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Although I did a bit of programming as part of my degree BITD, (Turbo Pascal! 8) ) I feel it's definitely I skill that would be useful to learn to a moderate standard. Where to start though?
Any languages you'd recommend? I thought of Python 3, but an acquaintance suggested .Net. Also, resources, Python looks to have quite a lot online and it seems I get software and suchlike to run on my Windows 10 PC, or would I be better to get a Raspberry Pi kit and go from there with a 'dummies' type book.
Interested in your views, especially if you've come to this as an aged amateur and not as a professional. Ta.
What are you trying to do?
My son's having fun with Arduino programming currently, building breadboards and programing the chips to perform functions. If I was to code for fun I think I'd go down that route.
If you want to do a website or gaming then it's a different answer.
Code Academy if completely new.
Learn Swift - it's incredibly 'learnable' and is based on C so it makes it easy to learn a bunch of other things off the back of it. Apples documentation is great and they have built in tutorials in xcode.
You'll need python later on, though.
Learn cobol if you want to charge whatever you want for the foreseeable future.
Is Swift available on Windows?
Python seems a sensible place to start from a technical point of view but, probably more importantly, find out what meet ups and support you can get locally. If you live in a city, you’ll have a greater choice than elsewhere...
Rachel
Python, Node.js would be up there.
Do you have an end goal ? i.e. career ambitions or is it just to gain more knowledge about coding in general ?
Another +1 for Python. Solid core language, huge libraries for if you want to do anything useful, doesn't have stupid behaviour like Javascript does.
What are you trying to do?
Ah, the million dollar questions! Mainly 'in general' but there's stuff to do at work too. I'm developing tools at work that process data from our SAP reports. They are modelled in Excel with a load of Visual Basic macro's that I've basically pinched off internet forums, which is what has peaked my interest. Developing that would seem obvious, or automating the SAP data retrieval process, which is highly manual at the moment with little company appetite to improve it.Do you have an end goal ? i.e. career ambitions or is it just to gain more knowledge about coding in general ?
I quite like the idea of Arduino and basic process control type functions as a route into Internet of Things knowledge which is likely to get more useful in future years
As others have said it is highly dependent on what you'd like to do.
Write a Windows application, a phone app, a website, control electronics etc?
Edit: cross-post
Definitely python. It's easy to learn, and pretty ubiquitous in everything from web-development, back-end stuff, databases, etl, data anaytics etc. Also very few software packages/frameworks that don't have a python interface.
Don't bother with .net. c# is quite nice to use but the wider .net stuff is a PITA (IMO) and complete overkill for most things.
Javascript (via node) is good if you like the geeky side, but I struggle with the whole ethos behind node.js etc, which seems like a geek's [url= https://hackernoon.com/how-it-feels-to-learn-javascript-in-2016-d3a717dd577f ]conspiracy to massively overcomplicate simple tasks[/url].
I'm certainly not a programmer (thick as sh7t) but I have a lot of fun with Raspberry Pi's (got 7) running various Python stuff.
If you go down the Pi route at least you'll have something that's useful.... plus you can get a Pi Zero W [built in wifi] for less than £10.
Why wouldn't you!
If you just want to be able to knock out a quick program to do something or other, learn something like Python as you'll be able to get results quickly and loads of people have probably done the same thing already.
If you want to get into the theory of how things work, do a theoretical structured programming course first, then something on object oriented languages. If you're taking this route, it doesn't really matter what language you learn - they as all just different syntax and frameworks to do the same thing i.e. make a computer do what you want it to do.
Edit: Just seen your follow up - learn some SQL too...
+1 for choosing the language for the application.
Python never gets used in my world, which is enterprise software. So if you wanted to move career to that, I'd say don't bother. However it's useful for all sorts of other things.
Your original question is like 'I'd like to get into biking. What kind of bike should I get?'
I completely agree! Hopefully my post up there about 'what do you want to do' answers some of that, and Sharkbait's suggestion sounds like a good combination of programming skill with interesting outcomes.Your original question is like 'I'd like to get into biking. What kind of bike should I get?'
Given your requirements, I'd be learning VB.
Personally there's something about Python that winds me up, not sure if it's the indenting or the keyword "self" but I don't like it... But I appreciate I'm in a minority here, and it's certainly a good language to learn the basics.
