Whered you get your programming smarts

up-smash · 07-13-2009, 04:26 AM

I've been trying to learn python and a little of C++ via books. After 20 mins I'm immensely frustrated with trying to get lines of code to work or even understand what the book is talking about. Should I go take a college course? r i jus rtarded?

Where did everyone else learn how to program?

kmote · 07-13-2009, 05:13 PM

As a beginner it is very easy to become frutrated with programming and even trying to do the simplest things cause seemingly cryptic errors and warnings but as with anything practice makes perfect. Stick with it and the rewards are there for the taking.

Most people seem to approach programming by saying "Well I want to leearn how to program and I am a beginner, I wonder what a good beginners language is." They find a language then they find a book/tutorial and they run with that.
Problem with that is most books and tutorials are mind-bogglingly boring and a few chapters of bordom and frustration in and the person gives up.

IMO the best way to approach it is to say "I want to learn programming, I wonder what problem I can solve." Then find a language which can solve the problem and write your solution, by the time you are done you will be a programmer whether you like it or not - at the very worst you will have found out how a problem cannot be solved and you will know exactly why.

Personally my first programming experience was technically in the late 90's on QBasic - obviously didn't go far since I was under 10... then Pascal in college followed by VB and a bit of machine language at about the same time later in college. To be honest though I didn't really get any good at it till after I left college.

office politics · 07-13-2009, 06:18 PM

kmote, i couldn't have said that better. you're spot on.

with me it was pretty much the same. i read numerous books on programming languages, but never could complete a program. I did some small stuff with a TI-83 calculator and could tweak the bigger programs.

I hop into college they taught concepts in this order: workflow / flow control, syntax, functions, programs, logic problem solving, data structures. All of this was programming for C.

I didn't really find practical use for it until I attended a seminar that showed how to interact with a database using vbscript & odbc. This lead to building classic ASP pages and then vbscript for administration.

Learning how to create a flowchart first and then write the code modeled after the chart is the best tip i can give. This makes you think ok, I know what i need the computer to do, now I have to write the code to do it.

in response to kmote saying "I wonder what problem I can solve". In the real world its more like, "****, I have to do the same thing 1,000 times....forget it, code it"

up-smash · 07-13-2009, 07:05 PM

thanks for the reassurance guys!

The thing is... that I've taken both approaches that you have stated and I'm still at this problem of being frustrated... just because I don't know where to start to begin to understand programming languages.

The only area of programming that I do have comfort with is writing console commands in the autoexec.cfg file for all of VALVe's source games... I'm familiar with what the prefix of most commands mean, and I know a lot of the commands for the engine. I figured that the rest of the code writing world was similar to the source engine. Boy was I wrong...

office politics · 07-13-2009, 09:57 PM

imagine the possibilites, then make them reality --> Tutorials From FunctionX

kmote · 07-14-2009, 08:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by up-smash

thanks for the reassurance guys!

The thing is... that I've taken both approaches that you have stated and I'm still at this problem of being frustrated... just because I don't know where to start to begin to understand programming languages.

Well that's what we can help you with. Do you know what you would like to write? If not I can give you a task to complete.

oldskool · 07-14-2009, 05:39 PM

In my courses I have had Visual Basic, Javascript, and will be taking a SQL that uses MySQL in the fall. On my own, I have studied Java as well.

I think the guys above made good points, because it is very important to understand programming concepts as well as learning syntax. You need to understand what it is you are programming, and why you are doing it.

Like object-oriented programming is different from other types of programming, and why that is. Books by themselves for me are difficult to get the grasp of, but in college classes it is easier because you have an instructor explaining things in real time. They are not gods and there answers are not the the only answer. But they (instructors) CAN be helpful, but that isn't always the case, however.

And...need it be said, practice makes perfect as well, but all that will come in time. You came to the right place to get some help, there are some good programmers here.

Saxon · 07-15-2009, 06:04 AM

oldskool me old mucka I have a lot of stuff on MySQL if you want me to email it over and I have a few sample DB's you can play with if you want them too.

oldskool · 07-15-2009, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saxon

oldskool me old mucka I have a lot of stuff on MySQL if you want me to email it over and I have a few sample DB's you can play with if you want them too.

Sure, sounds good ! I will take ya up on that

Send em on over any time and thanks !

up-smash · 07-16-2009, 04:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saxon

oldskool me old mucka I have a lot of stuff on MySQL if you want me to email it over and I have a few sample DB's you can play with if you want them too.

me too!?

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