Beginner options?

[ric1287]

Decided to teach myself some type of programming in a non-school, non-pressure situation and looking for some advice.

I have basic knowledge of what's going on, took a couple Java courses in college. But really, starting from square one. I'm looking to learn some web design, iphone apps, etc.

I've got my Obj-C book (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321566157), but am reconsidering starting there. I want to do Ruby (rubykoans), Obj C, html/css (need a good guide)...but what order? And any changes to that list or better guides?

 

[Markbnj]

As a minimum investment for iOS development you'll need a Macbook and a device (iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad). So unless you already have those things or are willing to part with a couple grand... well a grand and a half anyway... I'd start with anything else. Objective-C is also a painfully obtuse and dated language that will likely cause genetic damage soon after you are first exposed.

 

[Cogman]

As a minimum investment for iOS development you'll need a Macbook and a device (iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad). So unless you already have those things or are willing to part with a couple grand... well a grand and a half anyway... I'd start with anything else. Objective-C is also a painfully obtuse and dated language that will likely cause genetic damage soon after you are first exposed.

Sort of like COBOL!

Objective-C is even more dated than older languages like C an C++... It is just that bad.

Ruby is a good language to pick up. It is really flexible and has a nice syntax.

Many like Python (I'm not a huge fan) and they find it easy to work with.

Whatever you choose, my suggesting is that you decide first and a project that you want to complete. It is REALLY hard to just "learn" something. Trying to achieve a goal will often teach you way more than some stupid book or online tutorial will. I use those to learn the syntax of a language and any special features that a language might have. I don't use those to learn how to program in general.

 

[ric1287]

Got the 8gb, SSD, i5 Macbook pro and several iOS devices so I'm good there

I have a couple simple web app ideas I'd like to make already so that shouldn't be too much of an issue. Although I wouldn't mind using a book that had example projects as well.

Would you do Ruby/Rails first then front end web stuff or the other way around? I gotta find a guide for someone who understands basic concepts but not much after that.

 

[Cogman]

Got the 8gb, SSD, i5 Macbook pro and several iOS devices so I'm good there

I have a couple simple web app ideas I'd like to make already so that shouldn't be too much of an issue. Although I wouldn't mind using a book that had example projects as well.

Would you do Ruby/Rails first then front end web stuff or the other way around? I gotta find a guide for someone who understands basic concepts but not much after that.

HTML is a breeze to learn. javascript, not so much.

RoR will probably be a good starting point. Give this a shot
http://railsforzombies.org/

 

[the182guy]

YouTube currently has a great tutorial series for Objective-C and iPhone development. Starting at the very basics. Works well if you're more of a visual learner.

 

[EvilManagedCare]

If you are looking to develop apps for mobile devices and not determined to do so for Apple products only, you could always look into Android development, which is done with Java. AFAIK everything for development of Android apps is free. Plus I don't think you even have to own an Android device to test your work since it can be done in the IDE.

 

[bonheur]

I found this Introduction to Computer Science course very interesting:

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electric...o-computer-science-and-programming-fall-2008/

It's done with Python plus a bit of matplotlib. I've enjoyed every bit of this course and I came to like how easy to work with Python is. They work with Python 2.x series, but I did it all with Python 3.2--it wasn't all that hard to modify the given source code. This language has a lot of very useful libraries to work with and it seems very well documented for a novice like (my associate/bachelor's got nothing to do with CS) me to do many things from scratch.

There's this other course that does basically the same: http://cs50.tv/2010/fall/ But they teach it with C which leads to your learning more about how the computer really works. But for some reason I didn't really like the course as it seemed very focused on 18yo persons going to college rather than adults doing this on the side on whatever free time they have. Maybe it's just the way they chose to teach the stuff, but I didn't enjoy it. I stopped by lecture 7 or 8. Even then, I came to like C a lot and I'd love to learn more about C, how the machine works, data structures, writing nice code, etc.

I've not done the following course, but it's for mobile applications in both Android and its Apple counterpart: http://cs76.tv/2011/spring/

I hope this helps!

By the way, if someone could point me to any other courses, books, etc. (if free the better!) that lead to know how the machine works, data structures, database theory, design of graphical interfaces, writing well structured code, algorithms, OOP, etc. that's basically the notes of any CS student I guess, please let me know!

Right now, I'd be happy if I was able to do the same things in C that I can easily do with Python. I like C as it's very fast, but I must write my own data structures, etc. for which I have no training. Also, I don't know of any libraries for GUIs, something similar to matplotlib, something to scrape websites like beautiful soap, etc. It seems a lot easier to throw a Google search and reap tons of useful data for working with Python. But when it comes to C it seems I fell into a black hole. LOL

Anyway, good look to the Original Poster and I hope I didn't hijack his or her threat too much.