Ask HN: Okay okay, I'll learn to program...now what?

Seriously, it doesn't really matter where you start. I don't want to be pessimist, but you've got so many things to learn that the important here is not where you start but the determination that you will put in to continue working days after days.<p>That said, I suggest you start with something fun because it will motivate you. Example of that might be a simple dynamic website (using php, python, ruby, or whatever else you might like).. Also fun is creating a small game (Using some excellent libraries for beginners).<p>You told us what you knew about programming, but you didn't tell what was your strength in other fields in life. Again, I suggest you start coding something related to other fields you're pretty good.<p>To give you a personal example, I first built a website about dragon ball because that's what I liked when I was younger ;-) Also, I made some chat robots because I pretty much liked IRC. That was my really first projects. (Done with pure html and mIRCscripts! The real important thing is to start somewhere.. once you create something, it motivates you to learn more and more. For instance, I switched from mircscripts to C++, then learn a dozen of languages for fun and now, I live from that :) However, it might never have happened if it wasn't about those dragon ball web pages that I had so much fun building.

Python. Do not do the official guide. Do not read the documentation. Do something that forces you to program examples of increasing difficulty.<p>In short, do this course: <a href="http://cs.northwestern.edu/~akuzma/classes/EECS110-s10/index.htm" rel="nofollow">http://cs.northwestern.edu/~akuzma/classes/EECS110-s10/index...</a><p>All the labs and assignments are online. You get to make maze solvers, generate fractals, implement Conway's Game of Life, lots of genuinely fun stuff. Just work through it and tell yourself you are doing it for fun not for work. You'll be done before you know it. Good luck!

Pick a project first, something that you would love to FINISH. Then research the best language to use to reach that goal.<p>That being said, when I started, I made due with what I had. QBasic. Then a borland C compiler. Then Java. And then I just started experimenting.<p>It didn't matter to me, I just loved to create things.<p>Bottom line... you have to love building a complicated puzzle and you have to be able to drive yourself to finish a project.<p>This "okay okay" business basically says to me.... you're in trouble already.

You need to decide what you want to build, or at least what you want to build first.<p>From CSS, an obvious way to go is Javascript or PHP, or better yet both.<p>If you think that you don't want to build a specific thing, but instead want a birds-eye armchair view of the essence of what programming is about, don't waste time; try SICP:<p><a href="http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.001/abelson-sussman-lectures/" rel="nofollow">http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.001/abelson-sussma...</a><p>But odds are that you'll quickly find that you don't actually want to be a computer scientist. ;) You want to build something. So find an example of the thing you want to build, learn what it was built with, then learn to program that.<p>Bonus advice: Whenever you don't know what else to do, learn about Unix, find a new feature of your text editor or version control system, or study regular expressions.

Pick one language to begin with and spend as much time possible trying out beginner material, building small things of your own (no one has to use them), and learning how to find information for yourself online.<p>I suggest Python, check out these resources:<p><a href="http://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide/NonProgrammers" rel="nofollow">http://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide/NonProgrammers</a>

I'll be "that guy" and say start with JavaScript/HTML5 plus a NoSQL database system like CouchDB.<p>The reason is, this combination (like it or not) has a very good chance of completely taking over a wide spectrum of applications within a couple years (web, mobile, tablet, server, and desktop). Java and especially Ruby might be trendy now, but I am starting to believe the days of mega-sized application layers are numbered. JavaScript + HTML5 + touchscreen stuff on the iPad is already hot, and not to mention really fun to play with and learn.

Python. Its easy to learn, powerful, mature, has lots of people willing to help you and has bindings to almost anything you can think of.

Lots of great advice here. It's refreshing to see that, largely, people aren't just pushing their own language of choice, but are saying (quite rightly) that it doesn't matter. Like dpcan, I started on basic, then qbasic and moved up from there.<p>You asked about breaking down the options. Something which I've only fairly recently realised, is that languages differ in more ways than just syntax and built-in modules.<p>As I see it, the three main 'types' of language are:<p><pre><code> Object Oriented ("OO"/"OOP") Functional Procedural </code></pre> OO languages are usually built on top of procedural, and procedural languages are by far the most widespread.<p>Functional languages are based on a more mathematical model, and if you've studied maths they'll probably make a lot of sense to you. They're still seen as largely academic languages, but they are used in some real-world scenarios, and they have devout followers. It's a powerful paradigm.<p>Object-Oriented purports to allow you to model the real world more closely, but the degree of success is debatable. Personally it's my favoured approach; to me you can lay out your model really simply with an OO approach, which in turn lends itself well to separation of concerns, reusability and modularisation (i.e. you don't want to build your login system and have that also handle thumbnail uploads, they're different concerns, they should be handled in different parts of your code)<p>Procedural, to me, is really a necessary evil en route to OO.<p>So, yeah, I thought a broader view of language types might help, rather than a specific view of particular languages.

