What's the best way for me to learn how to code?

[imk]

so yeah i have a really short attention span when it comes to reading books etc but i really wanna learn coding...so any suggestions? where di you start etc?

[Opserty]

Video tutorials was the best for me, now its just a case of trial and error and reading on the forums. Once you get to grips with the basics its just becomes a case of learning from your mistakes and those of others. I found that reading tutorials was useless for me to but learning with a video tutorial was easier and more productive.

Also you pretty much have to have a desire for learning it otherwise you don't get anywhere.

Makes me wish I learnt ASP instead of PHP first because now I learn bugger all

[Chris M]

The way I learnt was to throw myself in at the deep end...

Instead of trying to learn how to write code, modify your board, and while you are doing it try and figure out what the code is doing... Then when you come to write something, start small... Use simple functions, and don't be afraid to ask questions...

You'll find that after a few attempts to get it right, maybe with some help, you'll get it, and thats half the battle; Once you've done one or two things by yourself, you'll find you will be able to create almost any modification you want, and theres always vB.org members and coders here to answer your questions...

Chris

[Brad]

Like Chris I just jumped in head first..

I found books to be helpful but only after I'd learned the basics on my own. Even know I don't understand half of the stuff I read in books...

[Chris M]

Thats because you're probably drunk when you read them Brad

Chris

[Adrian Schneider]

One thing that really made things go faster for me was being able to parse PHP locally.

Either by save and refresh, or by running code inside my editor. Being able to see changes first hand within a second is a real time saver. Change, run. Change, run. Being able to experiment so fast makes learning fast. (You learn primarily from doing)

[unenergizer]

I started to learn HTML in 7th grade. I found a book in our library called "How to Make Web Pages." Before then I had thought that the internet made pages. Though once I found out that any one could make an HTML page I was instantly hooked. I've read many books. I started with small basic books and built my way up. I remember printing out an HTML tutorial that was about 45 pages long. This for me was a long time ago. Now I'm 20 years old and im running a business doing the same thing I started when I was in 7th grade.

When it comes to computers you can learn anything. It doesn't matter who you are. I think I have proven that to my self time and time again.

I started to teach my self php a few years back. I remember writing a loop that would count from 1 to infinity. I thought this was the neatest thing because the page would steadily get taller and taller. Depending on what you want to learn, it will take some time. If you stick with it and perfect your skills then you can do anything.

If you want to start coding, take your first step and read over some of the tutorials on this site http://www.w3schools.com/. If you are able to sit down read a tutorial and practice the syntax then you shouldn't have a problem learning..

HTH

[Dean C]

You have two choices really, you can become a programmer, and a good one after, or you can become a good programmer from the beginning.

If you want to do the latter, which is what I'd reccommend, learn a proper object orientated language that doesn't give you the flexibility of procedural programming that PHP does. I have always been an advocate of learning by doing, as people in this thread have mentioned, but by god, do not learn PHP to start with. It lends itself to poor, sloppy, lazy coding practices.

If you want my advice, learn Java initially. It's a great language to learn programming concepts such as object-orientation, security and efficiency from scratch.

When you're working with a language like Java, or even C (which I'd not reccommend as a starting language), you begin to think (if taught correctly) about every line of code you write, and how it'll affect other parts of your application, about what data structures are best to use, whether a loop is necessary or not etc. You become a good programmer by practice!

[imk]

thanks very much fellas....so you think i should learn java 1st?

the thing is php and html are all ive been using so what can i do with java?

and links please.

[Dean C]

You can do web stuff with Java, but you should work on developing command-line applications and GUIs, to teach you how object-orientated programming. Pick up a book, I know they can be cumbersome, but they really are the best way to learn concepts. Or even better, get some training!