macOS Which programming language for a complete beginner?

[TomOSeven]

Thank you for your vote of confidence, bud.

I'm proud of you for getting to where you are.

Maybe I should just take a little time out, then resume? I have a bit of a mental block going on, so there's no point in overloading my brain, as nothing is being absorbed.

You're saying all that on December 22nd when you started coding on... December 21st?

 

[09872738]

Ugh. So I'm already saying, "What the hell is he talking about?" And I haven't even seen any of the lectures yet! Conditionals? Conditional chaining? Reference vs. Value types? Pointers? Uh oh. So, hypothetically, if I didn't know what any of those words or expressions meant, where would I go to learn about them before taking this course?

Sorry, my bad: I meant optionals of course. Edited my original post accordingly

 

[1240766]

Java and JavaScript (angular or react) will open lots of doors - back end, front end, mobile android...

If you want to focus on data science, python.

Of course there is always the Apple languages for their ecosystem....

 

[Zazoh]

Ya, the odd thing about programing is one can learn the concepts (Loops, If/Then, comparisons, Arrays etc) fairly easy, there are examples and tutorials in many languages. Then, in practice there are a million things to learn to put it all together that can never be remembered. So learning to solve problems and where to look in documentation and APIs is where many drop out.

You can never learn and remember everything AND that is okay. I've been professionally programing since 1996, I look up stuff nearly every day. Many times I look back to where I remember "I've done it before." Then, cut and paste.

 

[alendrew11]

First off, don't package up and let sit a $1500 machine!

Programming is not easy, and the most difficult part is understanding and appreciating the fundamentals of computer programming (such as variables, data types, design patterns, etc) that all languages have. Don't believe any course that says learn programming in 30 days. I don't mean to say this as a way to put you off to it, but once you accept that diving into programming with no related experience is a difficult task and will take time, you won't beat yourself up so much about not having it click right away.

15+ years ago I set out to teach myself C on the Mac with zero background or experience in a related field.. didn't understand it at all and set aside the book (Learn C on the Macintosh) I bought. A few months later I decided to pick it up and try again, and this time it all just seemed to click and went from there. I'm 100% self-taught and have had a career in software development (now a Technical Lead for a software development shop, spent a few years developing, selling and supporting my own macOS software), and trust me if I can do it anyone can.

edit: also while some will not agree with this, you may want to look into Xojo (https://www.xojo.com), its a full IDE with its own language and builds desktop macOS, Windows and Linux applications as well as iOS and Web 2.0, and can be a good way to learn and grasp the basics and get up and running quickly. It is not free but without a license you can still code and run locally your project, so no need to buy one until you have something ready you want to distribute. They have a lot of free video and tutorials to get up and running for complete beginners.

Yes, I take your point, and absolutely true. I started programming in 2016 it was very difficult for me to understand and I started a course at the institute in my city with the tag 30 days full programming course. They really help me a lot, but not so much. After that, I have joined a Software house for a 3-year internship. It was a great experience for me and help me for my future. I will recommend you to join such a programming house, it will help you a lot. By the way, Python is an awesome language for professionals, and HTML and CSS are for the beginner.

 

[romanof]

Part time coder here, today mostly Swift and C#.

You do not say what your problem(s) are?

Personally when learning a new language it helps me to work with a small project to give me a practical problem to focus on instead of going through the manual chapter by chapter.

Modern languages contain a lot of complex concepts. Start with the simple parts.

I most definitely agree. I have always learned by starting a project from scratch - not by following cookbook instructions in a manual or tutorial. All that does is get you a working program snippit and no knowledge of what you just did. For myself, nothing teaches better than trying to figure out how to do a particular task in that language (open file, load text box, etc) than searching for examples, then trying my own over and over until it works. That locks it into memory.

Way back in the dawn of time, I learned C with only the K@R white manual, which definitely was not a tutorial. No google, no Internet, no bookstore with racks of manuals in those days - just the thin book. My project was a simple RTTY ham radio program (no apps in those days). I remember coming home from school day after day, sitting at the original IBM PC, and trying to figure out what the heck they were talking about with pointers. It was a pair of weeks before I got the idea, but it was concreted into my memory forever. Then onto the next thing, like, how do you write to the disk?

My only use for tutorials beyond the absolutely simple concepts of a new language, is to search their examples for stuff I can use and modify.

 

[firewood]

Millions of kids learned to program their Apple II's (et.al.) using Basic. Including some famous people, like Woz and Bill Gates. For a vintage Basic for the Mac, try Chipmunk Basic.

But for something a little more modern, I would try Python.