natefico

Hello Everyone,

Well I have always been intersted in learning to code. It has always been something I have inspired to do. But since I was a slacker I could not make it into state school after high school. So now I am stuck at some half-... community college for about 35 more credits. I say it is half-... because their CIS department consisets of Keyboarding... and, well, don't get me started. So if I have any hopes in a 'formal' education in programming it is going to have to wait until Fall of next year.

In the mean time I have had several failed attempts of trying to learn through those programming teaching books. After several failed attempts with the C++/Java/Python books I just lost all modivation. Is it me or do these books lack quality? I just couldn't get motivated to read them.

Perhaps some of you had a rough time starting to code and then it took off after you found the 'Aha' moment. If so, do you have any advice for me?

Thank you,
--Nate

P.S. -- I have not really used the forums since my join date, so I thought I re-introduce myself. Actually I don't think I ever introduced myself when I joined in 2005 ^^;

King

Did you manage to get the "hello world" program working in any of those languages? As soon as I start with if statements and loops I was hooked on programming and haven't needed any motivation since. If I were you I would force myself to read though a couple chapters of one of those books, and if you are still not that interested, then programming probably isn’t for you, you really should have to force it.

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natefico

Was reading, Learning Python (something like that). It was cool and all, but it seemed like I wasn't applying it enough. Because a week after I put the book down I couldn't write anything that I learned. I think I was going about it wrong, went to the extreme of taking notes, because I wanted reference material, but soon that got boring real fast. For sure though, the Python book was more my thing then any of the Java/C++ books I had.

King

Programming takes a lot of time and practice to learn, keep at it.

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big_k105

I think one of the things that got me really addicted was writing tools to automate tasks on my computer. Also another thing that got me addicted was just web development, like creating small web apps. But then again just the idea of writing something that does what it is suppose to gives me a rush of some sort. I just love doing this stuff. Just keep at it and someday you might end up loving it.

p.s. Welcome back to the forums

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glimmy

When I first started programming a little less than 2 years ago (with perl) I remember reading Learning Perl, but nothing really stuck, and I couldn't do any of the exercises in the book. Now they all just seem so simple. I also had a hard time thinking of things to do with perl. I never really had an aha moment, but there was sort of an aha period where everything started coming together. Similar to Big K, I used perl for sysadmin type stuff. Python came pretty easily after perl, but I never really got the hang of C++ (I think I am too used to the libraries that come with perl and python).

natefico

I enjoy making website, even if they look like geocities websites ^^;
Glimmy seems as if I am having similar issues with Python...
If I had a reasonable project (something I could do), I bet that would help me a lot. Seems as it just goes right through me without sticking.

What I think would be a cool first project for me, would make this program. Basically a form type of thing that would put the text feilds within certain html blocks and save that as an html file and then connect to my server and upload the file and rename the old file.

Maybe what I said didn't make too much sense, but makes perfect sense in my mind, for the moment anywyas...

Perhaps I will be able to take on such a project once I finish reading this book.

Daniel Everett

It is hard to get into programming. At the start its hard to see how everything fits together and can be frustrating. I got into programming when I was fed up with playing games and decided to write my own. It was about 4 years ago when I learned Visual Basic 6. I brought a book on VB6 and read each chapter and did the exercises. It was hard as I had no one to help me out when i got stuck. I ended up creating some really nice games in VB6.

I got my motivation from wanting to write a computer game. If you have a goal at the end then you will be more motivated to learn. Think of something you want to make. Then find out which language is best for doing what you want and learn it. So if you want to make a nice web site then learn HTML and PHP. If you want to make a computer game then I recommend Java, C# or VB.net. It does not really matter what language you learn but that you learn the fundamentals of programming and you get some enjoyment out of it. If you find that you dont enjoy it then maybe its not for you. The more programming you do the more you will learn and the more you will get out of it. Reading a book can get boring so going off and writing something with what you have learned will keep your interest. If you find a friend that can already program they might be able to get you started and help if you get stuck. Good luck.

peace_of_mind

Since web stuff seems to interest you at this point, maybe PHP might be the way for you to go. After playing with that you may come up with some uses for Python to enhance projects you already were working on in PHP.

One tip, though, about the notes. If you're reading from a book there's really no need in going off the deep end in note taking. When you do you're really just kinda re-writing the book. Read a chapter or two and then try playing around with the subjects you just read. If you hit a roadblock go back and reread the chapter(s). There's no law that says once you've read it you have to move on. Read it 4 and 5 times if that's what it takes for the concept to stick.

Btw, welcome aboard.

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big_k105

just like peace_of_mind said it really does help to read alittle and then play with the code they give if they give any. and see exactly how it works. That is normally how I start learning a new language I never start off writing something big. even thought I have been programming for awhile. I normally still write basic Hello World program first things first when I learn a new language. Then maybe move to a basic hello program that uses if statements based on user input. and then I normally have a basics of the language down for me but since your new you might have to write more of these small programs to get you started. But even if you only read a few pages of a book and then play with the code it is better for me to make it stick if I play with the code as I am reading. I personally need to do that if I want to learn anything really.

@PoM: Man PoM your sig about ADHD just through me off. I guess my ADHD kicked it and I lost track of where I was going half way through what I just wrote.

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