A Month Of Programming

[dinc]

My mom, being the fine and dedicated mother she is, gave me a month off of school to learn "programming". My dad, being the computer expert he is, recommended HTML, PHP, and knowledge of MYSQL (and Perl if I have time).

Today is the first day of this month, and my goal is to acquire enough knowledge to take free lance, online jobs. I'm wondering if you fine folks know of any good forums for programming questions, tutorials, or just anything else in general.

Ah, it's good to be home schooled.

[Dave Kaminski]

Lynda.com if you're into the design side.

w3schools or VTC are great for the programming side.

I would start with HTML (and Dreamweaver if you plan on using a GUI), then move onto XML/CSS for increased design functionality on HTML.

PHP is great for building free dynamic sites. MySQL is also extremely powerful in that area.

Flash is a great touch to add for design purposes, but for any and all of these you may need more than a month to get functioning on your unless you're busting your ass learning this stuff.

ASP.NET & VB.NET/C#.Net are very powerful as well. You can get free, learning versions of the development platforms from Microsoft (Microsoft SQL Server Express, & Visual Studio Express (VB.NET Express))

VB is easier to learn if you're starting, and C# is extremely robust. If you're feeling courageous, try to take on C#. If you want a strong foundation you might want to stick with VB.NET at first. To learn the .NET way instead of the PHP/MySQL way (which is the Open Source route) go to LearnVisualStudio.net, it's an excellent site and has tons of videos. Aside from learning CSS/HTML that site will teach you just about everything you need to know to create extremely robust applications.

[dinc]

Okay, this is why I post in forums. Lol, I didn't even know about XML or CSS, and they seem to be pretty essential (or CSS at least) if you want your website to look halfway decent. I have stumbled upon w3schools (it's a bit hard not to) and I'm going through the HTML section now. I should be done in an hour or two, and then I can get on to CSS.... Is XML even commonly used?

I think I'll just stick with web based programming this month. I was going to learn C++, but my dad said that isn't big in the free lance world. I checked and he was right. Besides...it would be hell to learn in a short time. My uncle learned it in a week, but then again...he's a genius.

I'm not even sure what ASP.NET & VB.NET/C#.Net are even used for... I'll look into though.


Thanks.

[Euragios]

SitePoint : New Articles, Fresh Thinking for Web Developers and Designers is a very good community for your website design/programming and other, related stuff.

Good luck!

[Dave Kaminski]

You've got the freelance thing down if that's what you want to do! It's an excellent path and will be a blast. Learning skills and applying them is amazing, and building something from nothing is also an awesome experience.


I think you're currently thinking "freelance programmer." if you want to think "solutions" or "consultant" you might wanna go for the bigger stuff like C#, .NET and such.

[Niki]

I would highly recommend Ruby and Ruby on Rails.

Ruby is a programming language, and Rails is a Framework for creating websites.

A great book is The Pragmatic Bookshelf | Learn to Program . It will teach basic programming concepts and show them with ruby. Their book "Agile Web Development With Rails" is THE book on programming ruby on rails.

[Dave Kaminski]

tobyhede, the Tech mod, is a Ruby on Rails guy

I'm am ASP/javascript/vbscript/flash programmer by day. I'm training on .NET now

Niki that book looks great! I'm getting it for my friend who wants to learn!

[tobyhede]

Yes, I am all about the Ruby on Rails. :P

I have also done a lot of PHP programming.

sitepoint.com has great articles, books and some really useful forums.

And I second the recommendation for w3schools.

[aussieNickuss]

If you're learning HTML for the first time.....avoid starting with table layouts!

I started building sites just by using tables from the beginning and when it came time to go over to the XHTML and CSS type layout....it was a hard habit to kick....I kept reverting to a table layout when I came to something in CSS that I didn't understand. If you go in knowing XHTML and CSS from the start, then you'll spend more time developing your skills, rather than learning all over again.

[Vanessa]

I'll also like to give a hat tip to Chris Pine, his website had the original version of Learn to Program and it's helped me learn to program:

Learn to Program, by Chris Pine If you want to sneak a peek at what the expanded book looks like, have a gander at his website.

