Good free site to learn to program?

D

dagas

Gawd
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
614
Hi

I was wondering if you know some good free websites that help with programming?

I cannot afford to buy expensive books and I cannot go to study because I have a job (not a good one) that I need to go to since I am the only one supporting my family right now. I have not find any courses that are at night (university is free here so I would go but I cannot during daytime).

I always see job listings for programmers at least where I live so I was thinking that is a way to get a job that pay more than €10 per hour.

I did an introduction course to JAVA and a two courses SQL at university but I don't remember much of that so I pretty much have to start from the beginning.
 
I've always liked http://www.3dbuzz.com/

Coursework there seems pretty well thought out. Not all courses are free.

Also check out iTunes University courses, lots of content there for free as well, harvard/stanford/MIT etc..
 
Before picking a language to start out in, I would first decide what type of programs you are interested in making.

You also will want to learn why things work the way they do. It will make you a much better programmer when compared to those who just know something works, so they continue to use it even if it is the worst possible way to do it.

Just learning to program and then getting a job where you program is not necessarily going to be the best thing to do.... now, in the short term it may be good, but having a job programming stuff that bores you to death is going to drive you crazy.

Are you a book learner or a hands-on learner?

For me, book learning is basically pointless. I have to get my hands dirty and learn as I go.
 
cyclone3d said:
Before picking a language to start out in, I would first decide what type of programs you are interested in making.
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We all know how that goes on this forum.

No, I refuse to advocate doing that this time. Pick the first language you come across and learn that. It won't matter in the long run, and short term you'll spend enough time to learn 3 languages trying to 'research' which language is best for you. (and by 'research', I mean sift through cubic meters of ranting, fanboyism, ignorance and slander, because the internet will deliver to you as many fresh, steaming piles of that shit as you can bear to swallow)

Any language will do starting out. You just need to train your brain how to think the way a programmer's brain must. If you stumble across a job working with <INSERT_LANGUAGE_HERE>, you can learn <INSERT_LANGUAGE_HERE> when that time comes.
 
Dogs said:
We all know how that goes on this forum.

No, I refuse to advocate doing that this time. Pick the first language you come across and learn that. It won't matter in the long run, and short term you'll spend enough time to learn 3 languages trying to 'research' which language is best for you. (and by 'research', I mean sift through cubic meters of ranting, fanboyism, ignorance and slander, because the internet will deliver to you as many fresh, steaming piles of that shit as you can bear to swallow)

Any language will do starting out. You just need to train your brain how to think the way a programmer's brain must. If you stumble across a job working with <INSERT_LANGUAGE_HERE>, you can learn <INSERT_LANGUAGE_HERE> when that time comes.
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While true, it is also true that some languages.. Java for example would be horrible for most game programming as well as anything that you want to actually be secure.

The last time I programmed with Java was for a college class. The one program we had to "fix" for an exercise showed me so many flaws in Java that it turned me away from it even more than when I had done some testing with it previous to that.
 
What students learn in Java is applicable to many other languages. I recommended it above because the OP had taken a class before and there's nothing really wrong with learning it as a first language for many purposes.

Java still has vulnerabilities, but the core of the language and most common libraries in modern versions (1.5+) is solid.
 
Dogs said:
And this is exactly the type of blind ignorance I'm talking about.
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Agreed. The majority of Java CVEs are sandbox failures regarding the browser plug-in that have no impact on non-Applet programs.
 
cyclone3d said:
While true, it is also true that some languages.. Java for example would be horrible for most game programming as well as anything that you want to actually be secure.

The last time I programmed with Java was for a college class. The one program we had to "fix" for an exercise showed me so many flaws in Java that it turned me away from it even more than when I had done some testing with it previous to that.
Click to expand...
Your minimal experience with the language has left you with not enough insight to make a sweeping generalization, but you've made a sweeping generalization just the same. You're the only one to be surprised that it's wrong.
 
Code Academy has some decent courses on highly-relevant languages like JavaScript and PHP. As far as general advice goes, I wouldn't be too concerned about what language you start with so long as it's "highly-relevant": Java, C#, PHP, JavaScript, C++ and others are what I'd call "highly-relevant" languages.

I wouldn't argue that there's anything particularly wrong with learning a less-relevant language as one's first, however. Learn whatever language intrigues you personally and translate the fundamentals to new languages as needed, if you wish.

cyclone3d said:
While true, it is also true that some languages.. Java for example would be horrible for most game programming as well as anything that you want to actually be secure.
Click to expand...
While I won't comment on the security aspects of the Java ecosystem, I would actually disagree that Java is "horrible for most gaming programming". I actually consider it a quite sufficient platform for most games, but a questionable choice for any game which hopes to compete, on its technical merits, with AAA games. As a quick glance at Steam will tell you, the number of games which don't compete technically with AAA titles far surpasses the number of AAA titles.
 
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