I want to learn computer programming. But where do I start?
Aoife, It's like you said, there are a ton of languages and lots of different directions you can go with it. Really what you need to do is decide what you want to program for or what kind of program you'd like to make. If you want to build for windows a great place to start is C#, it's a rather easy language (in my opinion) to pick up, and it's quite powerful. Here's a c# tutorial that's free and online: http://www.csharp-station.com/Tutorial.a... Otherwise you can play with C++, older and more powerful in a lot of ways it's a programmers bread and butter :-) Though with C# you'll pretty much instantly be making fun graphical programs that are quite useful, c++ will take you longer to get to that point but you'll be happy when you do. You can learn both if you like and i actually would suggest that's what you do. i actually know several languages. Here's a good tutorial on c++: http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/ Just make sure you learn the one at a time so you don't get confused. the next thing you'll need is a compiler (so you can write and run your programs). C#: http://www.microsoft.com/express/Downloa... C++: http://www.microsoft.com/express/Downloads/#2010-Visual-CPP (these are FREE!) if you're interested in web programming at all check out http://www.w3schools.com it teaches all kinds of languages and is quite useful. On a side note, Aoife is an Irish name right? i used to know a girl from Ireland with that name :) small world! Anyway if you want any examples from me personally feel free to e-mail me or friend me on yahoo and i'd be happy to explain any specific questions you may have about any of this stuff. If you're really serious about going into programming drop me a line and i'll recommend some good starter projects you can work on to get you in to it. I'll even give you free source code and set you up with specific examples if you need it. I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions! ~Pyros~
Should I learn programming before starting to study computer science?
Short answer, no you do not. Most of the folks I know are largely self taught.Long answer:Yes, because it will help you.People think learning to program is all about "Writin teh coedz", but it's actually not.Writing code is undoubtedly a large part of it all, there's no 2 ways about that, but one thing that learning the art of "Software Engineering" does, is to teach you to think in a certain way.Take myself, I'm a professional software developer, and consultant.What exactly does that title mean however?Well not an awful lot, it's just a title as far as I'm concerned.If you where to ask me exactly what I consider my actual job to be, I'd tell you I'm a Technologist, who makes good use of I.T to solve problems.and that would actually be closer to the truth than any other title I've ever held in the 30+ years I've been doing this.So what's this got to do with answering the question?Quite a lot... I'm a problem solver because of the way I think, and the way I think has been shaped by a combination of self teaching and formal technology based education.It's absolutely helped me by doing various CS based learning courses, but I've also learned just as much from the experiences working in the industry too.Notice however I'm not using "Computer Science" as a fixed term in any of this?That's because it's far too broad. To learn Computer Science implies you need to learn all branches and disciplines, and you don'tIn my mind there's no such thing as just "Computer Science" these days, despite many educational establishments still using it, instead try to narrow your focus.If you want to write software, go look for "Software Engineering" based courses. If you want to do repair work, look for hardware based courses.In summary:You don't have to study any specifics, but it will help your understanding greatly if you do.
Is computer programming fun to learn?
If you like problem solving then yes. Programming is 90% problem solving. You will spend more time working out bugs, dealing with errors, and troubleshooting than the actual coding. If you enjoy this process then you will be a good programmer otherwise stop and find something else.
What computer should I buy if I want to learn programming?
Please be open to an alternative.Anything, at all, that can run a web browser.Then sign up to a site like Cloud9 Your development environment, in the cloud , or any of the others.If you are learning, this gives you a great platform, and if you break things, a delete and start again is 0 hassle to you.There is absolutely NO reason to spend money to learn to program, as long as you have a full featured web browser, on a desktop OS, you are set.Windows, Mac, ChromeOS, Linux, doesn’t matter.Intel Atom, or i7, doesn’t matter.2gb ram, or 32gb ram, doesn’t matter.8GB ssd, or 2TB ssd, doesn’t matter.What does this look like?I lead a project, which is currently over 4000 man hours, developed by 4 developers, in c9 since it’s inception, and still used as the development platform today. If it can be used on projects like this, why not learn with it?I can sit in front of my desktop of over $7k, or program on a cheap $300 chromebook, with very little difference in capabilities.Image taken from Cloud9 webpage.
Is 30 years old too old to learn computer programming?
It depends on your goals.Some (I will use a hard word here) "stupid" recruiters and managers think that programmers need to be young, although the reason is that they can pay them less, it is not that they are "better".When you make software the programming is just a skill. The software itself is a recipe based on how do you think, what is your general knowledge and how ordered are you.What is your current profession? Are you a doctor or a car driver? Whatever you are doing indicate that you have a "method" and of course you already have 30 years experience on life. And all this accounts when creating software. In fact, very young programmers have different problems because they lack of the needed experience to take the right decisions and to do what it is important and not what is not important, experience that you already have.Let's compare with a different but related profession: music.Never is late to start singing, or to start playing violin, but the problem is not precisely in your mind, the problem is in your body. It is necessary to start young because the instrument is a projection of what you are and have a sound together with you and when we age, without the right exercises there are things that we can't do.But when you program you don't use a musical instrument (at least not yet), you use a computer and some type of input device as keyboards and mice or even maybe a microphone. And you could have a screen to read or a speaker to provide you results. It is your sight as bad as mine? ... then have a big screen with high resolution. Are you slow typing? Then develop efficient software that do more with less ... anyway, good software is clean and small, you don't need to write a theses at once.So. Do it, learn to program. Anyway it is possible you are already doing it but you don't realise that. You send a program with your comment to a big machine that it is Quora and you see? ... you are receiving feedback now :-)
Why is learning computer programming so hard?
Anyone can start computer programing after one year of going to school taking computer programming!! But to be really good at programing it takes some one 15 to 20 years to be good computer programmer or more. Why is programming so hard and takes so long to be good at it?
Learning computer programming online...?
Lifehacker has a good article on that. For me the best thing I did was go and get a sams 24 hour book from my local library. Also Microsoft has a student 90 day free learning pluralsight: https://www.dreamspark.com/Products/Prod... These are the courses http://www.pluralsight-training.net/micr... Are you in college? maybe your college offers free classes (mine does) or free online classes from vtc.com or lydia (mine does)