How to learn about programming

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Hi hi! Ive been reading David Eggers’ The Circle, followed by Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother series. If youre familiar with those titles, you know its enough to give one philosophical whiplash. My happy medium is to pare down my virtual real estate (buhbye Facebook, I dont even miss it) and to learn more about security and to understand, well, I dont know what I dont know, except that its a lot. I mean, my Kindle books would be a forest, and i have a hulu subscription, but i just use the programs, and have no idea how theyre written. Id like to learn useful things, the way I know how to bake bread or quilt. Is there a course, or sufficiently involved hobby i should try?

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Well that could be a very, very broad topic depending on where you want to start. Programming languages are like the languages of the world.

Some are easier than others (that also depends on the person) and some are better for things than others.

However, like the languages of the world metaphor, programs can be recreated in just about any language (depending on how hardcore you want to be).

If you’re just starting, I would pick up an Arduino. There is a lot of support, tutorials, and examples. Also you can make something relatively useful, fairly quickly.

You can also try visual basic or C++ which are both fairly user friendly and have a large following, examples are easy to find, as are communities for them.

All three of those examples have free software you can download to work with and they all have apps for your phone to help you learn. For C++ and visual basic I would recommend free online classes or to a lesser extent tutorials like this one:

Or even this one:

Mostly, like language, you need to learn the syntax of the language and how things get grouped, called, etc. If done out of order, it would be like talking backwards and the computer won’t understand.

It’s easier to pick up then you might think, but it can be trying at times as well. My advice, stick with it and ask questions in that languages communities.

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thanks! : you share like amal: clearly placed like colors of the rainbow

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I would agree with @atom it is about learning the methods for problem-solving as opposed to syntax.

I started with VB.net, but if you are on a mac this is not a good option… my advice would be pick up python and follow some free online tutorials. Things like StackOverflow etc. are good.

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