Topic Wiki

Training
Codecademy.com offers hand on courses for  various coding languages including HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and more. FREE
TreeHouse.com 8)
w3schools.com
regex

Resources
Browser compatibility
Can i use

To test/show-of your skills
html - css - js
http://codepen.io/pen/
http://jsfiddle.net/

My sql
www.sqlfiddle.com

Editor
notepad-plus-plus.org/

android development
http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

js librery
http://greensock.com/ nice animation
getbootstrap.com/css/ responsive layout
jquery.com do more write less

Free Books
http://it-ebooks.info/

Test client browser version
http://browser-update.org/
« Last edited by yesitsme on May 17, 2015, 11:13:37 AM »

Author Topic: Programming for Beginners  (Read 106984 times)

Offline bubbles

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Jul 2011
  • Posts: 5060
  • Total likes: 20
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 67
    • View Profile
Programming for Beginners
« on: November 07, 2011, 01:39:25 AM »
Any recommendations on how to go about learning basic programming? I'm looking for something that I'll be able to do at home and that I won't need to spend long stretches at a time on. TIA

Offline AsherO

  • Global Moderator
  • Dansdeals Lifetime 30K Presidential Platinum Elite
  • **********
  • Join Date: May 2008
  • Posts: 30534
  • Total likes: 7831
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 79
    • View Profile
  • Location: NYC
Re: Programming for Beginners
« Reply #1 on: November 07, 2011, 01:45:32 AM »
Any recommendations on how to go about learning basic programming? I'm looking for something that I'll be able to do at home and that I won't need to spend long stretches at a time on. TIA

Considering your Excel spreadsheet success you've definitely got a knack for this stuff. In another post you suggested HTML, that's a bit too basic IMHO. Perhaps our programmers in residence, BAHayman and whYME can make some good recommendations.

P.s. if you specifically enjoy the Excel stuff, there are Excel wizards who make a good living doing just Excel all day long.
100% of Likes will be donated to support our brothers and sisters in Eretz Yisrael

Offline bubbles

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Jul 2011
  • Posts: 5060
  • Total likes: 20
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 67
    • View Profile
Re: Programming for Beginners
« Reply #2 on: November 07, 2011, 01:49:18 AM »
Considering your Excel spreadsheet success you've definitely got a knack for this stuff. In another post you suggested HTML, that's a bit too basic IMHO. Perhaps our programmers in residence, BAHayman and whYME can make some good recommendations.

P.s. if you specifically enjoy the Excel stuff, there are Excel wizards who make a good living doing just Excel all day long.

thnx but shouldn't I start at the most basic? I do happen to enjoy these kind of things so I'm hoping I'll pick it up fast but usually you have to start at the bottom

Offline AsherO

  • Global Moderator
  • Dansdeals Lifetime 30K Presidential Platinum Elite
  • **********
  • Join Date: May 2008
  • Posts: 30534
  • Total likes: 7831
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 79
    • View Profile
  • Location: NYC
Re: Programming for Beginners
« Reply #3 on: November 07, 2011, 01:52:35 AM »
thnx but shouldn't I start at the most basic? I do happen to enjoy these kind of things so I'm hoping I'll pick it up fast but usually you have to start at the bottom

The basic HTML tags that are used all over the internet are pretty easy to get pick up on , I guess if your objective to master them all it might take you a bit longer.

But like I said, I'll let the bona-fide programmers speak.
100% of Likes will be donated to support our brothers and sisters in Eretz Yisrael

Offline Dan

  • Administrator
  • Dansdeals Lifetime 50K Diamond Elite
  • **********
  • Join Date: May 2008
  • Posts: 67599
  • Total likes: 16912
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 16442
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
  • Location: CLE
  • Programs: UA GS, AA EXP, DL Dirt, Hyatt Glob, Fairmont Lifetime Plat, DD Diamond, Blocked By @NeriaKraus
Re: Programming for Beginners
« Reply #4 on: November 07, 2011, 01:53:21 AM »
Considering your Excel spreadsheet success you've definitely got a knack for this stuff.
+1
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline AJK

  • Dansdeals Lifetime 20K Presidential Platinum Elite
  • ********
  • Join Date: Jun 2011
  • Posts: 25419
  • Total likes: 721
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 15
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
  • Programs: United Concierge Key; Delta Global Services; American Chairman; US Airways 1K; Hilton Sapphire; Hyatt Tritium; Marriott Californium; Starwood Kryptonium; Hertz Plutonium; National Adamantium, Avis Executive Proactanium
Re: Programming for Beginners
« Reply #5 on: November 07, 2011, 03:32:15 AM »
P.s. if you specifically enjoy the Excel stuff, there are Excel wizards who make a good living doing just Excel all day long.


