Rainman Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 (edited) I've always had an interest in learning any programming language to make applications for myself. In addition to that since creating apps can be very lucrative business it would be quite rewarding if something you created for fun made you lots of money. I've looked around a few sites but I just couldn't fathom what they were trying to get across. Could it be I'm too old to learn a programming language or did I just land on the wrong sites? Do any of you think it's possible for anyone to learn programming by using tutorials posted on the net? Edited July 18, 2014 by Rainman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Nathan Posted July 18, 2014 Administrators Share Posted July 18, 2014 I used Experts-Exchange to learn MSSQL, PHP, jQuery, HTML, CSS all from their site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Livvy Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 It's very possible, but you might have been coming across the wrong sites, you know? Maybe they were aimed more at intermediate programmers rather than absolute beginners, which is what I assume you are. You might want to look into Code Academy and Khan Academy as they both offer beginners tutorials which you can go through at your own pace. Or if you prefer a more rigorous course, you could always look into the online courses offered by universities such as MIT and Harvard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-Lexx Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 (edited) Hi Rainman. What sort of programming languages would you like to study? It's very much possible to learn programming using online resources such as tutorials, as you mentioned. But this takes a bit of determination on your part because you will need to do the practice and evaluate yourself. A better option would be to take free online courses. These are actually much easier than it sounds: they usually last between 6 and 10 weeks. Each week you have a few videos to watch, about an hour or so in total, which explain the essentials. Then, you have the practical exercises: you get to actually write code and submit it online for evaluation. You also have multiple-choice quizes to answer, these are usually not that difficult. You can find interesting courses on Coursera and EdX, depending on what you're interested in. Let me know if you would like more advice about this. Edited July 18, 2014 by F-Lexx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Livvy Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Hi Rainman. What sort of programming languages would you like to study? It's very much possible to learn programming using online resources such as tutorials, as you mentioned. But this takes a bit of determination on your part because you will need to do the practice and evaluate yourself. I think this is an important thing which many people don't realise when they start out to learn something online. Whether it's programming, a foreign language, or just some new skill, if you're doing it online with tutorials and such, you're going to have to put in a lot of work. You'll not only have to do all the work-which obviously happens regardless-but if you're doing it alone, you also have to attempt to be objective and evaluate how you're doing, and how far you've come. You need to be both exam taker, and exam marker as it were. And you have to be as objective and brutal as a real examiner would be. You can't 'let it go' just because it's your own work. If you make a mistake, you need to reprimand yourself as bad as anyone else would, and then correct it to the same standard. Likewise, you need to be objective in how much you reward yourself for a job well done. You can't exactly take five days off just because you got your first day of coding done and you didn't mess up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hun10sta Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 Yes, very much so. All of my C# knowledge was learned entirely on the internet, I've never taken any formal programming classes. What worked for me was to immediately try to make something, and then Google whenever I ran into a problem. Works like a charm! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Livvy Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 Yes, very much so. All of my C# knowledge was learned entirely on the internet, I've never taken any formal programming classes. What worked for me was to immediately try to make something, and then Google whenever I ran into a problem. Works like a charm! Presumably you had to have some knowledge of C# or similar languages before you tried though. That doesn't really work for a novice like Rainman who doesn't have any knowledge of how various languages work, so wouldn't know how to even begin to type up a starter program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navii Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 I can recommend Code Academy since I've learned JavaScript on there and I think it was really easy because that site is extremely interactive and not just plain reading. But if you don't have any programming background I would recommend starting with Java first as it is not that hard to get into but you can do a lot of great stuff with it, if you get into it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rainman Posted July 21, 2014 Author Share Posted July 21, 2014 Thanks for the sites you've recommended, guys. I'm going to take a look at all of them and decide which of them has the best tutorials for a beginner. Then as I learn more I could find other learning resources on the other sites too. How long do you think it takes to learn a programing language like C++? Or would I have to start with C? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tymaul Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 It is very possible to learn the basics for programming from the net. Now the question is how much are you willing to search and how much are you willing to pay. You won't have to search too hard for tutorials if you have willing to pay. Lynda.com offers on hand example downloads with videos. As for just searching many artists are just trying to get their name out there and by doing tutorials they are able to do so. Vimeo is the best place for professional tutorials. