How to Learn Programming from Scratch...? Mentor Needed

MIT has some really good class that you can watch, you could go get yourself familiar with what it really is first and then start doing some projects on your own.

Some programmers would recommend doing C, Java and other mainstream language. But what I found out as an undergraduate is that most of the time, when you are just starting out, the syntax structure of those language could be overwhelming.

That's why I would recommend you to learn scheme, a dialect of lisp. It has very simple syntax and relatively easy to learn for beginners. For example, if you want to add two number like 3 and 7, it's just (+ 7 3). compare to other language which will require to type in way more than just 5 characters to do a simple addition and will probably require at least several paragraphs to explain, this is much more straightforward if you agree.

Check out ocw.mit.edu and you can find a wealth of knowledge there. If you need more help, feel free to PM me

I absolutely agree with this. From my point of view, programming is a lot about having the right mindset. A lot of people will teach you to obsess with unimportant things, instead of looking at the bigger picture.

This is actually problem in most areas of life, even communication. We tend to get distracted with content. You might've heard this bilion times but I'll say it again It doesn't matter what you say, what matters is how you say it. The same is for programming. I've seen people obsess about one little thing for days, only to realize that if they change their point of view, it's just matter of 1 minute.

There are so many things I want to say, but I don't want to overwhelm you so I'll keep it short. If I could advise you one and only one thing, it would be to read Code Complete by Steve McConnell .

It's absolutely lifechanging book. When I got my first fulltime job as Java programmer, I just started reading it. My first week at work was really intimidating. I had to learn new framework, I didn't understand anything anyone did and I had to keep asking my assigned mentor about every step I took.

I was working on a project with 2 other guys who were about 5 years older than me. I was just about to go to university and they were both studying for masters degree in software engineering. I felt like I couldn't compete with those guys.

However after finishing Code Complete, I could see things that nobody else in the company could see. It opened my eyes in a way you can't imagine. Suddenly they were coming for my advice and I was spending half of my time helping them with their problems.

You can't really appreciate the value it brings unless you already have some experience, since it mostly teaches how to write code. It teaches you how to find mistakes and how to avoid making mistakes. It's quite heavy to read though.

The bottom line would be, I find books that are about right mindset a lot more helpful than books about specific language constructs.

Of course when you're learning you need to learn the basics of the language first. You can't learn how to drive 150mph on snow when you didn't pass basic driver license test

As for language to choose, I'd recommend Ruby or Python. Starting with C isn't good idea, since it will force you to think about lots of unrelevant things like pointers, which is just a distraction when you're learning.

Java is probably the easiest language to learn as a whole, but it also has a lot of noise in the code (meaning things that have to be there but semantically don't have any value).

Ruby is great language, very very easy to begin with, since it's incredibly intuitive. If you get the right mindset, you just write code the way you think it should work, and it's almost always correct.

It might seem very primitive compared to languages like C, but that's only because it helps you with intelligent default settings.

However when you get to the bottom of things, metaprogramming in Ruby is probably the most powerful thing I've ever seen in any programming language. It basically lets you to change anything, any time you want. The program can change itself while running. You can create or modify anything you want.

Python is very similar to Ruby in most aspects, it's like C# vs Java. You won't make mistake with either one.

Most importantly, they both have awesome communities that are willing to help you. When you decide to do web development in Ruby, there are few basic ways you can take and almost everyone who does Ruby on Rails can help you, because all projects have the same structure. Same thing goes for Python and Django.

This is biggest difference from Java/C/C++/C# world. When you do something in Java, there are hundreds of libraries that are ment to work with anything. You can choose any combination you want, meaning if you run into trouble, nobody can help you with your specific problem, because there are so many options to choose from.

For good comparsion I'd recommend reading this article.

I know I'm oversimplifying things and I probably got very confusing in the end. Truth to be told, there is a lot of conflict in programming world. Some people like me will tell you that it's good to forget about implementation details and focus on the bigger picture, other people (C/C++ guys) will tell you, that doing so is childish play.

I've been on both sides of the barrier and I made my choices according to the experience I had. I've made some good and bad choices, spending countless hours chasing some dead end ... but that's how I learned what I know.

If you've read this far, feel free to drop me a PM if you need anything

I'll give you a few tips.
As already mentioned, programming is more about logic than anything. The language you program in is less important than the logic of the process the program is designed for.
Many programs can be and are written in several languages, so don't get hung up on any particular one.
A good programmer should be able to pick up a new language quite quickly once they understand the fundamentals of program design.
Obviously some languages are better at certain things than others, i.e html or php for web page design. So it might help to decide what type of programming you are likely to want to do.
Treat a computer as a dumb child and tell it what to do in simple steps AND IN THE CORRECT ORDER, but remember it is dumb, so for instance you can say to a child "Go to the shops and get a loaf of bread. The money is on the table".
If you gave that same command to a computer, it would go to the shops for the loaf of bread, but when it got there it would have no money, as you told it about the money in the wrong order.
It also would never come back as you didn't tell it to, whereas the child would know it had to come back with the bread.
Enjoy the journey.
I've been programming since 1980, starting with Basic, C and assembler, then various 3 and 4 gl database languages, Visual Basic, C++, Delphi, C#, ASP, .NET, php, html, jquery, Paradox, Access, SQL Server, MySql, Oracle etc.
I did a Government Computer Aptitude test when I first wanted to go full time programming in the Army, and it was all logic proplems, not a single actual computer programming question. You know, like if the man with the blue parrot lives in the house with the red door, how many people live in the house with the blue door.