[Closed] Teaching yourself how to code

Try some block-coding (Scratch) until he gets the hang of sequence, selection and iteration

Those things are trivially simple though, IMO. The hard part of coding is understanding all the systems surrounding whatever you want to do. It took me ten minutes to explain a for loop to my Mrs, a lot longer to explain object orientation and I'm not sure when she'll be ready for Maven and Git.

LOL... Well done Molgrips.

OK.... Crack on then. Here is the handbook for "Flappy Bat." Its a basic introduction to Block Coding using Scratch.

http://www.standrewspaisley.com/uploads/6/0/2/3/60230905/1467121834-flappybatworkbookpreviewfull.pdf

My challenge to you is follow the instructions on the attached 53 pages. See how long it takes you to work out the deliberate mistakes designed to promote learning.

Why don't you create the Flappy Bat game..... (sure its trivially easy and well, Year 7's do it so how hard can it be!!!!)

You could always post a link on here to your Flappy Bat game when you have completed it and we can all play it.

Go on then! I DARE YOU!!!!

go for python. Nice language relatively straightforward. Leads down the route of "analytics". Can then use other higher level analysis engines.

Once you get stuck you can always type in google “How do I do X in language X”.

normally I search with "X insert problem"
X = SAS/R/PYTHON/...

Now faster than looking in a book. Pulling the COVID data off the gov website using API for the first time was very satisfying. Bash it into shape run a few analytics and plot the results.

There you go Molgrips.....

Here's the website you need...

https://scratch.mit.edu/

Click on "Create" on the top of the screen and get started.

Let us know when you have finished. Takes Year 7's about 18 lessons of 1 hour a week to do this.

I'm sure you wont take as long as that!

OK..... Let's set a target...... submit your work by 5pm Friday 22nd Jan or I start a thread called "Molgrips is a big poo poo head."

The clock is ticking.....

The command line is a scary place if you don't know what you are doing.

...

It's even scarier when you do!!

I messed up a MySQL database when I typed something similar to the following:

update members set given_name='Beverly' where id-18542;

A good job I'd done a backup about an hour before and could get most of the correct data back in place.

I'd love to agree but it's not quite that simple.

Are you targeting Android or iOS?

ETA: I replied at the bottom of page 1 like a noob. So ignore this entirely as its way out of sync.

/facepalm/

@Mackem and back on topic, agree 100%

But then there’s all the other crap which takes up most of my days: reading specs, writing tests & documentation, the tedium of repairing the constant churn of libraries being deprecated and broken, debugging etc.

All that plus preparing quotes for work that never happens and actually having to write the specs and more is why I don’t do that for a job any more.

https://learnpythonthehardway.org/python3/

This is how I started. I started working as a full time software developer roughly 12 months later.

The strengths of this book are the simplicity that it explains core programming tasks and fundamentals, and the focus on repetitious typing and error spotting that needs to become second nature. Bonus points for Python being a truly excellent all round language.

Once you have finished this book, you would be in a much better position to choose a framework or platform specific course to suit your software ambitions.

Find a python or Javascript course online. Bash through it quickly. Then try and write something using the whole entire internet as your resource, because only when actually building something will you really learn.

Both languages are generic enough to give you a good start, don't require complicated installations nor expensive editors, and are the current darlings of *scripting* languages.

If you then *really* want to learn to write software, there are some fundamentals to study. But for the odd app or website, you should be able to rely on your Python and JS knowledge to cobble things together.

If you are staring completely from scratch I'd avoid things like Java and begin with Python. It's a fairly straightforward introduction to coding, but a powerful enough language you can do plenty with.

Worry about mobile apps and the like once you've got to grips with the basics (and a bit more).

This may be of use

https://www.theinsaneapp.com/2021/01/free-programming-books.html