Posted on 01/13/2012 1:08:17 AM PST by Sonny M
If you’re looking for a New Year’s resolution, let me suggest an idea that you might not have considered: You should learn computer programming. Specifically, you should sign up for Code Year, a new project that aims to teach neophytes the basics of programming over the course of 2012. Code Year was put together by Codecademy,* a startup that designs clever, interactive online tutorials. Codecademy’s founders, Zach Sims and Ryan Bubinski, argue that everyone should know how to program—that learning to code is becoming as important as knowing how to read and write. I concur. So if you don’t know how to program, why not get started this week? Come on, it’ll be fun!
Code Year’s minimum commitment is one new lesson every week. The company says that it will take a person of average technical skill about five hours to complete a lesson, so you’re looking at about an hour of training every weekday. That’s not so bad, considering that the lessons are free, and the reward could be huge: If you’re looking to make yourself more employable (or more immune from getting sacked), if you’d like to become more creative at work and in the rest of your life, and if you can’t resist a good intellectual challenge, there are few endeavors that will pay off as handsomely as learning to code.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
correct my error, I meant “code academy” not to be confused with “codeacademy” (2 different places, one is online, the other is brick and mortar and based in chicago).
geek ping for am reading
for tomorrows read.
The question is, what code to learn? C++? Visual Basic? Fortran? COBAL? JavaScript?
5 LET S = 0
10 MAT INPUT V
20 LET N = NUM
30 IF N = 0 THEN 99
40 FOR I = 1 TO N
45 LET S = S + V(I)
50 NEXT I
60 PRINT S/N
70 GO TO 5
99 END
Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code!!
I don’t know anything about coding, but my guess, either start with the easiest ones to learn, and move up, or learn the most popular ones first, or something like that (I’m kind of hoping the easy ones are the popular ones, lol).
I have no idea what any of that means, LOL.
Thanks for posting. WIll take a look.
Bump for later
It’s a program I copied and pasted but looking at it I’m not sure it does anything useful at all!
Basic is a good language to start with because you can easily learn the principles of programming like program flow, input output, if-then-else statements, etc.
I sure love to code!
I’m usually working in C or assembly writing code for micro-controllers.
It’s not hard to write software at all. It would make you a fun and low-cost hobby. :-)
That gets a hearty amen from this corner! I'm an old guy (about to turn 70) but being able to push the bits around and have the computer at my command does keep me youthful. It's really great to be in absolute control of the computer as opposed to a user at the mercy of pre-packaged software.
It's not necessarily for everyone -- but in a way it's not too different from hunting and then cooking your own food instead of relying on a prepared meal.
By the way, the very first language I learned (when it was still quote new) was C from the original, pre-ANSI book by K&R, may the latter RIP.
First I learned Basic/machine language. Then 1 2 3 Logo, then started pascal then gave up.
You’ve done us all a great service by posting this. Thanks very much!
Heard an irritable pure math professor (an algebraist) shout that out a couple of times during a packed seminar given by a distinguished British AI expert. Seems he and everyone else in the math dept. was required or strongly encouraged to attend and he took exception. It was kind of embarrassing actually. It was almost as if we had an unhappy two-year-old in the room. Knowing how to write computer programs is a good thing. Plus it's fun.
I still have my original copy of K&R :-)
It does feel different now that Dennis Ritchie is gone :-(
Presently I'm writing some morse code software in C to run on the Tiny85 controller. It's fun writing code for a one dollar computer-on-a-chip like the Tiny85 ... and even though it's very limited compared to something like a desktop PC it's still many times more raw power than the old Apple2.
This is just a fun freeware hobby project.
Nowadays if that's all you know: you're hosed.
I know, because my 20 year career in IT ended 12 years ago when the green-screen, green-bar paper printout disappeared.
NOW a coder needs to know OOP, i.e., everything is a class, and all things belong within their class. It is when the objects of a particular class become instantiated with values that they take on the essence of becoming. Once they are no longer necessary, they no longer are; everything is ethereal.
It is so strange to discover that procedures can be defined inherently as objects within a "class", e.g., "making coffee". What's really and truly bizarre are "overloading" of procedures (let alone operators). In object oriented programmimg the procedure of such fundamental conecpt as addition can be "overloaded". What's so cool 'bout that is that you don't have to worry 'bout the sequence of code; just define WHAT needs to be done and the compiler and CPU determines how and when it gets done when what needs to get done is actually needed. Isn't that that rat's ass?
