Where to start: Coding?

Jameel

Jameel

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Feb 14, 2007
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I did some searches on this board and only found a bunch of threads that confused the hell out of me. People talking about Ruby, C, PHP, Subversion, Frameworks, Mac, Linux, Dreamweaver sucks, Git, Dropbox...

my-mind-is-full-of-fuck.jpg


I'm just wondering where to get my feet wet so I can learn more in general.

I've never really attempted to learn any kind of programming although I have a PHP reference book laying around.

I got my feet wet with Knopoix linux distro years and years ago and eventually installed Gentoo (fucking bitch of an install) on my old ratty desktop and it was pretty awesome.

I have a lot of time on my hands and I feel like I need to be fucking filling the extra time with learning something.

tl;dr where to start learning basics / coding / getting back in touch with using linux, books, tutorials, etc
 


I owuld start busting on PHP/MySQL there is plenty of work in that area still.
Learning curve is pretty flat too :)

Then break off into Wordpress plugin development (PHP).
 
Getting back in touch with linux has nothing to do with coding...even though I do suggest linux to code on.

Anyway since you are probably asking from an AM perspective learn it like this:

1. HTML...its not true coding but some of the principles apply, its simple and easy. Look up HTML tutorials for a good start. W3 schools is a good reference site.
2. CSS...now that you understand HTML start looking into CSS, its a way to make things prettier on HTML, suddenly you are dealing with two documents, your HTML page and then your CSS page working them together.
3. PHP....now you can learn to generate dynamic content, be prepared to be frustrated and learn a lot
4. mySQL....learn database design and communication with PHP. Suddenly you can create dynamic webpages backed by a database.


This should take you six months with due diligence. It can take 2 years to master.

Javascript is also good, but most of what you want to do javascript wise you can find on the net for free. If you know PHP you will understand what javascript does.

O'Reilly books is the way to go for reference even though nowadays with the internet your best bets are the official PHP/mySQL site and probably stackoverflow.com for any questions you have.

So now you know the languages that you should learn...what about applying it? Best thing I can suggest start with a project in mind. You will learn as you work on the project. As an example lets say you like video games.

1. Create a simple one page HTML page talking about the video games you like
2. Use CSS to make it prettier
3. Create multiple HTML pages, maybe a page for each game you like
4. Create a form using HTML that allows a user to send you an email
5. Use PHP to do something simple like display your HTML page using PHP instead
6. Up the notch with PHP, create your favorite video games quotes and display one at random when your page loads
7. Create a database of all the games you like and then using PHP and mySQL display the list of games
8. Final level, create on PHP page that can display information based on the most recent video game added. It should auto update as a video game is added.
9. Bonus level, create a form that uses PHP to add a new game into your DB

If you do all of that you will be well in your way.
 
I would recommend starting with HTML, then CSS, then Javascript or PHP. This is assuming you want to make websites and not mobile apps.
 
I would start off by making sure you understand the fundamentals first like Variables, Loops, Arrays, etc. Once you've got those down, learn how to combine them like looping through an array to display some links. After learning these, you'll realize that you'll able to represent some big brands at 1 point
 
wiredniko said:
Getting back in touch with linux has nothing to do with coding...even though I do suggest linux to code on.
Click to expand...

I just liked Linux overall because it gave me much more control and I became interested in a lot of other topics like networks and security.

I was looking at Arch linux looks neat but not as 45-minute to compile-y a program to install like Gentoo.
 
Do you guys think I should learn photoshop too I'm awful when it comes to editing anything. Photoshop seems so complicated that I've always edited stuff in MS paint haters gonna hate.
 
if you wanna do IM - you should hire people to do that for you. And use wordpress/joomla. If you are doing IM, I don't think you would encounter a lot of situations where wordpress isn't suitable for you and for those occasions you could hire a freelancer to do whatever you need.

if you wanna code, forget PHP, as it is just an excuse for a language. It's really ugly and none of the real progammers will take you seriously.

Look into python(django), or C#(ASP.NET).

with this you can skip the javascript and jQuery, as one language will be suffiicient enough to do everything, but knowing more languages is always a plus, as different things can be done a lot easier/faster when approached with another language.

Java later on is always an option.

You should look into some database devoping too - mysql will be sufficient. Postgresql is getting more and more popular.

Of course you should start first with HTML and CSS so you have a basic fundamental of how the webpages work. Python/c#/php all just generate HTML. Don't get too deep, because that is for designers, not coders.

some links have been thrown above. Take a look at paid sites too - lynda.com is awesome and it has a library subscription for a lot of books on any topic you could think of on top of their video tutorials.

Also this is the best site a coder can visit at the moment - http://stackoverflow.com/

also https://github.com/

also don't use gentoo if you are newbie to linux/unix. Use ubuntu/mint. And your life would be a lot easier if you chose to code on windows. Don't fall for that 'hacker' mindset.
 
momchil9 said:
if you wanna code, forget PHP, as it is just an excuse for a language. It's really ugly and none of the real progammers will take you seriously.
Click to expand...

momchil9 said:
Look into python(django), or C#(ASP.NET)

with this you can skip the javascript and jQuery, as one language will be suffiicient enough to do everything
Click to expand...

momchil9 said:
mysql will be sufficient. Postgresql is getting more and more popular.
Click to expand...

momchil9 said:
Python/c#/php all just generate HTML.
Click to expand...

momchil9 said:
And your life would be a lot easier if you chose to code on windows.
Click to expand...

