how/where to start learning programming

by burek

Posted: 12 years ago 13 replies

PROGRAMMING

Hello people, I'm new here and I apologize if I have put this on the wrong place.

I would like to learn how to write a web page/application, and have no idea where to start. I have some idea that I would like to realise, and my web page would be user generated content... something similar to reddit or 9gag.
After some research I found out I should learn PHP, MySQL, javascript. I already have knowledge of CSS and HTML...

I found this book: Learning PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, CSS & HTML5, 3rd Edition*-*O'Reilly Media so I'm wondering is it a good way to learn some basics? Or can you recommend a better book.
if there is a better way, or a better language for me to learn language for me to learn please tell me.

#how or where #learning #programming #start

JohnnyRItes 12 years ago

Have look to this one W3Schools Online Web Tutorials oreilly will help you but try w3schools, simple to understand.
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JohnBrower

12 years ago

You can learn online, you have to select a platform first. Now web application is varying levels of risk as the traditional desktop application. You have to focus on various factors as security, software bugs, etc. You have to work for documentation, test planning, change control, requirements analysis, architectural description and formal design etc.

Thanks
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minirich

12 years ago

Learn to code | Codecademy
Go to codecademy, there you can get the basics. It provides tutorial with feedback for various languages (PHP, Ruby, Python, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, jQuery) and many different API tutorials to integrate 3rd party services into you application/website.

Have fun.

Thanks
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burek

12 years ago

thank you for your answers.
My main problem is that I'm going to have a lot of free time soon, but I wont have my comp with me (long vacation...), and I refuse to go and learn from code academy and similar sites with smartphone.

I am aware that that book will not teach me everything, but for now I just want to learn basics, and try to get to think like a programmer...

Thanks
1 reply

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JackHawk

12 years ago

Originally Posted by burek

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1593274246/...=slashdot0c-20

If you have no programming experience or idea about your direction the first thing you have to do is is create a plan of things you may want to learn, as you're not going to have access to your laptop you're likely going to have to plan well.

If you're interested in web, maybe find a book that focuses on the technologies involved and what their roles are:
html/css for frontend
javascript doing cool stuff all over the shop at the moment,
php/python/ruby for backend
the various database technologies (mysql, mongodb etc. etc.)

if you're interested in just getting things done and saving yourself time then i highly recommend delving into python as it is powerful and pushes you into good programming habits from the start

there are numerous books on software engineering and associated concepts which you could take with you, it just depends on what your goals are for that hiatus from your laptop. (Compiling code is very useful for learning as a side note so if you can't compile what you're learning then consider delaying as you'll waste a long time without testing what you're writing)

Thanks
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burek 12 years ago

once again thank you all for your reply.

I do have a plan and I know what I want to build. Problem is I don't know anything about programming, so it;s time to learn as much as I can...

My plan is to learn HTML, CSS better, than learn javascript, and than PHP and mySQL... From what I've read it should be enough for interactive web pages... If I'm missing some please do tell me.

The book that I've linked in the first post looked good because it had all of those. I'm aware that 1 book that have 5 languages will not make me good at them, but I was wondering is it a good beginning?
my plan is to read that book to get some basics ( well it's a good time killer while I'm without internet...), and later when I come back I would watch everything about that languages from times new boston, and after that pass everything on code academy, w3 school, and similar pages...

so my questions are: would it be enough to learn HTML, CSS, javascript, PHP and MySQL, or should I learn something more?

and

IS that book god for beginning to understand how web programing works, or is there some other better book you can recommend?
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- herryprothyer Banned 12 years ago
  
  [DELETED]
  
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  aandy1 12 years ago
  
  use Dream viewer,
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  Isabella 12 years ago
  
  There's a lot of tutorials at Codeacademy and their tutorials are really good. They have PHP and MySQL too I think.
  
  I think this guy meant Adobe Dreamweaver. Though it's probably not the best software to use when coding ther's a lot of others. (Just added information)
  
  Originally Posted by aandy1
  
  use Dream viewer,
  
  Thanks
  
  Signature
  
  Message me about WarriorForum!
  
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HelgeSverre 12 years ago

I started learning PHP through video tutorials on Youtube, a few good ones to start with is
PHPAcademy's channel and TheNewBoston's Channel, as well as
JREAM's channel, these are really high quality channels that posts great
tutorials on PHP and some other programming languages.

I have never been a big fan of books as I'm a sort of inpatient individual, so I really like video tutorials.
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minirich 12 years ago

Thats a different thing. For the beginning you should read this book.

Think Like a Programmer*-*O'Reilly Media
Think Like a Programmer
An Introduction to Creative Problem Solving

Learning to code from a book is practically impossible, because you need to try what you just read, and experiment with different ways to reach the same result.
And you have to make your own faults and error in the code, and then find them and resolve them. That way you learn the fastest and it is sustainable.
cheers
Mike

I'm not affiliated with O'Reilly Media.
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sathuri 12 years ago

programming is more about algorithms and design by blackbox(flowcharting). if you know what you want to achive then you put it on paper till the last detail that is it. for coding in a computer language you first need to think which platform you want to deal with for desktop applications programming you need something like vb.net/csharp.net/delphi even vb6 would serve the purpose , for web programming you would like to look at php/java/vb.net/csharp.net (and ofcourse you need a good understanding of html and a little of css) and if you are targetting mobile platform which is going to explode in the near future you better learn mobile tools (each mobile os (Android /apple/symbon/ etc) has its own language so target one mobile platform and go through it . There are many sites to learn freely like oreilly , w3schools etc
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webdeveloperindia 12 years ago

Also you can learn from udemy.com or lynda.com these both sites are best.
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Yvon Boulianne 12 years ago

Sublime Text is awesome to edit code and dreamweaver if you are editing web stuff and want to see what it looks (not exactly but a good idea) right in your editor.
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how/where to start learning programming

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