Question

Hi, I have come here to learn about coding. I don't really know anything about it, a complete novice. Where should I begin?

Answer 1

try codecademy.com is a good place to start.

Answer 2

learnpythonthehardway.org is a good way to start learning python programming specifically.

Answer 3

Well, an easy language to start with would be VB.net. If you have windows XP, I would suggest downloading Visual Basic 2010 express from the microsoft website. If you have vista, 7, or 8, you can download Visual Studio 2012 or later, also from the microsoft website. Allow me to link you to their website: http://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/download-visual-studio-vs

Answer 4

The Express products are the free versions by the way.

Answer 5

Java is another popular language you might want to look at. Maybe not first, but you could! java-made-easy.com will tell you what to download, how to use it, and then what to code!

You always need to type some code... But it's easiest if you have a program made for code editing. java-made-easy.com encourages you to use Eclipse, which is good and free! It's better than a regular text editor because it will color your code nicely and organize things for you. It also has some fun coding features you don't need to worry about at first.

Lots of languages are general purpose. Java, C languages, I think Python and Ruby too. Python is powerful but made to be easy to use! I haven't worked with it, but other people really like it, and it is used for lots of things.

codeacademy.com is good, I hear!

If you want to do website stuff, w3schools.com is helpful.

Answer 6

Pretty much, with coding, you'll be entering a world where your text, what you type, will be part of a program.

Programs don't need to be advanced. Making something appear in a text box isn't too bad, and it is a program. People refer to it as "printing" using "print commands." It's really putting 0's and 1's in a file for you. But you won't have to deal with 0's and 1's unless that's what you want to get into.

Programming languages have some stigmas that follow them. General purpose or specialized. Low level, high level...

Java and C++ are popular general purpose languages. Fortran and Cobol are popular more for specialized things (science/math and business respectively).

Low level means you're in the depths of it. Like, you'll have the power, should you choose, to manipulate individual 0's and 1's easily. Or access memory and manipulate it more directly. Having such power, and not knowing how to wield it could cause some small troubles.
High level means that the language doesn't necessarily give you the option to do that. But they still have very strong features through easy-to-use complex structures and whatnot. It is limiting, but you're less likely to mess things up.

I'm going to post this now and write more, in case the internet messes up and makes me lose all this... I have typed things out in notepad before and pasted it in here, but now I'm not as worried. My connection's alright, at least...

Answer 7

A fun thing about Java and C# is that they are very object oriented. Ruby or Python can be too, I think, but I forget. That just means you can write up your words to make something you can think of as an object.
You make an object by giving it a name, some facts about it, and some things it can do. Example: Stopwatch. You can give it information about the seconds, minutes, and hours. You can allow it to start, stop, and reset. Easy to think about, see?
The easy part is then when you USE your object. If you have a program keeping track of a few stop watches or something, using any stopwatch is easy. Like, if you name your specific stopwatch, like stopwatchForRunner1, and then easily tell it to start! In java, it's like stopwatchForRunner1.start(), or whatever... You'll learn about that.

The other important thing is that some programming languages like to be very organized about "data types." Java and the C languages are like that. It's part of "static typing," <-- oh look I know words... There's also dynamic typing, which you see a lot in Lisp. Common Lisp is a good language for tough problems once you get good at it. There's also a new version of Lisp that came out in 2008... Anyway, Common Lisp had a lot of popularity in artificial intelligence, in case you're interested in that!

Answer 8

Once you pick a language, start learning, trying, asking questions, and don't give up! :)

Answer 9

And now, we've all been shown up by @theEric. Thanks. :p

Answer 10

Haha, no! And many people on here know more :)

Thanks though, @poopsiedoodle!

Every time I brought up Ruby and Python I made sure to bring about my uncertainty, as I haven't learned them myself!

I remember the new Lisp-based language, I think! "Clojure." And I think it was 2008...

And I should say C++ can be object oriented, too. But it's not as solely object-oriented as Java and C#, I think....


Anyway, feel free to ask an learn more! OpenStudy will likely be able to help. :)

Answer 11

Directed more towards @JohnBetsill , but applies to anyone.

Answer 12

Oh, I want to say one more thing about low-level versus high-level languages.

High-level languages can (at least usually) do a lot more with less code because of the behind-the-scenes complexity of the special words and stuff. In low-level, you often build or use someone else's code (like objects, structures, processes...) so that you employ all of \(\sf that\) power in fewer lines of code.

Anyone, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!