My parents apparently knew how to code? Remember hearing “Or Else!” quite a bit growing up. Hm.
bfl
ping
Just download any one of the “Sam’s Teach yourself” X “in 21 days” courses.
Bump
Ping
BFLR
There’s a bit of that...
ROFLMOL
That notwithstanding, it boils down to logic and how adept one is breaking the process down into its components.
Back in the green-screen, green-bar paper days there was only “coffee” to be made. Now one has to code to make ALL SORTS of coffee that might possibly be made in any possible of ways - with one program - and if not properly your code “crashes”; i.e., goes WTF?
I wonder if there are enough freepers interested in programming as a hobby to make it worthwhile for me to start a blog and teach a basic course in programming micro-controllers?
I think I could manage to do it, I’d estimate total cost of tools and parts to be less than 20.00
It would be C and assembly language....both are really simple and the average freeper would have NO problem. (I hold that the average freeper is well above the average citizen in brains and ability)
bump
LD A,10100101B ;
OUT (01),A
START LD HL,0070H
LD C,0AH
COMP LD A,(HL)
CP B
INC HL
JP Z,MATCH
DEC C
LD A, 00H
CP C
JP NZ,COMP
JP Z, NMATCH
MATCH LD A,0F0H
OUT (01),A
HALT
NMATCH LD A, 0FH
OUT (01),A
HALT
Bump for later read....
The media has been pushing this since the 90’s (”The information age,economy etc”, “post industrial age etc”) . Ha , there are no jobs in America.
Bought a TRS-80 Model 1 back in 1977. You turned it on and it said “Ready?” on the screen. From there, you were on your own. To justify the expense of this new toy, I HAD to learn to program. Discovering what a computer could be used for back in the day when there were NO pre-packaged programs was the best thing I ever did. It was pretty daunting because I was never any good at math and I thought one needed to be a math whiz to be a programmer. Not true.
Later, I took a course in Computer Science. I ended up teaching most of the class how to program, since, by that time, my programming skills had surpassed that of the teacher.
Ah yes. Machine Language in Hex. Once I learned this, my old Trash 80 performed at light speed.
BASIC was my first language. I learned to program it in the 70’s. Is it still being used anywhere?
Programming may be rewarding monetarily but the job situation is that one must always be studying and the working times can be a killer.
To be constantly learning, pick up Java or Ruby or something
To play around, learn Perl.
To go insane try to understand a Teradata logical data model or SAP B/W -- oh, yes, if you are an expert on ABAP you can name your price.
visual basic is for kiddie programming, terribly simple. Learn C if you want a challenge and how to really code..
Rat’s ass indeed. OOP never made any sense to me.
I mostly wrote code in C and a little assembly. All very straightforward and logical, especially to a hardware guy like me who had some software jobs dumped in his lap.
I tried OOP, my brain locked up.
I am currently learning vbScript because it is useful for the testing tools I use and can be very useful for Windows administration or moving to VBA for Office.
If I had a choice of what to learn right now I would have a serious look at learning RUBY and RUBY on RAILS. It is a newer scripting language that looks to be gathering a following and may take off.
Beware of any advice from a computer geek that contains the phrase "it's easy, it'll only take you about an hour..."
Another phrase to look out for is "average technical skills..."
you will learn of pointers etc. which will help you when you work on languages that hide that complexity
starting on VB leads to bad habits
to start on Java means going through the entire list of jargons that are out there -- EJBs, beans, etc. etc. -- but to think in Java is something different from a structural, procedural language like Pascal or C --> Java and Smalltalk etc. are OOL -- Object-Oriented languages
so, recapping, I would say basically start with Pascal, move up to C (and go crazy) a bit and learn VB as well. After Pascal you can also chose to go down the path of Java, but I would suggest learning a bit of C to get good programming habits.
cobol is a different game as is SQL.
And, html is not programming.....
Bump to read later.
That could be interesting. I gave up after fortran, cobol, pascal, and a bit of c. I learned basic on an old vic20 hooked up to a 13" b&w television set - I thought I was an astronaut when I coupled it to a thermal okidata color printer and replaced the cassette drive with a floppy the size of a microwave.
Programming a controller in C is no harder than basic for an old VIC 20 :-)
It’s a LOT cheaper though.
You need a PC to run the free C compiler and IDE on and a <10.00 USB programmer to write data to the controller and that’s about it.
That Khan academy guy is brilliant :-)
Nope.
I get a really good vibe from the guy.
Smart and caring.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.