Sorry for the slightly TLDR but here goes:

So I want to spend a month coding every day to see what I can accumulate in terms of knowledge and understanding for coding/programming. I have virtually no experience with coding or any theory behind it but I find some macro concepts very interesting. I also am not great with computers so I'm starting at ground zero here.

My plan is to commit 1.5-3+ hours daily for a month and see what I learn. I don't expect to be well versed by any means at the end but I would like to develop the ability to 'think in/understand' code at the basic level (akin to thinking in/learning a second language). I just graduated with a BS in Environmental Science with a minor in economics from a decent University and wish I had enrolled in CS :(.

Anyway my theory is that like anything coding is like an 'intellectual muscle' that needs to be exercised frequently to grow. By doing daily work I will get stronger and hopefully be able to to more advanced/complicated tasks with the long term end goal to develop some 'coding/programming muscle memory' and be able to do simple actions without much thought.

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Among my numerous long term (far past this month depending on how it goes) goals I'd like to do/better understand the following (not sure if any are somewhat mutually exclusive):

• Be able to understand and read code and be able to create my own code/programs to carry out various functions
• Follow and understand information flow online
• Get a better grip on AI, Machine Learning, Deep Learning --> Just watched some awesome lectures about decision trees/forests
• Create and design websites

I also have what I think is a fairly simple website concept (I'm sure its many folds harder than I think) that I want to work on as a project as I hear many people say that project oriented learning/goals are fairly effective/useful.

If you have any ideas/tips/suggestions I'd love to hear them.


The decision tree lecture I watched:

cool idea, since a certain other blog has pretty much met its conclusion.

I wish you the best.

Yesterday I played around on the website codecombat.com for a few hours just to get the juices somewhat flowing.

About to do ~2 hours on khanacademy to learn basic coding I guess. Gonna take notes along the way.


https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming/programming

"In these tutorials, you'll learn how to use the JavaScript language and the ProcessingJS library to create fun drawings and animations. If you've never programmed before, start here to learn how!"


So I guess the language is JavaScript. We'll see how it goes!




Thanks.

I figure I'll give it the time and see how I feel; I've thought about this before but never actually committed.

Going on this principle somewhat (he does other talks about the same thing)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MgBikgcWnY

This post was edited by Blankey on Oct 26 2014 05:50pm

Don't say that. Your thread will always be our favorite anime spam thread :<



I'd learn a language that will actually take you places. Javascript is soso and doesn't really have a place outside of web development.

This post was edited by AbDuCt on Oct 26 2014 05:47pm

I'm all ears ( especially on websites to learn or if you know a good beginner must have book)! mind taking a look at the link below and letting me know what you think?

https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming/programming

This post was edited by Blankey on Oct 26 2014 05:59pm

iirc he's made several topics over the years asking for help making a website. so js isn't a bad place for him to go

Learn Ruby on Rails, buy a new iMac, and live in San Francisco.

It doesn't seem bad. If you're into web design then it's a good place to be. Although if you're looking for app development I would look into C, C# or java. Or if you're looking for writing quick efficient scripts, ruby or python.

With that being said you can start anywhere you wish to learn the logic behind programming. Knowledge you gather from one language is carriered between them all. This means you can learn on javascript and still be able to learn other languages easily because all a language is, is a way to express logic. Although if you are looking for creating products for a specific environment though right off the get go one language is a better choice than another.




Heh maybe.

Appreciate the input a lot, ty.



I may be new but I'm not THAT new


Yeah I created the superior website gifhappy.com with plugins and the help of a rl friend guiding me through it (essentially him telling me what to type and I did it).

I want to be able to build more complex things on my own if I desire. Back to khanacademy. My goal is to get through that entire tutorial list for now after I do that I'll figure out a language to focus on. The tutorial is JS

Just went through some Javascript basics in the tutorial step by step. On khanacademy.

The variables part was interesting and slightly difficult but I got through them ok. I'm hoping it become easier to think about these concepts as I go on.

for example (might get syntax wrong here): I had to define variables in relation to other (variables?) so that by changing one y value everything else would move/scale according to changing the original value of the first variable.

defining 1 variable seemed easy,
defining one variable in relation to the x,y coordinates so that they 'scaled' together was a bit tougher

I imagine once you get a few more 'layers' in it can get really complex. Animation is next which already looks much more complicated but I'm gonna give it my best. They start out with something called var draw = function which is similar to the 'loop' command from codecombat yesterday.

____________________________________________________

Progress so far in JS on KhanAcademy


Intro to programming
If you've never been here before, check out this introductory video first. Then get coding!

What is Programming?
A Tour of Programming on Khan Academy

Drawing basics
We'll show you the basics of programming and how to draw shapes.
Intro to Drawing
Challenge: H for Hopper
More Drawing!
Challenge: Simple Shapes!
Challenge: CRAZY Face

Coloring
We'll show you how to color and outline your shapes!

Intro to Coloring
Challenge: Ice Cream Code
Challenge: It's a Beautiful Day
The Power of the Docs
Project: What's for Dinner?
Variables
We'll cover how to use variables to hold values, animate your drawings, and more.

Intro to Variables
Quiz: Variables
Challenge: Bucktooth Bunny
More on Variables
Challenge: Funky Frog
Variable Expressions
Quiz: Variable Expressions
Challenge: Brown Bear Eyes
Review: Variables
Project: Design an Animal
Bonus Project: Custom Clothing

___________________

Total Progress:

Day 0: 1.5 hours - Messed around in codecomat.com's coding games just to get some feeling
Day 1: 1.5 hours - Worked up to 'Animation' in JavaScript on Khanacademy.com - learned about creating basic shapes, coloring, and variables.

This post was edited by Blankey on Oct 26 2014 08:49pm