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Closed 9 years ago.
We are creating an open-source group with a large emphasis on introducing designers to programming. I have a library of material that I believe is important but I want the opinion of Stack. What do you guys believe is a good path for the casual programmer to start out on?
Since this is an open group and we do not really know who is going to show up we want to cover the bases. Although we are prepared for the worst we expect that any one attending will have graduated high-school and will have an understanding of the necessary algebra.(cringe)
I am looking for the best links to any online materials that people have found useful for teaching introduction to programming and logic.
We hope to amass enough material to compile a simple wiki that can serve as the basses for our lesson plan.
http://www.imaginaryphysics.org/opensource.html
Thank you for any help and opinions you can offer.
Here is a few :
http://apache.org/
http://sourcemaking.com/
http://www.infoq.com/
Stack Overflow of course!
Are we talking about Open Source... do you have a platform in mind? I mean, if you are looking for free, try a LAMP approach... I guess. I agree with everyone in the comments that this is pretty open-ended, and I would have left this as a comment as it really isn't an answer, but it is getting kinda long with the link. Below is the w3c tutorial.
PHP Tutorial
Most school however start with C++, to put it overly simple (please don't flame me for that, I'm trying to simplify): it is kinda the base of most programming languages.
C++ Tutorial
It should be noted, though, that training programmers doesn't only take knowing a language. It takes reordering the way you think. That is why getting a computer science degree takes 4 years and you need to study advanced mathematics, logic, science, etc. Being a programmer is a life long learning process, true, but it does take a base knowledge to get started. If you are trying to help the youth, more power to you! But, you should probably know what you are getting into :)
Related
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Closed 10 years ago.
Are there available somewhere numbers of how much time is needed to learn programming languages?
I do understand that this does, very much, depend on the person/learning-method. But I'm more interested in seeing some dynamics among languages, which I guess would be less 'personalised' - i.e. I would like to see division between HARD & EASY languages
Well generally speaking, a language is only as hard as the libraries it has. Take the Windows API for C. It's hard and at many times inefficient for making programs to do simple things. That's where .NET framework comes in. You can still use C++ with the .NET framework. The language isn't any easier, but the libraries you are using are easier to work with.
Learning Java takes quite a while, especially for a beginner. However after my first 5 minutes in java I understood the Swing library and could make a simple program. If I wanted to do the same with the Windows API it would take me a good month.
In the end, mastering and understanding the innards of languages is time consuming, but is directly proportional to the effort spent.
C++ can be learned in 21 Days (as the book goes) but it takes years to fully understand it.
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Closed 10 years ago.
Having a program that has several distinct parts is usual.By part I mean a graphical part that has its own windows and functionalities.(About non graphical part, I think creating a library is the preferable solution)
How do you prefer to separate them ?
Is it better to make each of them a static library and use them in the main program?
Or the better solution is to create an executable file of each one and load them in the main program?
Or even better solution?
I suggest that you read Code Complete or something simlar. This book and others go into the best practices or even how to know which of the best practices you should look into when you create a product.
The problem is one of scope. You need to know your specifications and the parts that join together, as well as which design practices you are going to use before you can answer this question.
I am also inclined to think that there is no right or wrong answer (depending on HOW wrong you are) and that no-one else can answer that question for you, especially since you are likely to be one of the main players in maintaining the code.
Hope that gives you some food for thought :-)
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Closed 10 years ago.
I have dealt and used JavaScript and am quite comfortable with it. However I was wondering if I should learn another one. Is there another language out there that used more widely or has more use in the business industry? And could you also recommend a good book for it?
Should you learn a new programming language?
Yes, you surely should.
Which one then?
I don't know. Why don't you pick one related to your expertise? Or something wildly different from what you know.
Which book is the best one?
Go to the library or a book shop. Flip some books through. Most likely, one of those books is good enough. But nothing beats learning to look up API reference on the net.
EDIT: Question from the comments:
What's the most popular and widely used?
You can use the TIOBE Community Index to look up popular programming languages. However, you shouldn't use that as a deciding factor as things may differ locally to you. I've never done C professionally (which is apparently the most "popular" language according to TIOBE), so it all depends on what you want to do.
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Closed 9 years ago.
I want to work with the Linux kernel, but I have no idea where to start. Is there a sort of ticketing system somewhere where bugs and such are distributed? Where can I get ideas for potentially useful contributions?
EDIT: Yes I know what I'm doing. I've been writing my own modifications for a good while now, and I'm doing an independent project under one of the operating systems researchers at my university next semester.
The reason I ask is I'd like to contribute my expertise to the dev process, and I don't know where to start in terms of organization. In terms of technical matters, I'm just about there.
Start with these: Kernel Bugs involving typo.
(Search everyday until you find something promising).
Search that bug database with keywords like "comment", "typo", "documentation", "minor bug", etc.
Also, search under the category Documentation here.
Learn the process first. Then, attempt to contribute something significant.
Pick a subsystem and subscribe to the relevant mailing list. Spend some time studying the subsystem. Start small and fix simple bugs then gradually do work of higher significance. You may want to look at the TODO files in the kernel source directory, especially for drivers in staging.
Get a GIT tutorial. You may also watch this
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Closed 11 years ago.
What languages are new programmer friendly? My friend is a game designer who knows very little about programming but wants to program his old stuff. What is a good language to start him off in. Also what language should he finally aim for?
Python is a popular language for first time programmers, and features a popular platform for creating games:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygame
Your friend will probably want to learn C++ at some point though.
Again a "It depends" answer, but maybe this StackExchange resource helps.
Try Blitz3D
http://www.blitzbasic.com/Products/blitz3d.php
Some of my students with basic knowledge in programming succeeded in creating awesome games (2d shooters, logical, puzzles, arcade, etc) in it in short period of time. It's simple and game-dev oriented, easy to learn and to get started quickly.
C# and Delphi...I saw many new programmers who were comfortable with these two languages.
http://tryruby.org/
just try it :)