Learning programming.

Filerist

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Hello, so I'm pretty new to this programming thing. All my life I used the pc ,but now that I can attend programming classes in school I quickly caught up on it. I'm not saying I'm the best in my class ,but I'd like to learn. I thought about seeking a career in the technology indurstry ,but I don't think I have what it takes. I'm 16 years old and just started learning programming. I was wondering if you can suggest the best things to improve my skills. Or is it too late? If it's possiable I'd like to ask some questions.

What is the best OS for programming?

What is be the best way to learn C++ and other programming languages?

And how much time should I put into it? (Keep in-mind I'm still in school , so I need to keep a social-life if that's ok and I still need study for different subjects).

These are the main questions that pop-up in my mind, but if you have any more information or help. I would really appreciate it.

Thank you and have a good day.
 
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Hello, so I'm pretty new to this programming thing. All my life I used the pc ,but now that I can attend programming classes in school I quickly caught up on it. I'm not saying I'm the best in my class ,but I'd like to learn. I thought about seeking a career in the technology indurstry ,but I don't think I have what it takes. I'm 16 years old and just started learning programming. I was wondering if you can suggest the best things to improve my skills. Or is it too late? If it's possiable I'd like to ask some questions.
Never too late or early. I didn't actually learn to program until I was in college at 18.

What is the best OS for programming?
Depends on the language, and really what you're wanting to make and comfortable with. I prefer Windows since I'm a .NET developer. I did most of my coding in C++ in college on Ubuntu. However, you can do .NET development on Linux & OSX now that Microsoft is opening up .NET as open source, and you can also do C++ on Windows with the Mingw compiler. So really it's whatever you're most comfortable in - they all have the tools available.

What is be the best way to learn C++ and other programming languages?
Books, interactive tutorials, etc. Really depends on the way you're able to learn. I'm not able to learn as effectively from just reading books or doing projects... I learn best from somebody teaching me and/or working in a group with somebody.

And how much time should I put into it? (Keep in-mind I'm still in school , so I need to keep a social-life if that's ok and I still need study for different subjects).
Depends on what you want to make. Usually if you do the interactive tutorial projects (from places like CodeAcademy, Udacity, etc.), they're a "work at your own pace" and give estimations based on how long it should take depending on how long you work on it per week.

These are the main questions that pop-up in my mind, but if you have any more information or help. I would really appreciate it.

Thank you and have a good day.

Other tips I'll give...don't be discouraged. It can be difficult at first, but learning a new programming language is just like learning a new spoken language... it's difficult at first, but the more you work on it/practice it, the better you'll get. Then learning new languages becomes trivial, as you'll just have to learn the syntax rather than learn new logic.
 
Depends on what you want to make. Usually if you do the interactive tutorial projects (from places like CodeAcademy, Udacity, etc.), they're a "work at your own pace" and give estimations based on how long it should take depending on how long you work on it per week.

Can you tell me what would be the best interactive tutorial project in your opinion and ar those "Pro" ones worth the money?
 
Can you tell me what would be the best interactive tutorial project in your opinion and ar those "Pro" ones worth the money?

"Best" is relative. If your'e a beginner, "Hello World" is always the "best". As you advance, the "best" tutorial depends on what you're trying to learn / figure out how to do.

I haven't really used any of the interactive projects. I started one on Udacity for Android development, but haven't finished it. Seems pretty good though, considering it's directly from Google (and free).

Technically I did a "Pro" tutorial for learning how to program, since learned through my college courses and paid for them lol.
 
I found taking a Lynda course on Objective-C to be really helpful when I was starting out with that, it's pretty cheap too so good for student budgets :p

They'll usually (hopefully) point out why they're choosing to do something a certain way, and that can really save you time. Because technically you can do a bunch of things a whole bunch of different ways, and the underlying principle of why one way is better than other might not be so intuitive. And realising *after* you've already written a bunch of code that you should've done it another way is painful, as it can often mean a whole lot of refactoring :p
 
I found taking a Lynda course on Objective-C to be really helpful when I was starting out with that, it's pretty cheap too so good for student budgets :p

They'll usually (hopefully) point out why they're choosing to do something a certain way, and that can really save you time. Because technically you can do a bunch of things a whole bunch of different ways, and the underlying principle of why one way is better than other might not be so intuitive. And realising *after* you've already written a bunch of code that you should've done it another way is painful, as it can often mean a whole lot of refactoring :p

Pain for somebody that already knows how to code, but can be good for a beginner to actually see different ways to do the same thing, IMO.
 
Topic is a very important, thank's for creation! I want to tell about my own short story in IT sphere. I was dreaming to become a java developer. But, after two years of studying java and android, I throw up my hands and went in the another direction. For the beginners some advices: make correct aim, practice every day, study design patterns and make a deep understanding of OOP. Never give up!
 
I have started learning C++ on my own and am doing pretty well so far. My buddy has a card game idea sort of like magic that he wants to create, what language do you think would be best suitable for that, I have some knowledge of VB too. Also are there any places where I can put my code up and have some review it and help me fix it if that makes sense?

Thanks
 
I have started learning C++ on my own and am doing pretty well so far. My buddy has a card game idea sort of like magic that he wants to create, what language do you think would be best suitable for that, I have some knowledge of VB too. Also are there any places where I can put my code up and have some review it and help me fix it if that makes sense?

Thanks

If he's wanting to make a full game, starting with an existing game engine will give a leg up. Would probably lean towards Unity for such a game.
 
Learning a new language can be very overwhelming as learning a programming language is literally learning a new language. When I was first starting out I found that the tutorials that were easiest for me to follow were by thenewboston on Youtube. Its a guy named Bucky doing most the tutorials and unlike most tutorials he speaks english and at a pace which makes it easy to follow. Hope this helps!
 
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