I want something to do with my hikikomori life so I can say I have at least accomplished something before I inevitably commit suicide in my early thirties.
How do I learn programming? Is it actually worth watching/reading SICP first, or should I start with a higher-level language? Or perhaps even learn C?
Thank you for your time.
Name:
Anonymous2011-10-15 15:41
Start with TAOCP instead of interpreted languages.
You can learn to program in almost any manner, it's not so much the language as how you approach them. What should be noted, as dickish as it is to say it, is that you should avoid communities filled with morons such as PHP's and Javascript's, as they'll probably confuse you with their misuse of jargon and their generally loose grasp of programming in both theory and practice.
Rather, pick some books and follow the through, not necessarily completing them at once (some can be challenging) but at least putting some continuous effort into them. For SICP I can vouch for, but I already knew how to program when I read it.
Avoid those ``teach yourself X in Y days'' as they're usually drivel. Rather, seek some listing in programming websites, like reddit.com/r/programming, or here.
I've heard I need some math skills to follow along in SICP. Would purple math be able to help me out or would the questions require me to draw information from several topics?
>>12
K&R wasn't clear enough for me when I was starting out. I thought "C Programming: A Modern Approach" was a lot better, and I'm nearly done with the language. After that is just the standard library.