How did you learn to program?

Im beginning to learn how to program but im using a "for dummies" book and wanted to know how you all learned to program. If your self taught, which book did you use and how did you use it (take notes, practice, re reading etc.)? If you took a college course what exactly did they make you do (define vocabulary words, what kind of HW assignments etc.? Just a curious beginner trying to get some tips to further my programming knowledge. Thanks in advance!

Originally Posted by detectivegeek

Im beginning to learn how to program but im using a "for dummies" book and wanted to know how you all learned to program. If your self taught, which book did you use and how did you use it (take notes, practice, re reading etc.)? If you took a college course what exactly did they make you do (define vocabulary words, what kind of HW assignments etc.? Just a curious beginner trying to get some tips to further my programming knowledge. Thanks in advance!

I first learned how to program in C++... then VB (which is kind of ass backwards if you ask me) but I also know some html, php and MYSQL. Once you learn one language it is a lot easier to pick up others because you understand the concepts of loops, if statements etc etc.

College courses... haven't learned enough to make any programs for like bots or anything though

I started with AHK, just reading the help file and asking questions of people on TC and other sites. Pick something simple and make a bot for it...Than maybe pick another thing and make something for it. Start small, work my way up. Asking LOTS of questions.

I'm learning C# now and I'm doing that with a few books and asking questions.

Thanks guys. So seatbelt your pretty much self taught? Thats not bad! im starting with C++ seeing as its the most popular and its the most used but I confuse myself. Like whether or not I should be taking notes while i read it, or basically treating it like a class. I would try to use it like a traditional school textbook but it doesnt have any practice problems or assignments obviously -_- Did you take any notes or anything seatbelt?

As far as notes go I mostly just try to remember to comment my code so I can go back and refer to it later. And save all your source code so you can go back and use it again.

I don't know C++ at all but I hear its a little more complex than C#. So far C# seems pretty easy to learn...if only I had more time to put into it. lol.

oh. as far as books to use, I suggest the "Head First" series. I'm sure they have a "Head First C++", just google it and I'm sure you can torrent it in pdf if you want. I find those books are easy to use/follow and they teach you all the basics in an easy to do way.

Thanks seatbelt but apparently "Head First" is to cool for C++ D: They DO have a few others though.

Hey, I'm actually a Freshman at UCI and I'm learning Python this quarter, this may be a pretty unpopular programming language, but they use it as an intro to programming before they make us to C and what not.

But you were wondering about assignments that one may get in a college course. Well here is my class website's schedule page. It has the lecture notes, assignments, and assignment solutions.

i promised to learn some fucking stupid programming shit all the nerds here use (hotkey something?) way back when this site first started. i never followed up on it.

GamerKingFaiz Thats so useful its almost stupid. Thanks a bunch, man! Maybe I might be getting ahead of myself in trying to learn C++ first. Perhaps I should start with something a little easier...?