How did you learn to code?

vinnypolston

vinnypolston

Boot Camp
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Oct 7, 2014
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Hey guys! So yeah. Any programmers hanging out here in BuSo? Tired of having to hire others to do it for me; sucking it up and going for it. I have basic HTML/CSS knowledge that REALLY needs refreshing. I checked out codeacademy and codeschool. Trying codeacademy first since it is free. Pretty good stuff so far!

Thoughts? go!
 
I used Codecademy for a little bit, but to be honest, I didn't like it that much... It just didn't "feel right" for me. Important to note: I only used Codecademy for like one day. It may have changed alot since I used it. I then started Team TreeHouse, which is really great :smile: I did the free trial first and I really liked it. I signed up for the Gold Membership which is about 50 bucks a month. I learned alot, and I'm now very comfortable with HTML and CSS. What I love about their method is that you learn by doing. You don't just get random exercises to complete... You learn html and CSS by actually building a real website from scratch. You also earn points and badges and stuff which make it really fun for me :D (Also, the videos are brilliant and the website is pretty :wink: lol)

I stopped coding for a while, but it's one of my goals to get right back on track with my coding. I'm going to continue to use Team Treehouse because it worked for me. I'm going to downgrade to the Silver Membership though. It's only 25 dollars a month and to be honest I didn't utilise all the "bells and whistles" of the Gold Membership. So I think the Silver will be just fine for me at this point. :smile: I definitely recommend you check it out.
 
I learned all of my coding just from tinkering around with websites over the past tons of years. I'm not amazing at any of them, but I can get everything done that I need to get done. I guess I'm more into the front-end dev work than backend procedural coding, which I know is 100x more complex.
 
Started when I was a kid. Studied psychology and computer science at University. Worked in development, Web Development, project management and now CTO.

::emp::
 
Learning some stuff now. I'm in a similar boat as you.

I put an ad on Craigslist looking for someone that could teach me one on one.

Had my first lesson the other day and the next one is tomorrow. Lessons are done on Skype, and I learned more in my first hour long lesson than I did in a full week trying to figure it out on my own.
 
Huh. Never thought about doing it that route @Calamari. Good stuff.

Will say that I found two really helpful resources. Adobe has a secret html/css editor that is open souce called brackets -> give it a try! Also download the addon, emmet. You'll thank me later :smile:

I burned through codecademy's 'build a website' and 'HTML & CSS' sections this past week. Really got a good grasp on it now. Going to keep doing more tutorials and get fresh with it!
 
Calamari said:
Learning some stuff now. I'm in a similar boat as you.

I put an ad on Craigslist looking for someone that could teach me one on one.

Had my first lesson the other day and the next one is tomorrow. Lessons are done on Skype, and I learned more in my first hour long lesson than I did in a full week trying to figure it out on my own.
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That sounds amazing, I know html and css pretty well but I keep hitting a wall with my sites and its becoming abundantly clear that I need to learn more php. Is you're guy just doing html/css because I would love to find someone like that so I could pick their brain for an hour on php, there just seems to be something there in the basics that I'm missing.
 
Two things I needed to learn coding, by loving to do coding both sides front end and back end. Second thing everyday I take one or two hours just for coding something or continue some small projects, at summer I take five to six hours a day to do so.

I used books cause there was no internet at my time :smile:
 
RiverStyx said:
That sounds amazing, I know html and css pretty well but I keep hitting a wall with my sites and its becoming abundantly clear that I need to learn more php. Is you're guy just doing html/css because I would love to find someone like that so I could pick their brain for an hour on php, there just seems to be something there in the basics that I'm missing.
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He's actually teaching me how to use my dedicated server using the command line. But I bet that if you run a local add you'll have some luck. Just be prepared for a lot of stupid replies from people that didn't actually read your ad.
 
Awesome guys, up to now I've always tried to learn it by myself. I have a business background though, and my efforts has never lead to nothing more than basic HTML and CSS. I'm hanging out with coders and very often I feel like a dumb, when I listen them discussing their projects. At least I'm able to understand, which keep my hope for a change still alive and breathing.
 
Can't say I know how to code but, my experience started with the SBI Site Build It. There was a guy back then who provided simple static html templates and then the entire course he was teaching about adjusting those templates by playing with CSS and html. So at that point I had "this kind" of front end design under control (based on just one simple template). I have sold one site like that on F.

Then I've signed up for a membership program called Leadingtraffic (by "Steve and Yury", anyone?) where they have provided nice and easy tutorial about WP design. At this point I've switched from static html to WP "design".

Still, I'm not even close to call my self coder. However, I can get done a lot of stuff by simply using the best coding technique I know which is "copy and paste" :wink:
 
I started back in 1984 or so with a commodore 64 and the instruction book that came with it that just barely touched on BASIC (c64s version). It was mainly trial and error, typing in those programs from magazines that almost always contained numerous errors. Resources for programming knowledge were very scarce. This of course was back before the Internet as we know it and the only way to really network was to use BBS services that people would normally run out of their homes. No IRC, Skype, etc. To network, we sought each other out via word of mouth or through documents we would find on the BBSes. We talked on the phone a lot and did a lot of "modem to modem" chatting. I don't take the knowledge that is now available for granted at all, LOL.

So yea, I got my start with the old school stuff. Before Linux was a thing, I was working with UNIX (SCO and HPUX servers) and a couple of AS/400 servers that I still had to write COBOL (yes you read that right) code for to maintain/expand. I guess this might be the reason that I don't know much about Linux desktop because I still live on the command line.

I look back on those days and I'm always reminded of why I started programming to begin with. I was hooked on the idea of finding ways to turn ideas in my head into finished programs that would serve the intended purpose, whether it was to "crack" games so I could have infinite lives/bullets/etc and such, all the way to writing basic text based "adventure" games with friends. Programming has always been a passion of mine and I am always trying to expand my knowledge, even to this day. I try to learn a new language or 2 every year, so after about 30 years of doing this, I've learned quite a bit and always realize there's still so much more to learn.

To anyone just starting out, seek out the "hello world" tutorials for a given language and how to set things up. Get some basic code under your belt. Once you get something basic that works, go back into the code and intentionally "break" things so you can see what kind of errors happen and more importantly "why" they happen. You'll know you "got it" when you start thinking in code and in terms of "how can I automate this?" then writing a script or app to solve the problem.

As for what language, I prefer Ruby personally but I see that there is a strong Python following in the IM circles. A friend of mine, Zed Shaw wrote a book for Python called "Learn Python The Hard Way" (http://learnpythonthehardway.org/) that looks to be a pretty good start. It's for sale but you can also view the book online for free.

Hope some of this helps. Also, I'm always happy to chat with folks about code, Linux etc so feel free to hit me up in PM, here or skype if you know me there :smile:
 
I learned Perl by dissecting adult membership scripts apart to learn how they work so I could create my own.

Later I moved up to PHP around 1999 doing the exact same thing.

I was too greedy to pay other people to code for me ( I was a designer at the time ) so I taught myself by taking apart shit and eventually finding sites like w3schools when they got online.
 
eliquid said:
finding sites like w3schools when they got online.
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w3schools sucks so bad but ranks for everything now. I guess it's because they are so old. Any time I need a simple answer to a simple question, they are there. But they also rank for the hard questions unfortunately.
 
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