Ask HN: How should a beginner learn to code?

8 points by mtran 15 years ago | 36 comments

I quit my job and learned to code over the last 8 months or so. The main thing- write code everyday. A little, a lot. Just start spinning that wheel. You'll learn a bit here and there. But the big advances come after a few weeks when you piece together the little concepts.

I started with Python & Google App Engine. I would recommend this to anyone. You don't have to worry about the server and can just pay attention to actually learning a server-side language (assuming that is what you want to focus on).

Check out http://learnpythonthehardway.org/index

O'Reilly books are excellent too. If you have any questions, my email is on my profile.

Don't stop - code every day!

mtran 15 years ago | |

We are taking a similar leap - totally changing gears and rearranging everything to go after it. Thanks so much for the resources; I'd love to stay in touch and will check out your profile. Do you know how long this stream will be saved? Will I need to archive it myself or will I be able to access it indefinitely? (<30 days on HN and learning every day!)

upgrayedd 15 years ago | | |

Also, check out the Ask YC Archive curated by the noble Gabriel Weinberg: www.gabrielweinberg.com/startupswiki/Ask_YC_Archive

A real treasure trove about basically everything and anything you'd be interested in for entrepreneurship, job finding, programming, school, life, ...anything.

thesethings 15 years ago | | |

Threads are not deleted, though they can get hard to find. Definitely save the URL, but don't worry about copy and pasting the contents.

Another great HN tool is http://searchyc.com. You can search submission submission titles, comments, and get feeds for most types of things.

wmboy 15 years ago | |

Here's the progress blog - http://www.proudn00b.com/ (mentioned in a similar thread today).

mtran 15 years ago | | |

Just checked it out! How great - loved your "about" ... "to take control of my destiny"... are you by yourself in SF?

geoffw8 15 years ago |

I'm absolutely in this boat at the moment, and I've covered a ton of ground. Lynda is great, railstutorial.org is fantastic as it covers pretty much all you need to know - testing, git, github, heroku etc.

But I have to say, as others have said - you just have to get down and code. I've covered a lot material, but the moment you sit down to write a piece of code by yourself - the game changes. Its like a different dimension.

So my advice to you as a fellow noobie is run through the tutorials enough so that you know your M from your C and get writing.

Join StackOverflow (which never ceases to amaze me) and read read read!

Best of luck.

mtran 15 years ago | |

Thanks so much. I will check this out and share it w/other team members tonight! One of us is really strong w/database but does mainly govt' stuff which is all CF. Another is amazing w/UI and design, and my strength is project management- I'm great at translating and organizing what pp want into a format that makes developers happy. We're looking to fill the gap which is flexibility and skill in choosing and using the right language to get the job done.

baberuth 15 years ago |

Pick a small project you want to work on, then start trying to make it real. Ask for help from people around you. People like helping other people, especially if 1. you make it easy for them, 2. you seem to be putting in a genuine effort.

Tons of "Ask HN" posts on this topic have already been posted. The first step to showing people you're serious is to actually do your own research first.

The post that got me started with writing code was http://iamelgringo.blogspot.com/2008/05/teach-yourself-you-t...

mtran 15 years ago | |

So psyched to read this. I've been devouring HN for the last couple of weeks. It's great to be able to get the perspectives of both awesome developers and people who are or have been in a similar boat (just getting started). Thanks for taking the time to answer. I read a ton and have been collecting some awesome resources - my Evernote is filling up w/ amazing resources I'll be happy to share w/others when opportunities present. Thanks a million.

pstr 15 years ago |

I think the first step is to decide why you want to learn to code - do you want to persue a career in software engineering, or to build an MVP for your startup idea?

mtran 15 years ago | |

I want to be able to contribute to our start up by writing code even if it's not as the lead... and certainly to know enough to be an asset for other developers... and also to know what good code looks like. I think I need to figure out if I can be any good at it to know how far I'll take it. Some people say anyone can write code but other people say being "math minded" is critical, and that's daunting to me.

noahc 15 years ago |

1. Pick a Language 2. Find a beginners guide to said language. 3. Start building stuff.

You need to start building stuff. The only time I've ever learned to code was when I was trying to build something. Reading books, taking algorithm classes, etc never did anything for me. Give me a real world problem and turn me loose. That's how I learn best, and I expect most people do too.

mtran 15 years ago | |

How do you pick a language? I've heard soooo many different perspectives on this. I just started fooling around w/Ruby because the tools were easy and fun to use... but since I'm just getting started I'm wide open for suggestions.

noahc 15 years ago | | |

That sounds like a perfect reason to choose ruby.