But if you get to choose Ruby is much more fun 🙂
Sounds more like you may need a ETL tool. Suggest FME Desktop. You can also script in Python with that, I will be looking in to that myself soon.
Ignore the work bit - you'll learn more by having fun. 😉
I was given an arduino IoT [url= http://osoyoo.com/2017/05/09/arduino-iot-starter-kit/ ]kit[/url] recently - its got a generic board, and a pile of sensors and wires. It seems like a pretty reasonable way to get started (even I can manage!).
It's not really 'computing' so much as 'interfacing' as this [url= https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/arduino-vs-raspberry-pi/ ]article[/url] discusses. So I guess if your aim is to 'learn to code' you might grow out of it quite quickly. That said, following success at getting the arduino to make a light flash and tell me what the sensors are doing, I am re-enthused about a previous attempt to make the minifishspecials a retro arcade based on a Pi, and some joystick parts.
On that basis, I'd suggest that's a good a route in as any - I'm not really bothered about programming per se, but quite enjoy tinkering with it.
Maybe ask Father Christmas for a kit?
Well, I started with COBOL, worked out alright so far
8080 assembler here 🙁
Python seems great. My daughter gets taught it as part of her course at Uni for data analysis. It seems to cover all bases
VBA is good if you have MS Office as it is built in and you can usefully use it to do stuff
Fortran 77 FTW. Once you've learnt Fortran, you can write it in any language.
I started out on assembler.
6 bit systems for the win 🙂
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[url= http://www.fano.co.uk/history/sys10.html ]http://www.fano.co.uk/history/sys10.html[/url]
Given your requirements, I'd be learning VB.
That's just devalued the worth of any other suggestion you might make...
Don't bother with javascript - it is just a hack language that is being patched up to try and make it look like a real language but still has cr8pness at its core.
Go is my suggestion...
Javascript is a pain in the arse which I hate - but it has some merit because it's so widely used for different jobs and widely available.
The language is not that important imo as far as learning to code. Once you can program in 1 learning another of the same type (i.e procedural, OO, functional) learning another is not a big issue. The key is know your problem to find the language. Then find tool kits or interfaces, or groups of others that solve similar problems. Then find out what language is commonly used for that toolkit or application.
Some problems use lots of different languages for different parts of a solution but that is obviously beyond "just starting".
Also ignore people who are fan boys of language xyz and hate abc that are both known to solve similar problems.
Whatever you choose, check out the courses on Udemy. There are some brilliant ‘trainers’ on there, offering video-based tutorials, downloadable resources and forum support. I’m
I’ve signed up to loads on there, including Python, Electronics and Arduino/Pi.
Whatever you do, don't start with [url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_RPG_II ]RPGII[/url].
Ah, the million dollar questions! Mainly 'in general' but there's stuff to do at work too. I'm developing tools at work that process data from our SAP reports. They are modelled in Excel with a load of Visual Basic macro's that I've basically pinched off internet forums, which is what has peaked my interest. Developing that would seem obvious, or automating the SAP data retrieval process, which is highly manual at the moment with little company appetite to improve it.
Well the easiest extension would be to move from Excel Macros to writing in VBA direct. It should be able to talk to SAP direct and [url= https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19452461/vba-pulling-data-from-sap-for-dummies ]export the data from SAP via VBA[/url].
You can then manipulate the data in Excel, using VBA, and spit out custom reports into worksheets etc.
If your end point for the data is Excel, then using VBA makes a lot of sense as it's all in the same package...
Thanks for your advice all, especially that SAP data extract link footflaps. If I can follow it and mod it, and I've had some success with doing that recently, it'll be a dead handy application.
Two good VBA resources are [url= http://www.cpearson.com/Excel/MainPage.aspx ]Chip Pearson's website[/url] and [url= https://www.amazon.co.uk/Professional-Excel-Development-Applications-Addison-Wesley/dp/0321262506 ]this book[/url]..
Kinda related but not.. [url= https://www.google.com/doodles/celebrating-50-years-of-kids-coding ]today's Google Doodle is a cute little Blockly coding game[/url]. Probably a bit more basic than the OP was looking for but a nice one for young kids to have a play with.
https://www.google.com/doodles/celebrating-50-years-of-kids-coding