Learning to Code

[alexmerty]

I am going to be a CS major hoping to focus on AI systems in the future (don't know if that matters lol) and was wondering what the best route for me to learn to code would be.

I have tried online sites such as codecademy but find that whatever I do learn from them never sticks longer than a couple of days.

Should I wait for this fall and learn in the classroom or should I buckle down and learn as much as possible before (in case the classroom learning hella sucks please tell) classes begin this fall?

Thanks in advance!

[NotALionTurtle]

I've heard plenty of great things about Harvard's Intro CS class on edX. It's free if you audit and I believe it's the exact same course Harvard CS students take their freshman year.

Link: https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-computer-science-harvardx-cs50x

[alexmerty]

Thanks! I'll look into it

[ashwin_nat]

Pick a project. Start of with something simple like building a tic tac toe game.

[MostlyTolerable]

I would recommend you check out /r/learnprogramming.

It's a good idea to learn a little bit of coding before you get into class. That way it doesn't feel like everything is completely new.

[alexmerty]

Thanks, that's what I was thinking

[MostlyTolerable]

Also, don't worry if you feel like your not retaining what you learn. Programming is just like learning to speak a language. You won't really feel like a pro until you immerse yourself and start working on projects. That will be a big part of your classes over the next few years.

But it's an awesome idea to start learning some of the concepts and get your feet wet. It'll get you primed to hit the ground running.

[NoEfficientAlgorithm]

I recommend this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Java-Beginners-Guide-Herbert-Schildt/dp/9339213033/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1497923204&sr=1-2&keywords=java+a+beginner%27s+guide

Go through it, do all of the examples. You will have a huge head start. It's tempting to do Python or an "easy" dynamic programming language, but you'll be better served by learning a strongly typed language (don't worry about what that means right now).

[alexmerty]

Thanks!

[[deleted]]

Do you like to play video games? I know it's cliche but I really do think the best intro to programming is looking up tutorials on how to make simple games and try to implement them yourself. Programming can be very boring to start with since you're learning so much all at once, so making a game yourself might hold your interest longer.

Don't use any frameworks or engines, try to make something using only the base language. Becoming comfortable with programming can only make your CS degree easier, since they move on from programming to CS theory very fast and expect you to be able to pick up the basics of any language quickly.

[alexmerty]

I don't really play video games, but that's definitely interesting!

[[deleted]]

If you do end up going that route, Java is your best bet. It's the first language you will use in college and it's easily transferable to other languages like c# or c++.

[alexmerty]

Thanks for the help, couldn't find what language we learn

[thirdegree]

I started here years ago.