend a considerable amount of money on a really good suite of tools to do so".
The author must be still stuck in the 90s. With mobile app development rapidly reaching its peak, software is a gold mine, and it costs very little to be able to earn some extra cash off of app development.
Also, I didn't like how the author recommended Visual Studio. Visual Studio is a closed-source, slow, resource-heavy piece of software that ONLY works on Windows. Windows is not a very good development platform, and I'm surprised that the article didn't mention any software for BSD or GNU/Linux (Geany?), or any mention about standalone compilers like gcc. He just jumps straight into the IDE portion without properly explaining how to use a compiler.
This is a decent article for anyone wishing to dip their toes into the world of programming, but for beginners, I'd recommend a good Sams Teach Yourself book instead.
Re: How to Start Learning Computer Programming
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
If it's one of the best, that doesn't say much about what's out there. Giving students the wrong information (as w3schools frequently does) is worse than giving them no information at all. To say it's "one of the best" implies that the bar is set pretty damn low.
I just read through the list at W3Fools and the things they bring up are either already changed at W3Scools or something really minor they're nitpicking about. No information is not better than information with minor flaws. I still believe it's a good resource which goes straight to the point. When I google something I want a straight-foward answer and not a complicated specification like the one at MDN or W3.org.
When I google something, I want information that won't leave me running in circles while I figure out why it's not doing what the docs say it's supposed to do. I've had that happen with w3schools more often than any other resource. It's a waste of my time, and I get better, clearer, and more accurate information from MDN and the W3C, so I've stopped googling such things and just go to the horse's mouth.