You Need To Learn How To Program

Slate ^ | Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2012, at 4:48 PM ET | Farhad Manjoo

[Sonny M]

If you’re looking for a New Year’s resolution, let me suggest an idea that you might not have considered: You should learn computer programming. Specifically, you should sign up for Code Year, a new project that aims to teach neophytes the basics of programming over the course of 2012. Code Year was put together by Codecademy,* a startup that designs clever, interactive online tutorials. Codecademy’s founders, Zach Sims and Ryan Bubinski, argue that everyone should know how to program—that learning to code is becoming as important as knowing how to read and write. I concur. So if you don’t know how to program, why not get started this week? Come on, it’ll be fun!

Code Year’s minimum commitment is one new lesson every week. The company says that it will take a person of average technical skill about five hours to complete a lesson, so you’re looking at about an hour of training every weekday. That’s not so bad, considering that the lessons are free, and the reward could be huge: If you’re looking to make yourself more employable (or more immune from getting sacked), if you’d like to become more creative at work and in the rest of your life, and if you can’t resist a good intellectual challenge, there are few endeavors that will pay off as handsomely as learning to code.

[LivingNet]

In my humble opinion if you aren’t learning C# (c-sharp) or Java you are wasting your time. Most all new development (including phone apps) are done in one of these 2.

[Bobalu]

I take it from your handle that you are a Sherlock Holmes fan :-)

I have been getting the old british SH TV series off youtube lately....good stuff. :-)

[cynwoody]

"Glorified typing!!! That's all this is. What am I doing here?"

Fortunately not all math professors have such a negative attitude.

Once Google engineer Peter Norvig, the author of the page linked in #15, was giving a talk at Stanford on Python, which is generally considered an unusually powerful programming language. An old professor named John McCarthy happened to wander in. When Norvig concluded his presentation and and asked for questions, McCarthy raised his hand and asked if Python could gracefully manipulate Python code as data. “No, John, it can’t,” responded Norvig.

In 1958, McCarthy, who passed on last October, invented Lisp, the most powerful computer language of them all. Lisp can gracefully manipulate Lisp code as data.

[fnord]

thanks. I’ve never had soldering skills so I’d have that whole skill set to acquire. Please let me know if you decide to do the tutorial.

[ctdonath2]

C# is purely for work on Microsoft OS platforms. It’s Microsoft’s response to Sun Microsystems averting a takeover of Java by MS. If you learn C#, you’re stuck with Windows - great if that’s what you want to develop for, limiting if you intend to spend much time on other ecosystems.

Java dominates Android and FOSS development. Widely used, but not as much as some think.

On Apple systems (OS X and iOS), Objective-C dominates. Like C#, a must-have for the indicated platform, not much use elsewhere.

C++ is the Latin of software. Awkward, powerful, arguably dead, but a great starting point from which you can either branch to newer descendant languages, or to developing for legacy (loosely defined) systems.

Python, Ruby, and a few others are big for web development.

If you’re learning programming for _fun_ start with C++ or Java then consider something entertainingly esoteric like Lisp, Prolog, Forth, or newer equivalents (akin to learning Latin then Japanese, Thai, or Inuit).

[ctdonath2]

Assembler!

[Mycroft Holmes]

Assembler! When you absolutely have to do a USB driver in 2KB.

[ctdonath2]

Just arriving on the scene now is the Rasberry Pi - a serious computer for just $25. Yes - $25. You supply the HDMI monitor and USB keyboard/storage/network, it gives you an otherwise normal computer capable of HD 1080p video. Great for learning programming as you can devote a whole computer to it with no concerns about "messing it up" for little more than pocket change.

[Mycroft Holmes]

I will definitely get me some Rasberry Pi. That looks sweet, very beautifully minimal in an early VW sort of way. I hope it goes somewhere.

[cartan]

Lisp can gracefully manipulate Lisp code as data.

And I am still missing this and other Lisp features in every other language. *sigh*

[dfwgator]

Probably starting with Java makes the most sense, now there are other languages that run on the JVM, like Groovy and Scala.

But a well-experienced Java developer can easily make the leap to C# and Objective-C. I am learning Objective-C now for iOS, and once you get through the syntactical differences, it’s pretty easy to pick up. Most of the concepts easily map from Java.

[re_nortex]

C++ is the Latin of software. Awkward, powerful, arguably dead, but a great starting point from which you can either branch to newer descendant languages, or to developing for legacy (loosely defined) systems.

We're fortunate to have Bjarne Stroustrup, the creator of C++, here in the Lone Star State at Texas A&M where he has taught some freshman introductory courses. It's not unlike having Thomas Edison as a professor for basic electricity theory and practice.

I can't help but recommend his Programming -- Principles and Practice Using C++ book. I'm a crusty old programmer (C, C++, Java, Perl, PHP, Python, LISP...) but this book made me feel like a kid again. It was a joyful experience to rediscover the basics in a new light with a fresh start. Stroustrup's book presumes a blank slate and although he uses C++ as the tool, the lessons are applicable to programming in general. And a manner similar to Latin, C++ is a good fundamental language since so many of the newer OOP languages were inspired if not actually descended from it.

jonrick46: If you're looking to ease into programming and also have fun while doing so, I can heartily recommend this book.

[ctdonath2]

Just USB? :-)

My first home computer was a ZX-80 with 1KB RAM - total. That included shared video & OS memory. Learned a lot trying to cram tokenized BASIC programs into what little was available.

[Mycroft Holmes]

Ya, there is open source USB code for the ATTiny2313 written in C that can be used to get your bitty little processor talking to the rest of the world. It’s fun to read; there is rather a lot going on with USB.

[listenhillary]

I love my green screen and green bar paper system. It works.

They’ve been trying to take it away from me for 14 years. They keep taking small bites. “Oh yeah, we forgot to tell you that that file has been migrated to the new system”

[Poser]

I tried the first week’s lessons. I think they are interesting, but may pose a problem for abject beginners. Finding the syntax errors is too much for the non-programmer.

[whd23]

In my humble opinion if you aren’t learning C# (c-sharp) or Java you are wasting your time. Most all new development (including phone apps) are done in one of these 2.

You realize that without 'C', assembler, and Forth there wouldn't be any OS for C# or Java to execute on, right?

[LivingNet]

Yes...
I took his question to be which language would give him the best and most new job prospects, not which one would allow him to win the Nerd of the Year contest.

[TheOldLady]

Slap those Dems!

Slap those Dems!

[rdb3]

5 LET S = 0
10 MAT INPUT V
20 LET N = NUM
30 IF N = 0 THEN 99
40 FOR I = 1 TO N
45 LET S = S + V(I)
50 NEXT I
60 PRINT S/N
70 GO TO 5
99 END

Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code!!

Yep! Basic BASIC.

25 years ago, we had Ronald Reagan, Johnny Cash, and Bob Hope.
Today we have Obama, no cash, and no hope!

If you can't appreciate the pure beauty of the violin after hearing this, something's wrong with your ears.

Or you can get raw with these strings.

How about this gamechanger from America's Got Talent (which they SHOULD have won).

And this YT vid, dedicated to the one and only rdb2, whose eyes are growing dim.

Either way, the violin is sweet yet lethal.

Do it!