New hobbie - interested in learning Programming

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Hey People,

I am interested in taking up some programming as a hobbie. I have did programming in school and was pretty good ( Pascal ) I know it's pretty outdated. so what is a good place to start again? I was thinking java.

does you know a few sites with tutorials etc

thanks
 
programming is an endless vast landscape.
you need to decide what you want to achieve with this hobby before you set out.
 
murraybiscuit said:
programming is an endless vast landscape.
you need to decide what you want to achieve with this hobby before you set out.
Click to expand...
well the motivation came from thinking of writing apps for android, but i think i am a far way from that :p I just want something to keep me busy for now.
 
Work towards a goal, think of an everyday application that you use and try to create one yourself.

Then gradually add feature by feature until its useful.
 
do you think it will be easier if i familarise myself with the theory first?
 
Not to put you down or demotivate you, but I dont think programming can be done as a hobby. To do it properly and enjoy it, programming has to become your life. You need to be reading tech/programming blogs daily, keeping up with the latest trends and technology, etc. You need to be coding stuff all the time.

Building something useful and fulfilling takes lots of time, effort, and lots of brain-work. Hobbies are done during spare time, to chill out and relax. You have to have the right attitude, mind-set and you brain needs to be wired correctly to be a good programmer.

Still, some of the worlds most innovative technologies and software products started out as hobbies, or stuff done during spare time.

Think about it carefully.
 
If you're looking at developing android apps and possibly iphone then look into the language Objective C. I've heard/read thats the language you want to get into.
 
Just pick a langauge that has lots of examples on the net.

If your interested in Android then get the SDK and learn on that, its really not so hard with all the examples arround these days.

If your interested in something youl learn the theory as you go on, no point in learning a bunch of stuff you might never use if its for a hobby.

Just try it and youl soon find out if its for you or not.
 
ToxicWazte said:
Not to put you down or demotivate you, but I dont think programming can be done as a hobby. To do it properly and enjoy it, programming has to become your life. You need to be reading tech/programming blogs daily, keeping up with the latest trends and technology, etc. You need to be coding stuff all the time.

Building something useful and fulfilling takes lots of time, effort, and lots of brain-work. Hobbies are done during spare time, to chill out and relax. You have to have the right attitude, mind-set and you brain needs to be wired correctly to be a good programmer.

Still, some of the worlds most innovative technologies and software products started out as hobbies, or stuff done during spare time.

Think about it carefully.
Click to expand...

Rooooooiiiight....

While that is perhaps true for some people, it is quite possible to do programming purely as a hobby. And as with most hobbies, how deep you go down the rabbit hole, is completely up to you. There is absolutely _no_ need to read every bit of text there is on the subject, or stay on top of every last development to enjoy coding as a hobby. If you find yourself drawn to hacking the Kinect and it draws you down that path, then all the power to you, but then you will most likely not keep up with all the possibilities SAP has to offer.

So, while I agree that doing something worthwhile, does take time and effort, how much of your life it consumes is up to you.

That being said, to OP: "starting out" requires an idea...and "coding something for android" is a perfect idea. Yes, it may be vague, but it's enough. If you can come up with any idea...even if it's "I want to write an app that lets me silence a call by flipping my phone", it's enough.

The key things to to being a coder is: curiousity and a need to "see if I can do something like that myself"...aside from that, it's up to you where it takes you.
 
the thing is guys, I loved programming is school. I was a farking master at it, if i say so myself. ( had 398 out of 400 as my year mark in matric final term) but due to a lot factors I couldn't pursue it.

Trust me, i know programming takes alot time - When i used to programme I loved it. never saw it as anything but fun. when given a programme to write, I could close my eyes and just type and know the code I am typing was 100 % correct.

I just want to try it again :)
 
Well, I have to agree that if youre going to do this as a hobby, you need a "goal" I mean you cant just program right?