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navii Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 How long do you think it takes to learn a programing language like C++? Or would I have to start with C? It depends on what you want to program, I started out with Java so I can only recommend that, because I actually had a pretty good learning experience with it. C isn't needed to learn C++ but it's quite a bit more complex, so I'm not sure if you should start out with it. I'd wait for input of someone who started with C++. As for the time it takes to learn a programming language it depends on a lot of factors. Are you a fast learner? How much time are you going to invest? What do you want to be able to program? There's actually no "I learned a language completely" in programming, there's always gonna be something you didn't know or will never know. That's just because those languages are so complex, there's no way to know every possibility of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Livvy Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 Thanks for the sites you've recommended, guys. I'm going to take a look at all of them and decide which of them has the best tutorials for a beginner. Then as I learn more I could find other learning resources on the other sites too. How long do you think it takes to learn a programing language like C++? Or would I have to start with C? You don't have to start anywhere really. In theory you can just jump into any programming language, become adept in it and then move onto another when you feel up to it. Different languages are better for beginners however, since they are designed to give you a jumping off point as such. However, there's no one language which will properly prepare you for every language out there. Even if you're adept at say, C# you might find it hard to deal with Pascal, or...damnit, I forget the name of it. It's a language beginning with A, came out of Sweden if I remember. That's going to bug me now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vicvillon Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 It's totally possible, Code Academy or not! Even the simplest of Google Searches will likely put you in the right direction towards being able to program. The internet is literally bursting with different resources these days to help people of all ages be able to do stuff that they want to be able to do. Besides, with so many people in college and the like learning these types of things, naturally some of that material ends up on the internet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peninha Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 I think it's possible to learn pretty much everything online considering we have the time to dedicate ourselves to it. I mean, the quality of the contents is great, but it requires an effort from our side to learn it, we need to invest time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizel Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Yeah, I think that it's quite possible there's many guides around the Internet that you can read and they will help you in some way to learn the basics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
queenbellevue Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Absolutely, I learned basic Python from Code academy. Obviously if you want to know more advanced stuff then I hear that NOTHING BEATS PRACTICE. There are tons of tutorials on youtube, and I think there are quite a few sites that will pay you to do back/front end dev for them as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nadebum Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 Yes it is very much possible to learn programming on the internet. Those are so called self-learned skills and there are already a lot of programmers out there who already learned through the net. It only depends on your commitment and dedication because it is not really easy especially for beginners. There may be a few talent out there who would say that they find it easy to learn but of course everyone of us has a different level of learning. I suggest that you try to understand first the concepts of the the programming language you are trying to learn because it will be very helpful for you to be able to utilize the capabilities of that programming language. W3Schools is one of those places where you can easily learn the basics. It is a great place to learn because you can already practice coding there even if you don't have any editor yet. I'm not sure but I think that every programming language is listed there. I strongly suggest as well that you master the basics first and do it one step at a time. Also be sure that you already understand its concepts before going into more advanced programming because there is a high possibility that you will get yourself confused if you try to do it all at once. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
faithuy56 Posted January 10, 2019 Share Posted January 10, 2019 I think it is very possible. First off, I’d like to say that I’m writing these preliminary posts in a way that I’ll assume you have very little knowledge in programming. I want this content to provide anyone “walking in off the street” the knowledge to be able to write their first program with the Java programming language with as little pain as possible. You might say, “Why are we talking about any programming language? I thought this was about Java”. Well, I’ve found that it’s important to remember that a lot of programming languages are very similar, and knowing what’s common between all programming languages will help you transition into any other programming language if you need to! For example, with the Java programming knowledge I had obtained, it took me less than a month to learn how to program in a language called Objective C (which is used for iPhone apps). That’s powerful stuff! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alania Posted January 10, 2019 Share Posted January 10, 2019 Of course. If you want my opinion, then I think almost anything can be taught on the internet. It's a very strong and buttsaver tool. Honestly, I think we should cancel schools because of how the internet is a lot more helpful in this regard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronwald Posted January 10, 2019 Share Posted January 10, 2019 Absolutely! The web is full of free resources that can turn you into a programmer in no time. If you're really serious about becoming a programmer, you can get off to a running start using tons of resources available on the internet. All you need is the initiative, and the dedication to really understand the usually free web-based tutorials and resources available out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VanessaIsabelle Posted January 12, 2019 Share Posted January 12, 2019 Yes, it is very possible to learn basic programming through the internet. There are a lot of sites which offers coding courses for free such as CodeAcademy, edX, Git Hub, and MIT Courseware to name a few. There are tons of places that offers you how to code. However, please do not really too much on those sites. You also need to invest on critical thinking and analysis to help yourself up since with all these free information, you my get overwhelmed and confuse yourself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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