Hi Zed, I'm Al, the author of article. I'll admit the title is hyperbole. There are people who want to learn programming for the sake of programming, just like there are people who like learning math even though they don't see immediate practical applications. I teach programming to a tiny class of 10-12 year olds on Saturday mornings, and have taught a couple one-off classes at Stanford's Splash program to a classes of a dozen students. I've found that having an end-goal in mind of what they will create is a much better hook than just explaining what for loops are (or the idiosyncrasies of…
> some reference books handy Looking at a random list [1] of O'Reilly books, I can see 3 categories: - The ones for beginners, like "Learning Python" or "JavaScript: The Definitive Guide", - The ones that will be outdated even before reaching the shelves of a library, such as "Kubernetes in Action" or "Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn, Keras, and TensorFlow", - The ones that are more about concepts such as "Clean Code". I can't see any of those being used as a reference book. The Internet and official documentations is the reference book. [1]…
It took me several years before I made the cognitive switch to preferring eBooks for large, complex, dynamically accessed textbooks over the paper variant. For the first few years I actually couldn't stand trying to read stuff on my laptop versus a nice healthy paper text book (of which I have about 4 boxes that I've incredibly carefully curated down from around 10 boxes). And even attempting to read them on the crappy kindle technology and laggy ipads just sucked beyond belief circa late 2010. It was probably around 2012/2013 that they became my preferred platform on Laptops. Two things…
I think it best to learn how to code by working on an actual project. You seem to already have a project in mind, and I think that would be a fine project. Break it up into steps. First write a program that opens a file, reads the book titles and displays them on the terminal. Then write a program that makes some sort of network connection; maybe download the HTML contents of a website. Etc., etc., until you've learned how to do the various subtasks involved with your project, and then assemble it all together. I'd suggest that Python would be a good language to start with. I personally…
Sorry, but does Learning Python 2009 really have a single-device restriction? Every single book I've purchased for my Kindle will work on my android phone, my Windows VM, and my Kindle. If I had an iPhone/iPad/iPod I could read on those as well. And they all sync, which means I am quite literally always have dozens of books with me. If I run down to the store and grab nothing more than my keys, phone, and wallet, I can catch up with my Instapaper queue while I wait on line. If I go on a short weekend trip, I don't have to use up a fifth of my luggage on books so that I can have a book for…
I have been watching this ebook phenomenon with amazement. I bought 1 e-book: Learning Python. I bought it through almost every store, to see where it works best. Online, offline, laptop, tablet, desktop, phone. My favorite setup: ePub from O'Reilly (no digital restrictions management) on Stanza (not a slave to one store) on the iPad (works offline). I spent a ton of money on that book, but I found out what works best for me. And I stand to gain something at the end of reading that book. I can't imagine reading contemporary novels when I haven't finished the classics yet. $1 for a…
If you want to get a taste of the whole thing: 1. Install Ubuntu. 2. Start using emacs (maybe with "Learning Emacs", O'Reilly, as mechanical_fish suggests). 3. Learn some Python (maybe with "Learning Python", O'Reilly too). 4. Use webpy (http://webpy.org) to develop a simple web application. 5. Learn how to program SQLite (and thus basic SQL) using Python and make your web application use a database. 6. Make your application public (http://vpslink.com might be enough, $7.95/month). The 4th and 5th are "minimalistic" (for a web framework and a DB engine), least "complication", because…
Python is an excellent first language to learn. Many universities around the world now use it as the language by which to introducing programming both for CS and non-CS students. Depending on how you learn best, the following are 3 effective ways to learn: From a book - one of the best books is Learning Python (http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920028154.do) From videos - you could search YouTube for a trainer who communicates in a way that resonates for you. By playing (and writing) games - PyGame is an excellent resource (https://www.pygame.org/docs/tut/PygameIntro.html) Well…
I read about half of Dive Into Python, and it was pretty advanced stuff. It's good if you know another programming language very well. The book starts out slow, but the difficulty curve accelerates very fast. I wouldn't read it cover to cover. It would be a good reference to have though. I'd suggest skimming the table of contents of both books first. Then again, Dive Into Python is free, so you might as well start with that, and if it's too advanced, switch to Learning Python (I read the first 100 pages of it last summer, and I thought it was good, I'm a fan of O'Reilly). If you really…
Reminds me of how some people mocked me for having O'Reilly and such massive reference books when I started learning Python and Ruby. "But everything's online!" they claimed. Sure, but nothing's faster than browsing the index for what you're looking for and then skimming the section you're interested in, as opposed to going back and forth StackOverflow threads and random blogs. Currently renovating my house and I again bought 400+ pages reference books of plumbing and electricity, largely sparring me the need to endure endless YouTube videos littered with skits, sponsorships etc. Just…