I want to learn to code but don't know where to start at all?

Question

I'm a 17 year old girl who wants to learn to code since computers interest me and I find it kind of fascinating how people create websites or how they get things to work.

Anyways, my school does not offer any classes or allow me to go to any classes nor are any offered near me (I've been looking). So I went to codeacademy and girlscode and both were a struggle. I'm dyslexic and have trouble focusing so my mind wanders when things don't make sense. These websites did not explain why I am doing things or what they do.

For example, I don't understand what a variable is nor do I understand why I am using python. And these websites don't explain WHY things are or WHAT they are. They just throw out a word and it doesn't register with me. So I was wondering if there are any websites that will teach me coding so I can understand how to do it and how it works, but also explains it so a bare beginner can understand.

Answer 1

My advice is not to focus as much on the language, and pick something that has an environment that you can get up and running in quickly, that you can easily run your code (single click launching, you want to be able to run often), and that has a lot of resources, like tutorials and books. Python, Perl, Java, C/C++, javascript, and many many more, all fit the build. Last, and possibly most important, try to find someone who knows something about this stuff. If you pick Python, and the one person you know who is a computer guru only knows PHP, he's probably not going to be much help and you're going to be the worse off for not having that early resource to help make sure you understand things properly. I cannot stress this enough. The first language I learned was basic because I had a math teacher that knew it and showed me how to do simple calculations and control the display on an old Apple II. That's often all one needs before they can start utilizing other resources, and you can go a long way self-teaching if you're motivated.

I see a lot of people get bogged down in what language to learn when there are so many more important things. The goal would be to understand the interface between software and hardware (and learn a bit about how the OS fits into the picture), and build familiarity with design patterns and structures used in modern programming. Once you master those (and related) topics, learning new languages becomes trivial. Seen from that view, you'll learn a lot of languages eventually, so pick based on the resources avail to help you progress faster.

Do not neglect math. It is not sexy like writing programs, but it's where all this stuff comes from!

Answer 2

It will take a while to "get your head around" the concepts.

As others say, html is a text formatting language not a programming language.



A Variable is a "chunk" of storage you give a name to; think of it like a pigeonhole or a line on a notepad.



You can store a number or bit of text in it & when you use that name on your program, the content are automatically used instead.



It's a bit like using a letter to represent an unknown in maths, like 3x + 1; you can put any number you like in the variable called x and get a different result from the same calculation.





That's what a lot of programming is based around, writing a fixed routing that does something with a combination of variables.



By setting them to different values before running that routine, you get different results.



It could eg. be to do a math or trig calculation or to count the letters in a word.





Why Python? - It's presently what someone decided was a good teaching language.



That does not mean it's easy... Some year back, schools changed from BASIC (a really easy and forgiving language) to PASCAL - specifically because that is much harder and will not tolerate the slightest error.

(That's now pretty much forgotten in mainstream programming as well...)





The simplest language of all is possibly the one used in Livecode. That's a program for creating mobile apps and general programs. It's language "Revolution" is very similar to plain english.

It's also completely different from any conventional programming language - but does give you an idea of the concepts and is very easy to use.



https://livecode.com/





The single most useful "mainstream" programming language is "C" - it's used for programming everything from little single-chip microcontrollers through phones, tablets, laptops, PCs, servers and up to Supercomputers.



It's not the easiest language to learn, but it has a lot of similarities with both Java and PHP, so you get a head start with those, if you ever want to use them.



There are probably more tutorials for that than any other language and many online resources.

Answer 3

I've been getting into programming as well and everything that I know about it so far is from the internet. I use two different websites. The first one is Khan Academy (Amazing website! Freaking love it.) and General Assembly. They both explain the reasoning behind the tags and all that, but if I have any other questions then I Google it (Khan Academy has a comment section). They both teach HTML, CSS, and Java. There could be more but I didn't complete all their lessons yet.



Hopefully this helps. Good luck.



PS I saw your comment on struggling to remember the codes and I struggle with that too but I don't have any learning disabilities... Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Answer 4

Don't give up prematurely. The first steps can take a while. If you give up before you at least understood the basics you will never know how far you could have gotten.

I suggest you start with a very beginner friendly language and afterwards go on to Python or JavaScript.

Try App Inventor. http://appinventor.mit.edu

It let's you create Android apps very easily and uses a more graphical language that's simpler than Python. Just follow the tutorials on the site and you should understand variables and many other important concepts within a day or two. There also is a forum on the site so you can ask others if you are stuck.

