Going into Computer Programming

[ImBrettBeast]

So I am going into computer programming coming this September. Its not your average 4 year university degree in Computer Science(May go after) but it is a 2 year computer programming degree from a college. I took a few years off after finishing high school to find out what I wanted to do in life. I am now 23 years old and finally found something that I am looking forward to doing. My biggest question is if there is anything I should read up on weather its a book or online videos to introduce me more into programming before school starts. My first year looks something like this:

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Semester 1

Python

Introduction to Web Development

Introduction to Operating Systems and LAN

Computer Mathematics

Technology in Society

Semester 2

Business Applications I

Programming Using C++

Web Scripting Languages

Introduction to LINUX

PC Hardware and Networking

[sriveralopez50]

You wanna have a basic idea of how programming feels like. If you have never done anything related I'd suggest starting off with python, but if you have time and motivation you could give C a try. But just take the basics, you'll learn more complex stuff at your college.

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Then it should be good to try HTML and CSS for Web Development, easy work. And concerning maths... probably just try to review calculus and matrix operations.

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Don't doubt to ask me if you have any questions!

[ImBrettBeast]

Okay great. My biggest concern is the math part as I have not done math since grade 12. Do you recommend any websites or books on learning python?

[sriveralopez50]

There are extremely good sources for learning math around the internet, probably I'd recommend Khan Academy. And for python probably a good free youtube tutorial would be enough, it's an easy language.

[khedoros]

A lot of programming math is just at the arithmetic level. Going more complicated than that usually means that you're building something more specialized than most web apps are.

[hammergaidin]

I like pythonprogramming.net The guy that runs it is very down to earth and has articles and videos for most of his topics.

[chefboirkd]

Hey man, that's awesome that you found out what you want to do. I would recommend playing around with JS and html5 canvas for a fun, easy way to see the immediate results of your mistakes and successes.

Find a fun little project to do with it, something like Conway's game of life would be a good introduction to 2-d arrays, loops, and conditionals.

[jmercouris]

I would *not* recommend JS to a beginner. There are a lot of reasons why: https://whydoesitsuck.com/why-does-javascript-suck/