Programming Language For Beginners?

I don't know where I should post this so here goes.

Is there anywhere I can learn programming languages by myself online?

I'm technologically HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE, but I want to learn something that could useful. Someone told me I could learn some basics by playing with GameMaker and RPG Maker then looking at the code built by the editing tool, but that isn't working and confuses the sh*t out of me.

So is there any decent tools for beginners?

http://www.codecademy.com/

pretty simple and a great starter. you will definitely know if it's for you after you complete a few of those lessons :)

good luck! :D

Visual basic was pretty simple when I worked with it, but to be honest I can't program for crap. If you want to learn programming you can also start at the bottom and learn hex and instruction sets.

If you want some basic starter stuff on the process of programming I would recommend checking out Alice.

http://www.alice.org/index.php

It is a super dumb animation thing but you can learn a lot about objects, methods, etc. Helped me out a lot when learning some if the If, then, else, while kinda stuff.

sad part is that I fully understand logic gates, just can't program well...

I could build a circuit out with gates all day long though.

Wow, ***is way better than when I had to learn in High School. They basically tossed you in with a C++ Textbook and assigned your final project on Day1.

I started with VB6 back in College, then my first year Uni was C++, Java the year after. If web stuff is more your thing, you could try PHP, similar to C++ and both are pretty easy to learn the basics behind.

Little did I know, faking my way through Java was going to be a bad idea.. Need to learn to use it now for work ;;

EDIT:

I had the same idea once, it really doesn't work that well (as you've already found :P). It's great if you already have some sort of background in Ruby (or any language, but the entire thing uses Ruby if memory serves me right), but if not then it's far more probable a wall will just walk out in front of you and beat you to death.

I learned a lot just posting news and formatting it, aka playing around and having fun while learning. Scragg gave us a lot of freedom, and I just thought it was fun doing it.

I am skimming through the lessons, I really like the site. They break it down fairly simple, but also holding your hand a bit too much. Maybe it starts to become more vague on what you need to do and actually make you think on how to solve the problem. Still a great site.

For the OP, all I really can recommend from having no professional experience or taking classes is just to have fun with it. Make sure you're covering the basics and fundamentals, but have fun and experiment. I did it through formatting my news posts, you could through another means. It's all about what you're interested in and what you want to use this knowledge for in the long run.

I examined the source code of webpages people have done, like FFXIAH. I would use the browser's inspect element function to break down piece by piece to learn how something worked. It's really nice that you can edit the source directly to see how things change on the fly. Honestly without that I don't think I would of been able to learn.

For HTML/CSS stuff, http://www.w3schools.com/ is my go to source for looking up tags. It's not only for HTML/CSS either, it's just what I used. It really is a very easy to read and use site that has helped me immensely on learning how to do what I want to do. I would try something out, make my mistakes, learn how to fix them, and learn how to use it effectively for the future. I would spend hours on a single silly news post while I broke stuff down just to learn and experiment.

another link: http://getbootstrap.com/css/

Thanks for all the help.

I liked the idea of learning from making games because it seemed fun, and dicking around with the RPG maker was fun and all, I just couldn't learn from it.

Markup isn't programming.

You want to learn real programming take up C or if you really want to learn the basics trying getting a hold of QBasic. It used to come free with windows, but if you look there's probably a copy to download out there.

There may be some freeware C or Basic IDE's for windows out there, I'd have to look. But any real programming is either going to require you to shell up a couple hundred dollars, or get down and dirty using something like GCC as a compiler and using notedpad, and right off the bat you're going to have to learn about window classes in order to write anything that you can see.

You could try Java as well, I think their compiler is still free, but you're always going to be left with needing java to run any of your programs. They won't run independently of the java machine.

Today's operating systems are a little more complex than getting a hold of turbo c or turbo pascal and being able to program right away unfortunately.

Oh wait there's actually ads that run on this site for a trial copy Embarcadero (formally Borland) c++ for windows. It'll give you what you need for 7 days. You could try that if you can learn quickly, lol.