Lynda.com was also great to learn the ins and outs of design software, I really like their books too, easy to follow along and practical examples. Their site have an all you can learn subscription for 25/month. not bad for the price of one book!

For more on the programming side, O'Reilly Safari has an online collection of books available for unlimited monthly access to all their books is 43 bucks and if you do 10 books a month its 22 bucks. Give it a search and see what you'd like to learn about. I'd recommend XHTML, CSS JavaScript, PHP, MySql, then Ruby on Rails if you'd like to do freelance work.

You can accomplish alot in a month's worth of learning!

[Dave Kaminski]

If you feel like you'd rather design, try to focus on Flash and Photoshop.

I would stretch your programming learning out way more than a month, as programming takes a while to learn since observation and trial/error help to beat a path in your mind.

[dinc]

I think I'll just stick with web based programming this month, and I fully intend to keep on learning after one month, but I want to see how much I can get done...Apparently not much. I've got HTML, but CSS is kicking my ass all the way from here to cyberland. Why do you need margins if you have padding? Why do you need either at all? What's the fricking use of an 'inline' element? Maybe I'll look somewhere other than w3schools.


I took a look at Lynda, and I CAN afford the $25...but it's still $25, and that' quite alot for me to pay up. My dad already bought me a php/mysql book, and his financial support ends there :P. I'll think about it...

Today, I fooled around a lot with some basic HTML to get the hang of it, and I've started messing with some CSS, but that's all I've done. You can see my results and let me know what I'm doing wrong (I'll post it sometime today)..*groan of desolation*. I'm gonna go get some Ihop now.

[Niki]

Padding and margin are both different things. What I always did to see what the effect was of different styles I just gave every element on my webpage a different color, that's good for seeing what just exactly changed when you have a padding of 10, or a margin of 10. You can see the difference then. An if you don't see the use of inline elements, you don't have to use them, as long as you get the result you wanted, on the most popular browsers. Css looks hard at first, but once you get the hang of it, you will be loving it. Every peace has it's value.

[Tayrak]

CSS seems like a bear but once you get it, you won't turn back. Absolutely use colors like Niki said. I also used borders to keep track of where everything is.

Give yourself some time too. I know you're smart but this is a lot of info.

And don't forget to test in different browsers. I had my pages rolling happily along in IE, did another site, worked great in IE and then someone pointed out a mistake in Firefox, which I didn't have on this puter. It wasn't a huge deal but when I tested my new site, it totally broke in Firefox . It's all fixed now

Tayrak

[Dave Kaminski]

*Pops in the Lynda CSS 2 Essential Training CD*

I need to listen to you guys - I'm way slacking on my CSS since I focus on Flash more. I need to broaden my horizons.

[coder]

Before doing programming, wouldn't you want to learn basics on handling information?

database theory and practice : Dealing with databases in practice

Here is a set of tutorials on MySQL:

MySQL DBA : Common tasks you have to master in your work as a MySQL DBA.

and a forum:

Database Design Resource Forum: - Index

[JeremyW]

Originally Posted by Dave Kaminski

You've got the freelance thing down if that's what you want to do! It's an excellent path and will be a blast. Learning skills and applying them is amazing, and building something from nothing is also an awesome experience.


I think you're currently thinking "freelance programmer." if you want to think "solutions" or "consultant" you might wanna go for the bigger stuff like C#, .NET and such.

Do you have any tips for freelancers on where to find work?

[coder]

There is a place called Rent A Coder: How Software Gets Done -- Home of the worlds' largest number of completed software projects

[Dave Kaminski]

Coder - that rent a coder page is amazing.

Thanks.

[coder]

Dave,

It sure is: I have used it on several occasions, with very good results (and a couple not-so-good...).

Just make sure you pick a coder with a good track record. Or, if you want projects to work on, document your skills.

