Adarq.org

Quote from: Eric on April 06, 2016, 06:30:18 pm

Sorry to hijack your shizz and yeah Jacked n Tan and girls having big nice butts on instagram > edumakation these days.  If some noob was interested in learning more about this computer stuff, where would the best place to start?

no problem at all (regarding the hijack).

what do you think you might be interested in? just picking up some programming to see how you like it?

First you want to find some introductory classes using very simple (yet powerful) languages like Python:
1) http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-189-a-gentle-introduction-to-programming-using-python-january-iap-2011/
2) http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-00sc-introduction-to-computer-science-and-programming-spring-2011/

1 is a very basic intro. 2 is a heavier intro, specific to computer science. The first step to getting into programming is simply picking a language, picking some introductory material, then going through it slowly while trying out all of the examples and attempting the exercises.

You can get started very quickly using something like:
- https://repl.it/
- https://repl.it/languages/python3

That will allow you to code via your browser.. so most of the examples you come across, you'll be able to type them in (preferred) or paste them into that repl (read-eval-print-loop, ie, a command interface) and run the program.

Lots of people never take the "first step" to get into coding.. it always seems so daunting. But the first step is to simply find some examples, type them into a file or repl (like above) and run the code. Most likely, even the most simplest examples (getting the program to print hello or ask you questions etc) is enough to trigger an addiction.

Then like raptor pointed out, there are other sites like codeacademy which have their own learning tools, and hackerrank which challenge you with puzzles. If you go through that first introductory course .. you could then join hackerrank and see if you can solve anything. They have nice progressions, you can start out at extremely basic and move on towards advanced.. but along that progression you will find yourself solving small puzzles and it could become pretty fun, especially for someone new to the game. For veteran programmers, it's usually harder to stay excited solving small puzzles because you're always working on some big projects and such.. though, some people just love puzzles.

After you've learned some of the basics of python, you can take more advanced classes, learn more advanced features of the language, play with various libraries found on github, or dabble in other languages.. All languages have very simple tutorials that allow you to get a feel for that lang.. If you find yourself enjoying program, there's no shame in just pasting (or typing, because you actually learn more that way) examples and running them.

The key to learning how to code is pretty simple; consistency. Just like athletic training, it needs a consistent effort, even if it's less than 1 hour a day.

Hope that helps for now. Let me kno if you mess around with any of this stuff!

pc mayne!