How Start Learning How to Program

How to start learning how to program

1. Find a language you want to learn first. I recommend python since its easy to use and you can do alot with it. But if you want to start off with a hard but good language then go to c++.

2. Find a good tutorial or book to start learning. An nice thread to find tutorials here.

3. Get a compiler/interpreter/IDE for the programming language your book usesA compiler/interpreter is just another computer program, but it will convert ideas you've written in a programming language into "machine code" so you can see things work. If you chose use the book above, try PLT Scheme (http://www.drscheme.org/) If you're starting to program in Java, you could try Eclipse (http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/) If you're using C/C++, try Dev C++ (http://www.bloodshed.net/devcpp.html)

4. Read the book or the tutorial. Take examples of the programming language from the book and put them into your interpreter. Try changing the examples and making the program do different things.

5. Try putting together your own ideas to form a working program. Start with simple things, like a program to convert currencies or a calculator, and work your way up a long to more complex things as you continue reading and learning about your programming language.

6. Once you can pretty much go through your first language and actively program with it, it would be best to learn a second language. You'll get the most out of learning a second programming language if you pick one that uses a radically different paradigm than the one you started with. For example, if you started in Scheme, you might try learning C or Java next. If you started in Java, you could learn Perl or Python, etc.

7. The only way you will get better at programming if you learn as much languages as you can, and programming new things.