IMHO java and python are great for learning
 
wallsend said:
well the motivation came from thinking of writing apps for android, but i think i am a far way from that :p I just want something to keep me busy for now.
Click to expand...

Hi wallsend. Start with the android tutorial, http://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/hello-world.html. You will be motivated by the quick win from seeing a result in the android emulator. Just by working through these small tutorials, you will learn alot of theory along the way.

Good luck.
 
Forget Java!

The future is JavaScript. You'll waste your time getting into Java-based mobile development. It's getting squashed. Apps are moving on to the cloud, and that means JavaScript. Soon enough only core aspects (like the browser shell) will be left on the device itself, and that means C. Java will be left nowhere, which is where it belongs imo :)
 
Tomtomtom said:
Forget Java!

The future is JavaScript. You'll waste your time getting into Java-based mobile development. It's getting squashed. Apps are moving on to the cloud, and that means JavaScript. Soon enough only core aspects (like the browser shell) will be left on the device itself, and that means C. Java will be left nowhere, which is where it belongs imo :)
Click to expand...

I have to respectfully disagree with you Tomtomtom, for the following reasons:

JavaScript doesnt expose you to as many programming concepts that Java does, then again were kinda comparing apples and oranges here.

Do realise that OP wanted to learn how to program, do you seriously rate JavaScript is the best way forward?

You cannot get all core phone functionality using JavaScript alone (GPU comes to mind here)

You're implying a ChromeOS phone in your post if im not mistaken. people are not prepared to ditch their non-cloudbased devices for cloudbased ones just yet, we're not at that point. Besides, 3G/4G Bandwidth is expensive (worldwide). What if your phone runs out of data?

Java will be left nowhere? just like how COBOL will be left nowhere? you'd be surprised to see how much COBOL or Delphi exists in enterprise.

I will add this though, JavaScript is kind of universal, Windows 8 is hinting at using "web-based" technologies for native application on their desktops and laptops
 
Tomtomtom said:
Forget Java!

The future is JavaScript. You'll waste your time getting into Java-based mobile development. It's getting squashed. Apps are moving on to the cloud, and that means JavaScript. Soon enough only core aspects (like the browser shell) will be left on the device itself, and that means C. Java will be left nowhere, which is where it belongs imo :)
Click to expand...

Disregard this ^. Programming is less about the ability to code in A or B, but rather how to break down a problem into simple steps and then doing each step in a logical and optimized manner. If you'd like to learn a language, pick one with a more refined goal. If you want to practise web-coding, then maybe JS, if you want scripting, look at Python or Perl, if you want heavy processing or embedded exposure look at C/C++, etc.

Don't think that learning 1 programming language is teh_best, unless of course this was the 60s, in which case you should learn COBOL.
 
LOL @ Crazymonkey btw, both of us realise that most banks in SA still have some COBOL legacy systems ;)
 
Tomtomtom said:
Forget Java!

The future is JavaScript. You'll waste your time getting into Java-based mobile development. It's getting squashed. Apps are moving on to the cloud, and that means JavaScript. Soon enough only core aspects (like the browser shell) will be left on the device itself, and that means C. Java will be left nowhere, which is where it belongs imo :)
Click to expand...

No.

JavaScript is very good but it's only useful for front ends (and some lower-level stuff with the help of frameworks like Adobe AIR). I can't seen JAVA dying out anytime soon especially with Android being based on it.

EDIT:
For your hobby, if you want to do Android apps you should get hold of Eclipse with the Android plugin. I'd suggest you start playing around with an easier language like JavaScript (or Python) that you can use to practice techniques etc with.

Using SharpDevelop or VS C# Express to play with C# is not a bad idea either. You can always get into WPF/SilverLight which is superior for front-end screen development compared to other technologies.

Either way, as some of the guys mentioned earlier, if you want to be good at it you have to do it a lot. Programming is ****ing frustrating a lot of the time because sh*t just doesn't always work as they are suppose to.
 
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