

Why I want to learn to code (and how I plan to learn) - Miller450
http://blog.howtoprogram.tv/post/3118918393/why-i-want-to-learn-to-code

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Miller450
Over the course of the past few months, my friend Dan
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=theli0nheart>) and I have been talking
about launching a website that would help aspiring programmers learn how to
code. There are a ton of resources out there already, but it’s so confusing to
a newbie that it’s almost impossible to make a solid start without someone
walking you through the process.

Dan's an experienced hacker. I'm not, and during the process of my first
startup, I realized how much more valuable I'd be if I knew how to program -
even if my focus was biz-dev and marketing.

We came up with the idea to build a website where he'd post videos and notes
that would teach me to code from scratch. Along the way, I'd blog about my
experiences so new programmers could follow along. The big goal is to foster a
community for people who are interested in learning how to hack, share
resources, and meet each other.

It will be a fun project and we're excited to see where it takes us. Hopefully
you'll all join in and make it better than just we could all by ourselves. We
have a landing page set up and would love you to check it out and leave your
email.

Feedback and advice are really appreciated! Here's the link again -
<http://howtoprogram.tv>.

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jefe78
What is your target demographic? I'd love to see something for younger
kids/teens.

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theli0nheart
I think we're targeting everyone who wants to learn!

If anything, I think that younger kids might have an easier time grasping some
concepts than those who are older and might have to adjust their way of
thinking. Kids have no baseline. All in all, my goal is to make these lessons
as clear and easy to follow as possible for everybody.

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sigzero
What language(s)?

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stcredzero
Learn Python the Hard Way is highly recommended. It forces you "through the
moves" of what a programmer does in as plain and basic a way as I've seen.
(Edit-Test-Debug cycle.)

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dennyferra
Great idea! I'd love to see the "interactive" side of your idea. For me the
coolest thing about starting to learn coding was writing a line, running the
app and seeing something output to the screen.

Also what helped me learn was having a mentor who would answer questions and
push me to keep learning. I learned a lot mostly from books and working on
things I wanted to build. However I recently went through Rails for Zombies
and really enjoyed the interactivity of it.

Just thought of a silly but perhaps useful feature... (And assuming this is
all done on the website) At the end of each tutorial ask them to write out a
commit command. Get them used to version control (Git would be great).

Good luck!

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badkins
I think a website to teach people to program could be very useful. However, I
do not think videos are the best way to do this. People would want to see your
examples in text on the screen so they can copy it, or just take their time
reading and understanding it at their own pace.

Also, if the lessons are laid out in text, you will receive much more search
engine traffic from people who are trying to figure out how to do something.

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theli0nheart
You make an excellent point!

We're going to do written tutorials and screencasts side by side. I think the
goal of the videos in large part is to get people interested.

It doesn't take a lot of commitment to watch a video. On the other hand, a
written tutorial takes a little bit more effort to see the end result. I think
a healthy dose of each is what we're aiming for.

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vineet
Two quick options - either to try or just use to inspire you.

You should look into BlueJ. It was developed specifically for the purpose of
making learning object oriented techniques easier (with Java):
<http://www.bluej.org/>

Another option, is to think of Rails. Rails is known for getting programmers
productive with very little setup - and there are videos online showing you
how to build a blogging engine in 5 minutes. And there are a lot of similar
series by the Rails guys that discuss various aspects. Try them out. You might
make a lot of progress.

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Joshua_Rodd
Why not just go buy a copy of "How To Design Programs", or use the free second
edition at <http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/matthias/HtDP2e/> ?

(Personally, I learned from a copy of IBM's BASIC Reference, circa 1985, and
later a copy of Microsoft's "C for Yourself". But that was a different era.)

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daimyoyo
This is a great idea. I've followed your twitter and I put my email in. I'm
looking forward to seeing the project launch soon.

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willgodfrey
I registered and came out from lurking to comment.

As someone who, professionally, works worth only VBA and a form of LISP to do
numerical analysis, this sounds great. I've been itching to expand my coding
horizons for a while now and this seems very interesting.

I entered my email address and look forward to launch.

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JaretManuel
jaretmanuel.com/hackerville The further you can dig in on the technical side
the better advantage and more value you will be to your endeavour. Good luck.

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steveklabnik
Good luck, from a fellow traveller. Education is hard!

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theli0nheart
Thanks! I'm not sure if we realize what we're getting ourselves into, but no
matter what, it should be fun!