[Dave Kaminski]

I could outsource a LOT of my own work on there and make some SERIOUS cash; haha, and this is thread jacking, so here's my contribution:

If you REALLY want a good way to learn how to program, go to that site, find a project you would potentially want to do in your language, and FIGURE OUT HOW TO DO IT!

Honestly, that's a great way to learn.

[BChris]

You should learn basic topics like arrays, classes, files and basic things before actually learn a language because that way is much easier. I recomend GameDev.net - all your game development needs the forums are ecxelent. Right now Im learning PHP/Mysql so i decided to start making wordpress templates to get a little practice.

[colbycheeze]

I randomly quit my job one day to learn Flash because I wanted to make a game like the ones I was playing on armorgames.com etc...

Flash developers are a rare commodity and if you can learn Flash you are guaranteed a good job.

It took me about 3 weeks to learn from scratch and I had already built a quick game and made 3000 for it. I also got a job working for a freelance company to make money in the meantime while making games.

I recommend flash because it is in very high demand, is super fun to play with, and very easy to learn.

some books that have helped me (you'll have to google them)

Oreilly Essential Actionscript 3.0
Oreilly actionscript 3.0 Cookbook
Oreilly Actionscript 3.0 Design Patterns
Advanced Actionscript 3 with Design Patterns
Head First - Design Patterns (this is in Java, but is the BEST book ive read of them all)

Those there can last you about a month or two if you just read here and there. I recommend just creating demo applications for each new thing that you learn. It is super easy to learn if you do it that way and just keep track of everything you do so you can reference it later.

Good luck!

[JeremyW]

Originally Posted by colbycheeze

I randomly quit my job one day to learn Flash because I wanted to make a game like the ones I was playing on armorgames.com etc...

Flash developers are a rare commodity and if you can learn Flash you are guaranteed a good job.

It took me about 3 weeks to learn from scratch and I had already built a quick game and made 3000 for it. I also got a job working for a freelance company to make money in the meantime while making games.

I recommend flash because it is in very high demand, is super fun to play with, and very easy to learn.

some books that have helped me (you'll have to google them)

Oreilly Essential Actionscript 3.0
Oreilly actionscript 3.0 Cookbook
Oreilly Actionscript 3.0 Design Patterns
Advanced Actionscript 3 with Design Patterns
Head First - Design Patterns (this is in Java, but is the BEST book ive read of them all)

Those there can last you about a month or two if you just read here and there. I recommend just creating demo applications for each new thing that you learn. It is super easy to learn if you do it that way and just keep track of everything you do so you can reference it later.

Good luck!

Hi. How did you get 3000 for the game? Which one of the books is best for actionscript game development. I made a great game in Director and I am good with Flash but I don't really know much actionscript.

[goldtoe360]

colbycheeze:

Flash CS3 Professional goes for $700.

I've played with flash back when I was in high school, but didn't get too far. Just made a few things move here and there. I would like to play around with flash once again, but at $700 that's too pricey.

[dinc]

Just thought I'd update you guys, cause I haven't on my blog.

First week done I've learned:
HTML
XHTML
CSS
I'm pretty confident that I can do anything I want with those 'languages', however messy the script may be (I'm hoping cleanliness will come with effort and time.)

This week has been a bit slow due to my parents taking a vacation and leaving me with the little kids, so there goes two days. This is pretty much three days of work, and maybe twenty-something hours (it took a bit of re-learning to get some concepts). Starting next week, I'm going to do strict eight-hour work days, because I've strictly decided on eight hours.

For next week I plan to accomplish:
Fixing up seagull.net(my dad's site) to eliminate unnecessary html and substitute it with CSS. Just to see where I stand.

Designing my own website with a blog, blog archive, gallery, links, and article section using HTML and CSS.

Learn basic Javascript (Is this necessary? Almost ever site I know uses some form of Javascript)

Learn fundamental PHP

Learn fundamental MySQL

Blog
You guys could do a big favor by nagging me to do these things through the forum and maybe dropping me a flaming email telling me to get to work .

Thanks for all your support and suggestions....BTW $3000 for a flash game HOLY HELL!