Want to never program again. Program a CISCO router. Almost ruined my life.

Read "The C Programming Language" and learn to program in C. You'll learn to appreciate APIs in other languages, because you have to write your own in C, but at least you'll learn the logic behind some of them, somewhat.

You learn to program by writing programs. It's as simple as that.

You need to consider what kind of programs you plan on writing once your first book is finished. You can't expect to retain much if you don't immediately use the knowledge, or jump into another book.

If you can't easily answer that question, then lua might be a good idea. At least then, you can jump into writing gearswap's for your FFXI jobs, or write addons for a game you enjoy.

There's plenty of lua books all around the net.

Programming Games are pretty good at giving basic understanding.

Wiki

Edit: Nice external links, too.

I'd recommend python, but it depends on what you want to do with the programs you create. I use python to interface (probably not the right word) with R, pull data from websites, organize data, and create digital flash cards. It's verstile and has a large community, which means you can get help and feedback. Try "hello, world" and go from there.

If you work in excel a lot VBA is probably something you want to learn, but I find it to be annoying.

I totally forgot about python. Python is definitely good for getting a feel of what programming is like without all the hassle.

configuring a cisco router is actually quite simple if you have the command set cheat sheet, I wouldn't want to to it from memory as I've only done it a few times, and never more than anything than a lab.

html and css aren't programming languages though, and html (hypertext markup language) is pretty freaking simple.

edit: beaten by Chaos and skimmed over it so didn't know.

It depends on what your objective is: understanding how to program and what it entails, or simply getting something done.

If you want to learn how to program and really understand what is going on/involved, start with a low level language such as C. You don't need to stay with it (and likely shouldn't, unless it is required), but you should start out with it to learn the basics of programming.

Otherwise if you just want to play around and learn, pick a higher level language such as Python/PHP(I personally prefer Python).

What I would expressly avoid is looking at programmatically-generated code, and trying to figure it out from there. If you have a background in programming it can be useful to learn how something is done in a particular language, but for a novice it is likely to be more confusing than not, and likely not impart much understanding.

I'd recommend looking at Harvard's CS50 if you want a good introduction to programming.

They may not be programming languages, but I would say it's a decent start for beginners. It's very easy to understand and you receive visual feedback as you write each line.

The OP asked what would be good for beginners, not what would be the best language to learn.

For once I'm with Kara & Milamber here, go with Python if you want to learn the basics for beginners without all the hassle.

HTML and CSS are more akin to learning how to use MS Word/Illustrator than learning how to program. It is useful to know, but doesn't really touch on a good number of the building blocks which are essential to programming.

Does it get someone used to the fact that they can write plain text, and it has an impact that a computer can understand? Certainly. But it also gives some pretty blatantly false expectations about the concepts that constitute programming.

Thank you, I was trying to think of a polite way of saying that.

This is really great for helping with the basics. It is free from iTunes U and probably on youtube (haven't checked yet). It is interesting and presented in an easy format in layman's terms (which was helpful for me).

If you're interested in learning the BASIC language too there's this website. http://www.truebasic.com/

Back in the day they had a free version, in which you just couldn't compile stuff, I think that's what they're calling the bronze version now.

True Basic is great as it will allow you to do graphics in a very easy manor as well as run a program with only one line, lol.

They also have forums too.

I remember back in the day we started with Java in university. Now they changed it to Python.

My Freshman year of college was like that too. Java for both Programming and Problem Solving I & II. We did the code in notepad, and then the whole javac to compile and java to run the thing in dos command prompt. I didn't like it at all. But it was definitely interesting.

Java and Python are good starter languages that are actually useful. Knowledge of Java will get you far in life.

Would recommend NOT starting with C/C++... pointers scare new people away usually.

i started out in HS with html and Qbasic myself. Spent two years i think learning mostly html and a little bit of front page at the end. Then the next year after we were done they changed the course to one year; half/half html/front page. /grin
Even then... you damn kids today.. cant do anything for yourself lol