Answer 5

If you don't know anything about programming, you could pick up some books with basic tutorials and example situations for one of the languages. The main idea with programming is that there is a flow from beginning to end and every little thing has to be accounted for. There are various ways to deal with this, and it's up to you to find the best way for you. It's a combination of being detail-oriented, creative, and the ability to do some research as to how other people have solved the same problems.



Many websites are geared towards people who already have a general understanding of programming in a specific language, but want to solve a specific problem in that language that they're having a hard time with. You'd be better served at creating sort of a class curriculum for yourself about learning a language right from the beginning.



As to your question about why you're using Python: A lot of languages are interchangeable in terms of their deployability, but sometimes a project will demand that one language or other will be used because there is already an institutional infrastructure for it. This is largely up to the marketplace. COBOL programmers were in demand 30 - 40 years ago (& @ Y2K) because that's what a lot of deployed architecture supported back then.



Right now, there is a shortage of Java programmers, for example, because the industry demand is so massive. Not because Java is better or worse at anything (even if it is), but because devices and data operations are currently being produced by industry with inherent Java architecture capability. Because... because that's the way it is.



If this sounds arbitrary, congratulations. That's lesson one.

Answer 6

C, or now C++ is extremely powerful, and is difficult to learn as a first language because it is SO unregulated. Pascall is very regulated, and an easier prepatory teaching language. Some say the invention of C [1980] was a joke that someone took seriously. We are still dicovering all it can do with some very brief cryptic code. Being able to interpret written C is a black art. It takes great knowledge to debug it when it doesn't do what you think it should. It always produces the fastest running code possible for a given system. ANSI code is universal-will run on anything, otherwise its machine specific [to be avoided where possible]. It is particularly good for maths and graphics.

Answer 7

Hey as a senior developer I'd like to tell you that you should never start with python if you want start with html which is the language they use to make webpages you can find html toturials all around the web. But i decided to show you how to make a schedule for it . First learn the bare bones of coding in html and start to have fun and mess around with code lAter try to figure out css which is how you style those webpages and then have fun with be confident and actually take a break when you need to from learning Good luck :)

Answer 8

I have similar learning problems to you. I use several different sources to help me understand. I learned html4 and css,but have trouble with programming languages. Like you,I need to know WHY I am bothering to learn anything.I want to know the big picture and the reason I need to learn something by rote.I've had a good life in electronics,but I think you would do well to learn a programming language even if you have to force yourself to go against your personality and the way your mind best functions. Ignore the naysayers if you really want to learn to code,even for self satisfaction."C" seems to be the basis for a large number of languages. C+ is more used today. Perl is an excellent language to learn, also.Perl is commonly used in programming internet switching/routing using linux operating systems,but is not limited to that.

Answer 9

HTML isn't a programming language, it's a mark up language. It's a language used to format documents, not to write programs. The difference can be read about in the following links.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_language

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markup_language



So, if I'm understanding you correctly, you want to learn to write programs and not documents. In which case I'd say you were on the right track in learning Python. I'll link some resources below that will hopefully help you start with Python, and start writing some programs.



http://www.openbookproject.net/thinkcs/python/english3e/

https://python-guide.readthedocs.org/en/latest/

http://www.swaroopch.com/notes/python/



edit: To address one of the main questions you seem to have -- "Do I need to know X before Y?" -- the answer is invariably NO. My recommendation is to learn one language, it doesn't matter which, and to focus on that until you can use it comfortably.

Answer 10

If you don't know where you'd like to start might i suggest you try Treehouse. It's a paid learning service costs at least $25 USD per month, but it's still cheaper than college and it gives you a bunch of introductions to many kinds of programming languages such as:



PHP

Ruby

Python

Swift

Objective C

Java

JavaScript

Shell Script



database SQL languages:

MySQL



and web markup languages and styling languages:

HTML

CSS



For $25 USD / month (plus tax) you can learn from the comfort of your home and explore to see what you like. For example you might like mobile development more than web development so you can focus on learning Swift and Java to work on iOS and Android projects respectively. Or you like Web Development more so you learn PHP or Ruby and start building webapps.



So many possibilities so you might as well narrow your focus and don't try to learn too many things at once for starters.

Answer 11

First. They lied to you. That crap is all advanced coding and programming with websites. They skipped all kinds of steps.



Second, python is a type of programming aplication designed to shortcut the manual process for people who like that style of shortcut. Its like a calculator that they like. Cause they already get those terms. I hate those terms. I think its easier to not use nicknames like variables. Learn it from the ground up, its easier that way. They just think different. Like george w bush. They need special shortcuts no one gets.



