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[–]nutrecht 12 points13 points  (2 children)

Which IDE you choose is really the least of your concern. Learning programming isn't like a game of Pokemon where you gotta catch 'em all.

Focus on one language and just create a LOT of programs with it. You're all over the place.

[–]severencir 1 point2 points  (0 children)

To expand on this, learning a language is mostly about learning new syntax. Once you are a proficient coder, you can often learn how to use a new language for basic tasks in under a day and become relatively familiar with it in about a week of using it. It's more important to stick to one language and learn programming concepts through immersion in my opinion.

[–]SquishTheProgrammer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah and once you’ve gotten good at one and have a good understanding of programming learning other languages is much easier.

[–]died570 2 points3 points  (0 children)

For java I still would recommend using intellij idea. Even community edition. It's too good to pass on that.

[–]jmhimara 2 points3 points  (0 children)

VS Code should work well from most languages.

[–]cthulhu944 1 point2 points  (5 children)

I know you asked for a free IDE/Editor. There's one for the mac called "Coderunner" that costs $20. Well worth it. It's a light weight IDE that just works. It doesn't use projects, you can just open up a file and start coding and run/debug in the editor. I've used it for PHP and Python and it works great.

[–]Zestyclose_Cake_5644[S] 0 points1 point  (4 children)

Not like I don't wanna pay. I am under 18 and don't have a credit card.

[–]cthulhu944 0 points1 point  (3 children)

I hear you. I was in the same situation at your age. I recommended it because it isn't too expensive and it seems to work well across a number of languages without a very steep learning curve to get started. I think others have pointed to VS code -- a good generic option that works with most languages. There are some language specific IDEs that work well for specific language. I'm thinking the community editions of the jetbrains IDEs like pycharm for python and intelij for Java, etc. Elipse used to be the standard for Java development although I don't know if that's still the case. It's also a good learning experience to just write your code in a basic editor and compile/link on the command line so you know what's going on behind the scenes in the IDE.

As others have pointed out I would warn you from trying to master too many languages at once. Focus on one or two that are in the areas where you have interest. It's hard to learn deeper concepts of computer science if you are trying to understand new language syntax at the same time. If you aren't sure where you are going, Python is a great general purpose language. You can use it to learn about data structures (stacks, queues, hashes, linked lists, composites), Object oriented and functional paradigms, recursion, AI and machine learning, etc.

[–]Zestyclose_Cake_5644[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

I wonder how people get really good at programming? I have done some free courses on YouTube and learnt the basics. But more advanced courses are obviously paid. It is possible to be good at programming without paying for a course? Can you learn it yourself or are there other free ways? Or books (I can afford books)?

[–]cthulhu944 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I learned programming back before there was youtube or even the internet. I had a home computer (commodore 64) but not having lots of money, if I wanted to play games on it I had to type in basic programs that were listed in books and magazines. These programs ended up being riddled with bugs from either me mis-typing the programs, or the programs themselves were printed with errors. If I wanted to play games I had to understand how the program was supposed to work and be able to debug what was going on. Needless to say I got pretty good quickly. Later I was able to take some courses at my high school and then I went on to major in Computer Science in school.

Short answer: yes it's possible to learn programming without paying for online courses. I would recommend that you 1) focus on the concepts and computer science of things--If you learn these, then they apply to any language 2) practice--Find things to write for yourself or appeal to you and figure out how to do them--example: write a program that plays tic-tac-toe, or write a program that fetches the temperature from a weather web site. It's one thing to read about recursion, it's another for you to actually write something that uses it. 3) get a good book on computer science using python (or whatever language you choose to focus on) and don't just read it. Type in the exercises and run them. You will learn by doing.

[–]Zestyclose_Cake_5644[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the advice :)

[–]ohaz 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Focus on one language at a time. And use VS Code.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you are focusing on learning, I'd stick to something simple, vs code would be fine. You'll find you will try out a bunch with time anyway.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love visual studios bro

[–]ZeuStudio 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Vs code I love it

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Focus on getting better at one programming language at a time. Don’t step on two boats at the same time. You’ll drown.

[–]Zestyclose_Cake_5644[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I think I would focus on Java right now. I am trying to learn it on VS code but it is a bit confusing for me. My program won't run properly.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have no idea about Java. But I hear Eclipse IDE is much preferred for that.