PS: Lynda.com...Use it. It is the single most useful website on the planet.

[colbycheeze]

Just to answer some questions...
You do NOT need to pay $700 to use Flash. I recommend it just for drawing graphics and stuff but I don't even use Flash CS3 personally...well only when I decide to make my own graphics. I paid someone else to do the graphics...I think like 600 (that wasn't taken out of the 3000..the 3000 is what I got after it was said and done)

Anyway, you can get Flashdevelop...which is free. It lets you program Flex, Flash, Haxe, PHP, whatever...its amazing and has code hinting etc.

Personally I use Flex Builder from Adobe. There is a 90 day trial (i think) which I used and I just have to say it is completely amazing.

Anyways, as far as how I got $3000...I met this amazing guy Adam Schroeder from Flash Game License: Welcome

I worked with him and he gave me some great tips on how to improve my game and he did all of the negotiating to close the deal for me with Gimme5Games.com

He has a great website with info here: FlashGameSponsorship - Home

Most "crappy" flash games can get like 800-1000 dollars now days, and some of the better ones were getting upwards of 5..10...and even over 20k.

Desktop Tower Defense has made about 100k since it came out a year ago. Read about that here: Happy Birthday Desktop Tower Defense! « Paul & Dave’s Novel Concepts

Anyway, this post is getting long. I love to talk about game development and help out new developers so if you think you might want to check it out then give me a shout on MSN: colby [at] cheezeworld (dot) com
I'm on all the time (polyphasic sleeper) so just send me a msg and I'll answer any questions you have.

Hope that helps!

[JeremyW]

Hi. Thanks so much for all the great info. I have actually made two games in Director and am really keen to make the switch over to Flash. I would like to make games for my own enjoyment but if I can get some extra income too that would be great. I am great with graphics by the way so if you need someone to help out with some characters/backgrounds just pm me and I will show you my stuff. Will check out those books you recommended at get started learning actionscript.

[ragtag]

Learn the basics, variables, arrays, functions, passing variables between functions. It's also a good idea to work on some simple project, like your fathers page, because then you actually have a real goal to work towards with an end result.

I would start with PHP before JavaScript. The difference between the two is that PHP runs on the server and JavaScript in the browser. Most forums, blogs and so on can be written completely in PHP. Where JavaScript comes in is if you want some fancy interactive functionality, such as auto completion of input fields, interactive update of part of the page and so on. With PHP, HTML and CSS, you can build a complete website, add MySql to that, to store and manage the data on your site, finally sprinkle it with a bit of JavaScript to make it Web2.0. (bleh).

Personally, I feel it's a good idea to make websites as compatible as possible. Which means they should work even for users with JavaScript turned off. They should work in mobile phone browsers, with speech software, scaling and so on. For most websites I dislike Flash. It's fine for games, but building a whole site in Flash generally makes for a site that looks fancy, but is a pain to browse, you can't bookmark individual pages, (with exceptions) the back button in your browser won't work, everything takes longer to load because of time consuming animations and so on. Make games with Flash, use Flash videos and flash for smaller parts of your page (banners and stuff), but not the whole page. The only exception would be a site where the whole point of the site is the fancy presentation of the site itself.

The worst thing about developing websites is making it compatible with different browsers. What works in FireFox on Windows may not work in Safari on OS X or Opera on Linux and so on. There are standards, but most browsers are not 100% compatible with them. So you need to test a lot, and figure out weird workarounds for different problems.

As a side note. Get Firefox and download the Firebug extension. It's a small debugger tool for Firefox. Just right click anything on your page and choose Inspect element. It's a great help with figuring out CSS and JavaScript problems.

[Saidin]

You might want to install:Xampp on your computer. It will install apache for you with php. It will also install tools for you, such as PhpMyAdmin, which you can use to make databases in when you start with MySQL.

Good editors for PHP are Zend Studio (you'd have to pay for that) and Eclipse (the PHP version), which is very good and totally free. It has code completion etc. to help you with your programming.

Good luck and keep us updated.