The amazing and terrible thing about programming is that you can learn enough about it without physical contact with another human being. I suspect that content about programming on the web shows a huge bias towards being technology based -- if you considered all the possible topics and ideas in the world and their popularity, the ratio of popularity-on-the-internet to popularity-IRL is probably highest with technology and programming. Well, you'd have to exclude porn and other taboo topics for which the anonymity aspect of the internet, rather than information sharing aspect, causes their ratio to explode.<p>That was a bit of a tangent. My original thought was that there are several thousand lifetimes worth of programming knowledge online, and it's getting more and more organized by the minute. Google and StackOverflow will be your best friends. It may take you some time to learn how to ask the question, but beyond that you should be able to find solutions to any problem that you run up against.<p>With this in mind, it's important that you actively apply that knowledge. Learning is one thing, doing is quite another. I've often times postulated to myself that there's probably some optimal ratio of studying vs. doing, in all things. Then, I realize there's more to it than that -- there's the context switching. If you spend 5 years learning, then 5 years doing, you'll never learn as much as if you spend 1 day learning and 1 day doing for 10 years straight. Learning and doing feed off of each other.<p>So, learn and do. Find something you really want to work on, and try to build it. When you run up against a wall, which you most definitely will, it's time to learn. Once you're ready to give it a shot, do it. When things start getting too complicated, you're probably doing it wrong. Start over, make things "cleaner" (this becomes a 6th sense after awhile), and you'll find yourself naturally creating patterns that you become comfortable with. Like any other skill, it's really a pleasure to see your abilities progress.<p>Have fun.

The best you can do is to Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years..<p><a href="http://norvig.com/21-days.html" rel="nofollow">http://norvig.com/21-days.html</a><p>PS. I'm not sarcastic. Actually, the article contains the best advices for a programmer I ever read. Maybe you just don't have to rush things..

www.tryruby.org<p><pre><code> Also, google "Learning Python the Hard Way" for an equally-excellent Python intro.</code></pre>

Each language tends to have particular problems it's most used to solve. They may not even be what the language is most suited for. Figure out what sort of programs you want to write, then search on that to see what others use. There'll be overlap, so look at the resources, figure out which seem to make the most sense to you, then pick the language that matches.<p>At first, your choice of language isn't all that critical so long as you start out with some resources you've turned up that'll let you get some of those first projects completed. Then you'll be good enough at formulating ideas then implementing them to make a more informed choice. Either you'll be comfortable enough with your chosen language's idiom to solve problems even if they don't necessarily align with the language's strengths, or you'll have a better basis to pick a new language that addresses your problems with the first language. After some initial discomfort, if you've picked well the new language will start to feel handy and expressive in a short while.<p>Any of the major languages can be taken on by the new programmer, I usually recommend one of Ruby, Python, JavaScript, Java, or Groovy. The resources for beginners are good, the user communities are supportive, and they're all expressive enough to create powerful programs.<p>There are lots of other good languages--no knocks on them--these are just my favorites presently. I teach programming to non-programmers, BTW.<p>Once you pick a language, come back and ask for resources for that language. ;)

You want to do the minimum work to accomplish your goal (life is short), not learn a programming language for pedantic purposes. I'm using OfBiz, a Java web framework, right now, and its suitable for my purposes, but I don't know what your objectives are. You may be interested in Ruby, Django, Tapestry or ASP.

Thanks for so many replies! I'm going to spend the next few hours dissecting all of this information and then dive into research.<p>The take away message I got from seemingly everyone was to first decide WHAT I want to build, then find the best language. Teach myself using fun, interesting examples, and keep plugging away no matter the difficulty. Also, I should take full advantage of the wealth of information that can be found online. Lastly, since I'm already in the web-design field (for the one person that asked I own my own small web/graphic design firm), I might wanna stick with PHP or Java (or Python / Ruby).<p>Again, thank you.

If you're doing web work you need to do two things:<p>1. Buy a Linux or Mac computer, because all the standard parts work quickly and simply on those platforms and are difficult to run on Windows. That, or have a remote computer where you do your dev work.<p>2. Learn Ruby or Python. It doesn't matter which. People on HN seem to love Python, but there's no substantial difference if you're using them to build web applications.

I can't help but think that if you don't know where to start (different from having too many places to start), you don't need to. If you need it, there should be something obvious - some programme that really needs to be written, and simply must run on such-and-such a system, and that will inform you on what to learn.

If you're looking to do a web startup, ditch your Windows computer. Get a Mac or a Linux machine.

Google's python class actually would be right for you. You can go as slow or as fast you'd like. <a href="http://code.google.com/edu/languages/google-python-class/" rel="nofollow">http://code.google.com/edu/languages/google-python-class/</a>

You know CSS, so it seems logical to learn Javascript.<p>That opens up both server and front end web programming [jQuery/DOM and Node.js on the backend]<p>For books, try Crockfords 'Javascript the Good Parts' and mimic some of the nicer idioms as you see more jQuery code.

www.railstutorial.org

I'd advise java as a first language, this language really forces you to grasp the concept of object-oriented programming. python and ruby make it to easy to ignore objects, while objects are a concept that once grasped is going to make programming in any language a lot easier.<p>The thing about programming is that it's a creative process where you apply ideas in order to create a solution, the more clearly you understand these ideas the better you will be at programming(which is just writing down a solution so that a compiler can understand it).