Your choice of language is almost irrelevant when first starting out as long as you pick something like php, python, or ruby. As the languages get more exotic or lower level they can become increasingly more difficult to learn.

Run with Ruby and enjoy!

greglockwood 15 years ago |

There is an identical ask thread to this that I just posted an answer to, so I will crosspost my answer from there:

If you want to do front end web dev, learn these languages in this order:

HTML - http://www.w3schools.com/html/ CSS - http://www.w3schools.com/css/default.asp Javascript - http://eloquentjavascript.net/contents.html

And then pick one of the following two: PHP - http://www.tuxradar.com/practicalphp or Rails - http://ruby.railstutorial.org/ruby-on-rails-tutorial-book

There are many languages that you can learn for front end other than RoR and PHP, but they are two of the most popular right now, and will almost certainly suit your needs. Good luck, and stick with it when it gets frustrating, learning how to code is definitely worth it!

noahc 15 years ago | |

Just to clarify RoR is a framework, and PHP is a language. Each language has many frameworks to choose from. You need to learn Ruby before learning Ruby on Rails. Each framework allows for rapid development of websites or web apps, and should be learned separately from the language they support.

If you want to learn how to code backend stuff pick either python, ruby or php.

mtran 15 years ago | | |

Thanks for clarifying this. I'm sure it sounds oversimplified to non-beginners but I didn't fully get the difference until I tried out Code School's Rails for Zombies and they directed me to "Tryruby.org" 1st.

mtran 15 years ago | |

I am on it! I'm getting enough here to keep me busy for quite a while! How can I find the other thread? I'm going to keep track of all of the people that help me out on this post so I can shoot you a note when I finally build something cool! Thanks so much for sharing these resources.

mindfulbee 15 years ago |

I didn't realize you started a post too. Here's my link: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2380810

mtran 15 years ago |

Loads of articles about non-technical founders needing to learn to code. Short of pursuing a CS degree, and after Tryruby.org and Codeschool.com, what do you recommend?

jrsmith1279 15 years ago | |

Lynda.com has some good training. I'm finding their Ruby on Rails 3 Essential Training to be very easy to follow. I have been programming in PHP for the last 3 years, so I do have some experience with programming, but I think this training would be just fine for beginners as well. It is $25 a month for a basic account and you might find that a little high, but I think it's worth it for the amount of training that you have access to.

mtran 15 years ago | | |

I will check this out. I've been amazed at the affordability of available resources and think $25 a month is very reasonable. It's also great to find so many people who are generous with their time and expertise and willing to offer some direction. I love this place! Thanks a bunch for sharing your resources!

bricestacey 15 years ago | |

Since you're interested in Ruby, try learning rails. I suggest reading through Ruby Guides' Getting Started[1] and then going through the Rails Tutorial[2], where you make a Twitter clone.

  [1] Ruby Guides - http://guides.rubyonrails.org/
  [2] Rails Tutorial - http://ruby.railstutorial.org/ruby-on-rails-tutorial-book

mtran 15 years ago | | |

Great! I'll check these out and share these with my teammates. Thanks for passing them on!

BenWGarton 15 years ago |

It's too bad you cant just do a complete submersion like with a foreign language.

mtran 15 years ago | |

Right? It's funny because I've used language programs to learn Italian, French, Spanish,and Vietnamese... just a bit of each and that's exactly what I have been thinking - about how Pimsleur would be great for this and Rosetta Stone would be great for that... I can definitely see traces of the same kind of teaching in TryRuby.Org