After that brilliant post, no "real programmer" is going to take you seriously. Nearly every sentence was a load of shit.

Anyway, back on topic... depends, what are you looking to accomplish? Are you looking to become a super-star developer? If so, something like Java would probably be your best starting point, as it'll help ingrain you with the fundamentals, strict type structure, OOP, etc.

If you're just looking to code up a few web pages, maybe a small database for your own lead capture / user management, and just basic stuff... then stick with LAMP (LINUX/Apache/mySQL/PHP). That will be more than enough for what you need, and there's loads of open source software out there written in LAMP that you can tweak and learn from.

If you're looking into writing multi-threaded bots (eg. scrape millions of pages every hour), then probably Python or Perl is your best bet. Personally, I'd suggest Perl, although others will disagree and say Python. Up to you.

If you want to do large-scale analytics / mathematical calculations, then you're looking for MATLIBS or Octave (open source version of MATLIBS).
 
momchil9 said:
if you wanna do IM - you should hire people to do that for you. And use wordpress/joomla. If you are doing IM, I don't think you would encounter a lot of situations where wordpress isn't suitable for you and for those occasions you could hire a freelancer to do whatever you need.

if you wanna code, forget PHP, as it is just an excuse for a language. It's really ugly and none of the real progammers will take you seriously.

Look into python(django), or C#(ASP.NET).

with this you can skip the javascript and jQuery, as one language will be suffiicient enough to do everything, but knowing more languages is always a plus, as different things can be done a lot easier/faster when approached with another language.

Java later on is always an option.

You should look into some database devoping too - mysql will be sufficient. Postgresql is getting more and more popular.

Of course you should start first with HTML and CSS so you have a basic fundamental of how the webpages work. Python/c#/php all just generate HTML. Don't get too deep, because that is for designers, not coders.

some links have been thrown above. Take a look at paid sites too - lynda.com is awesome and it has a library subscription for a lot of books on any topic you could think of on top of their video tutorials.

Also this is the best site a coder can visit at the moment - Stack Overflow

also https://github.com/

also don't use gentoo if you are newbie to linux/unix. Use ubuntu/mint. And your life would be a lot easier if you chose to code on windows. Don't fall for that 'hacker' mindset.
Click to expand...


Gotcha, wasn't looking to become a coding professional or anything just feel like I should invest some time to learn some basics of this and that.

I just feel like everyone is so knowledge about everything and I seem to know so little.

I agree about gentoo but I was tried that almost 7-8 years ago haha and I thought I was uber l33t.

Mint out of the box is pretty awesome minus the gay partnered google search in Firefox.
 
If you want to use Linux I suggest the following distros:

- LinuxMint to make it easy to transition
- LinuxMint Debian flavor still some of the LinuxMint functionality but a bit more secure and it stay current forever
- Debian or SuSE, more secure out of the box, updates happen slower but more testing is involved
- CentOS if you want to deal with web server stuff

You do not need to be an expert to use this stuff.


=========

Also whoever said pay people to code for you. Here is the problem if you have no clue of what it takes to code how are you going to tell people what to do.
 
Kiopa_Matt said:
After that brilliant post, no "real programmer" is going to take you seriously. Nearly every sentence was a load of shit.

Anyway, back on topic... depends, what are you looking to accomplish? Are you looking to become a super-star developer? If so, something like Java would probably be your best starting point, as it'll help ingrain you with the fundamentals, strict type structure, OOP, etc.

If you're just looking to code up a few web pages, maybe a small database for your own lead capture / user management, and just basic stuff... then stick with LAMP (LINUX/Apache/mySQL/PHP). That will be more than enough for what you need, and there's loads of open source software out there written in LAMP that you can tweak and learn from.

If you're looking into writing multi-threaded bots (eg. scrape millions of pages every hour), then probably Python or Perl is your best bet. Personally, I'd suggest Perl, although others will disagree and say Python. Up to you.

If you want to do large-scale analytics / mathematical calculations, then you're looking for MATLIBS or Octave (open source version of MATLIBS).
Click to expand...

No not a super star dev or pro just to take a look at stuff and get a better understanding. Play around with it so in the future I have an idea for what stuff does and not having to always rely on outsources 100% of for simple stuff I could fix or tweak, or even do myself all together.

Probably coding webpages part with LAMP and maybe a simple bot to get the idea for it is my guess.
 
Bofu2U said:
Or be able to check what they delivered. Or be able to see that it really would take an hour, not 20.
Click to expand...

Yeah this also, is what I want to be able to do. Not be handed something and say ok good job, and also be able to tweak and not have to be bothered with paying them over and over again.
 
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