Html is a type of code. Code is binary. 0 or 1. It comes from the directions in the registry or bios.



You should look up overclocking computers. Thats a huge prerequisite to overclock and if you can grasp it well its all part of that process and building computers. That's how to just start. The most blunt way.

Answer 12

Visual basic programming is fairly straightforward and could help you in understanding the principles of programming. A great many books out there starting with programming for dummies to more advanced levels.

Whatever language you chose, start slowly with the simplest commands and functions. A variable is just a storage box that you can assign a value to with the = sign. It is called variable because you can re-assign the box with any value at any time. for example you could create a variable called Fruit then use the code Fruit = "Apple" each time you say Print Fruit, it will print the word Apple, if you say Fruit = "Orange" you change the contents of the box (variable). Good luck

Answer 13

So first u might want to know what KIND of coding I think u already know but there's html which is what I use red ruby Java css is with the html and even more . so I'm 11 and I wanted to make websites (my older brother makes websites for his job) and he showed me this website is www.codeacademy.com now I've learned so much ?

Answer 14

you can figure it out very easily, what you need to do is decide that what really you want to make initially, and then look for its ways, just like i did.

for example, i just wanna hold the knowledge so that i can make a website of my own any time no matter what,

so i came to know that the HTML is must, i havent followed any course or tutorial of it, what i did just practiced it again and again in new things till i got good hands on it.

after that i wanted to have cool/beautifull websites so i got CSS, and similarly i made my hands on it too,

after some times i realise that my website needs dynamic features like members, profile, chat etc,

so i got PHP and SQL.

now i've got enough wisdom in this that i'm even helping other people :)



the cool thing is that i never spent for any book or a course for it..

Answer 15

Start with C because its simple .

Second thing do grasp the concept of C

Refer Dennis Ritchie :C prog language book .

Go with kanetkar only for problems and see how its done in book and analyze it.

Tutorials point C tutorial will help a lot .its actually worth reading and will always help for short revision.

Rest always do think of every problem .knowledge will come gradually .its matter of time we spend with a particular language.

Data structure and algis are imp there after basics are done .

And do search for online tutorials or videos as suggested by other quorans .

But still always read book ,analyze and code .happy coding !!and best luck

Answer 16

No need to read whole description of your question, headline is enough to tell you that you should learn C first. :)



Trust me, you will be proud on your decision later. :) After learning C, you will be able to learn any other language very easily. :) So good luck!! I also started learning programming at the age of 17.



*Missing my teenage* :'( :'( :'(

Answer 17

W3school is the best for beginner to learn coding. It's really awesome. W3school have both online and offline version.

Answer 18

What do you what to do in code? For example, you want to make websites? apps? games? Windows programs? Let me know in comment.



I myself am a beginner in Unity3D game development and learning C# isn't easy at all!

Answer 19

Learn Python, it's ready and simple

Answer 20

Well start to create small programs learn c Language first ,as it is mother of all languages .Then Create a program to find out prime number.

Then jump to some other high level language like .Net or java and start creating database applications.

Then Create a website.

Answer 21

Go to code academy, i used it and it helped me learn python. It takes you through step by step instructions and gives you definitions for all of the definitions for example a variable. It is a great way to learn coding.

Answer 22

Because you are a girl many company's don;t want you as a programmer.

Answer 23

I would go to a local Barnes and nobles to pick up a book on it, that's where I started. They have TONS of coding books, from java script, to c++. They also have kids books on it, and the "for dummies" books too.

Answer 24

Starting out with Visual Basic would be a good idea. It is an easier to understand programming language.

Answer 25

Codecademy is for beginners. If you're not understand the concepts in it, then programming is not for you. I hate to be this blunt, but you may want to consider something else in computers, maybe graphic design.

Answer 26

if you really want to learn how to make a website and stuff, start from HTML5 an CSS. From there learn php, javascript, java than slowly learn other computer languages.

Answer 27

Hey I learnt on youtube and I thought it was a great place to learn but now you have places like codeacademy and stuff

Answer 28

Hi, and look for programs that come to your school like "the hour of code"

Answer 29

OK 1st learn HTML by yourself.

You cannot start with Python lol

Learn HTML then go onto Java

Answer 30

Look for online courses.

Answer 31

www.w3schools.com



Do try to start with c and c++. They will help in building your development skills.

Answer 32

Morse and then binary

Answer 33

cs50.tv