Excel is one of the most powerful programs on earth. You could learn Excel every day for the next year and only begin to scratch the surface. You've started with Excel, why not continue?
2015: 116K bkd | 1.6M brnd | F: OZ,NH,AA,EK | J: UA,CA,TK,DL,TN,AF,VA | LIH,NRT,ROR,PEK,CNS,BOB,MEL,TLV & Pacific Hopper

Offline SuperFlyer

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Jul 2009
  • Posts: 9351
  • Total likes: 414
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 0
    • View Profile
Re: Programming for Beginners
« Reply #6 on: November 07, 2011, 03:54:44 AM »
How about visual basic (for excel), or the regular VB.

Not sure what excel it is we are talking about.

@AJK : Excel is wow, but a problem they have is that in version changes even simple formulas, the replace "," by ";" and so on.

 

Offline bubbles

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Jul 2011
  • Posts: 5060
  • Total likes: 20
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 67
    • View Profile
Re: Programming for Beginners
« Reply #7 on: November 07, 2011, 08:19:45 AM »

Excel is one of the most powerful programs on earth. You could learn Excel every day for the next year and only begin to scratch the surface. You've started with Excel, why not continue?

Thanks but I'm looking more to expand my bekiyus then to do iyun at this point.

@SF
I saw you said that HTML you can just learn from sites online. Any particular one you know of that is good?

Offline SuperFlyer

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Jul 2009
  • Posts: 9351
  • Total likes: 414
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 0
    • View Profile
Re: Programming for Beginners
« Reply #8 on: November 07, 2011, 10:00:02 AM »
@SF
I saw you said that HTML you can just learn from sites online. Any particular one you know of that is good?

Not sure if the best, but probably the most famous http://www.w3schools.com/html/

Its really easy to learn btw.

Offline bubbles

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Jul 2011
  • Posts: 5060
  • Total likes: 20
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 67
    • View Profile
Re: Programming for Beginners
« Reply #9 on: November 07, 2011, 10:03:08 AM »
Not sure if the best, but probably the most famous http://www.w3schools.com/html/

Its really easy to learn btw.

Thanks and I'm planning on this being only a starting point so the easier the better :)

Offline BAHayman

  • Administrator
  • Dansdeals Lifetime Platinum Elite
  • **********
  • Join Date: Mar 2010
  • Posts: 1939
  • Total likes: 28
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 0
    • View Profile
Re: Programming for Beginners
« Reply #10 on: November 07, 2011, 10:36:24 AM »
The problem with HTML is that it is just markup, no logic or real thinking involved with writing a page. So yes it is good to learn so that you can write it but if you are looking at programming because you enjoy the challenge and power then HTML is just tedious and boring.

What language to start playing with really all depends on what you would like to be able to do: web programming, application programming, etc.

For building dynamic websites and web applications I would say that most start with PHP. PHP makes it really easy to interface with MySQL for data storage and the code can be written alongside the HTML markup which makes it easy to create webpages.

I believe the book I learnt from is the second edition of this book. (I assume the newer fourth edition is better).

If you want to learn desktop/mobile application programming then I would have to say Java is your best bet as it will run cross platform (Windows/Mac/Linux) as well on Android. Java is a great language, really powerful and very mature. Personally I would rather develop in Microsofts C# which is basically Java but improved on with the downside that it will not run as well on Mac or Linux. (Although apparantly the runtime for Mac and Linux has been improved greatly lately but I have not looked in to it as I am doing Android development atm). I might have a Java book that I used at home, remind me later if you want me to try to find the name of it for you, otherwise you can probably search Amazon for Java books and sort by Best Rating or something.

