Toni Gemayel.com

So You Want To Learn To Program?

I try my best to get out to conferences and events, and often the first question people ask me, is how did I get into programming? Truth is, I have always been interested in computers. Like many of my peers, I started writing html at 13, and spent my free time tinkering and taking apart electronics. My first actual language was php 4, which was a horrible train wreck of an intro language. I kind of just found my way from there. If I had the luxury of having a teacher, my course list would have looked like this:

Start with python

Start with this book its the best Intro to programming book I have ever read. Its well written, witty, and easy to get started with. To top it off, the book is free, but I would really urge you to donate if you finish it. Its the

Setup your dev environment

When you’re just starting out, you want to get rid of all other distractions and just code. A simple OS is the way to go. I personally believe Ubuntu is the easiest OS to learn on. Its painlessly easy to install, test, or even run in a virtual environment (there is plenty of support as well!).

Dont use an IDE

Built in FTP? Git integration? Power user commands? What? You dont need full features. Grow into an IDE later. For now, start out with something stupidly simple so you can just focus on what you’re coding, instead of the IDE you are using to do it. For Ubuntu, I recommend gedit. (protip: edit the color scheme from a white background, to a black one. Your eyes will thank me)

Find a friend

Much like a gym buddy, a programming buddy can help you stay focused and interested in what you’re learning. Further down the road, you will have somebody to build things with, learn things from, and most importantly of all, bounce ideas off of.

Awesome, what now?

Once you finish learning python the hard way, I would proceed onto the Django Book. From there, the web is your oyster. You can contribute to some open source projects on github, or maybe learn how to setup a low end server. Learn some html and css as well, grab a template off themeforest, and build an app.