Happy to try to help and answer some questions in my free time :)

Online PlatinumGuy

  • Dansdeals Lifetime 10K Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *******
  • Join Date: Apr 2011
  • Posts: 14958
  • Total likes: 2421
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 11
    • View Profile
Re: Programming for Beginners
« Reply #11 on: November 07, 2011, 04:36:21 PM »
I've been learning python with MIT OpenCourseWare 6.00 from iTunesU. Very nice. Its one of the top dowwnloads on iTunesU.
You can also get transcripts of the lessons from the MIT OCW site.
״וזה כלל גדול: שישנא אדם כל דבר שקר. וכל מה שיוסיף שנאה לדרכי השקר – יוסיף אהבה לתורה.״ - אורחות צדיקים

Offline bubbles

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Jul 2011
  • Posts: 5060
  • Total likes: 20
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 67
    • View Profile
Re: Programming for Beginners
« Reply #12 on: November 07, 2011, 07:42:06 PM »
The problem with HTML is that it is just markup, no logic or real thinking involved with writing a page. So yes it is good to learn so that you can write it but if you are looking at programming because you enjoy the challenge and power then HTML is just tedious and boring.

I see what you mean. started reading a little on HTML and it from what I've seen so far it looks like it's all just memorizing and that's it. You don't think it would be beneficial though for me to do this atleast a drop first before moving on?

Offline BAHayman

  • Administrator
  • Dansdeals Lifetime Platinum Elite
  • **********
  • Join Date: Mar 2010
  • Posts: 1939
  • Total likes: 28
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 0
    • View Profile
Re: Programming for Beginners
« Reply #13 on: November 07, 2011, 07:47:36 PM »
I see what you mean. started reading a little on HTML and it from what I've seen so far it looks like it's all just memorizing and that's it. You don't think it would be beneficial though for me to do this atleast a drop first before moving on?

If you are going to be doing anything web related then you need to know HTML. You don't need to memorize every element but you should have a good understanding and should be able to read/write it with the help of Google.

Offline bubbles

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Jul 2011
  • Posts: 5060
  • Total likes: 20
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 67
    • View Profile
Re: Programming for Beginners
« Reply #14 on: November 07, 2011, 07:58:31 PM »
If you are going to be doing anything web related then you need to know HTML. You don't need to memorize every element but you should have a good understanding and should be able to read/write it with the help of Google.

So I'll concentrate on this for a little and then I'll come back to you  ;)

Offline Smirk

  • Dansdeals Platinum Elite + Lifetime Silver Elite
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jun 2008
  • Posts: 585
  • Total likes: 15
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 0
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile

Offline SuperFlyer

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Jul 2009
  • Posts: 9351
  • Total likes: 414
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 0
    • View Profile

Offline Smirk

  • Dansdeals Platinum Elite + Lifetime Silver Elite
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jun 2008
  • Posts: 585
  • Total likes: 15
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 0
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile

Offline bubbles

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Jul 2011
  • Posts: 5060
  • Total likes: 20
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 67
    • View Profile
Re: Programming for Beginners
« Reply #18 on: November 08, 2011, 11:36:46 PM »
Not sure if the best, but probably the most famous http://www.w3schools.com/html/

Its really easy to learn btw.

Started using that site thanks. Doesn't seem difficult to learn but is harder to remember. Probably would be best if I were to give myself a project like I did with excel to help learn the basics but not sure what I can do exactly with just HTML. Any suggestions?

Offline AsherO

  • Global Moderator
  • Dansdeals Lifetime 30K Presidential Platinum Elite
  • **********
  • Join Date: May 2008
  • Posts: 30534
  • Total likes: 7831
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 79
    • View Profile
  • Location: NYC
Re: Programming for Beginners
« Reply #19 on: November 08, 2011, 11:39:47 PM »
Started using that site thanks. Doesn't seem difficult to learn but is harder to remember. Probably would be best if I were to give myself a project like I did with excel to help learn the basics but not sure what I can do exactly with just HTML. Any suggestions?

Try viewing page source for simple web pages, and maybe write some of your own, make a profile or something.
100% of Likes will be donated to support our brothers and sisters in Eretz Yisrael