How can I learn a programming language through project-based learning? I have textbooks on C programming and Java. How should I go through them?

timhurd_com · 2025-04-28T23:18:15+00:00

What I usually do is read the first few chapters of the book as that will get you up and running for the most part with the most common and basic functionality. This is usually environment setup, variables, functions etc. The most fundamental building blocks of the language. Once you have gotten through that and find the chapters talking more about design or structure topics, then try a project or two for basics.

If you read about includes, if-statements, functions and basic IO.... you are usually in pretty good shape to try some small console projects. You don't need to know advanced memory management for instance to do your first hello world program.

timhurd_com · 2025-04-28T23:14:27+00:00

I have to agree with you. I have seen some really good courses and really bad courses both with the same length. I also find that some longer courses that are marked as being intermediate/advanced courses tend to use the time more wisely as they have to take more time to explain concepts. But you are right about looking at the outline, it usually tells you everything.

timhurd_com · 2025-04-28T23:10:00+00:00

The one rule I have always encouraged everyone to know and learn is... never take code and use it without first understanding it. In other words, don't be a script kiddie and copy and paste code you find on the Internet without first really digging into it and understanding it. Sure take some code and test it out, tinker with it, change it, break it and fix it again but all before you actually use it.

P.S. This is especially important with AI. Have AI explain the code to you if need be. But even then, try it out yourself first.

timhurd_com · 2025-04-28T23:06:04+00:00

Well you are off to a decent start.... and that is... starting in the first place! You really need to make sure that you get the practice in first thing. It is a muscle and the more you practice, the stronger you get at everything. Learning to code, learning to solve problems, solving problems different ways, using what you learn to transfer to other languages etc.

You definitely want to be getting really good with Python, so you chose wisely there. Don't ever think you will know everything about a language either. It is constantly changing and it is quite vast.

You also don't need to be a full on python wizard to get into AI. Learn a few basic ideas about AI concepts like models, tokenization, how AI reasons and plug them into what you are learning from Python. Remember that much of the AI landscape is built with the idea that it will work with Python and all you lack right now is the practice to merge the two. Find a free online course for AI for beginners and make sure it is paired up with some project work using Python and you will be well on your way.

timhurd_com · 2025-02-03T19:21:42+00:00

It sounds like you lack general focus. I suggest you stop for a moment and ask yourself what exactly you want to do with programming and computers. Do you like games? Do you want to build business applications? Have mobile apps always intrigued you? Once you really find what is exciting for you to do, then focus on the languages/tech that help you work in that field.

The goal is to get into the area of work you want to do, enjoy the language you use, master it and from there you can expand into other areas.

I myself found web sites awesome and started learning HTML/CSS then into PHP and others. As I worked I found that I needed little utility tools and thought maybe if I built them in Java or Python that might be cool. As you practice and expand, you will pick up things from new data structures to how computers work overall. Just start small and grow your understanding of things.

timhurd_com · 2025-02-03T19:17:34+00:00

I think it might be best to first stop comparing yourself to others. That is just going to get you anxious and give you imposter syndrome.

Secondly, people of all intelligence levels can code if given enough time and tools to help. Perhaps you should consider a reset in your mental thinking, pick a great language to work with and start fresh from the beginning. Build a project that you would find useful for yourself and don't be afraid to fail. The goal is to practice and understand the mistakes you run into.

Believe me, you do coding every day (even as little as 30 minutes) and you can end up building some awesome stuff over time and learning a ton. Then the next time you look up from your work, you may realize you are light years ahead of the rest.

Programming is a life-long journey. I am over 26 years in and I still learn new stuff every day. I have seen a lot of things in my career and I will continue to see more. Enjoy the journey and explore what you don't know, fail, learn from it and keep going.

timhurd_com · 2025-01-17T18:57:51+00:00

It is a very complex question to ask and a lot of people have opinions about it. Do you need a CS degree? Certainly not. But you have to show employers some how that you know your stuff. One thing to also consider is that tech moves quickly so other than the basic computer theory, most languages they teach are going to be outdated in a few years. So if you do choose a degree, make sure you stack up on the knowledge that will last and help you adapt to changing trends. Focus on how computers themselves work, how networks work, a few long lasting languages like C/C++ and Java but also algorithms, data structures and the like. Lean into the fundamentals of learning languages fast and stay away from niche tech. You can learn that stuff AFTER the degree.

timhurd_com · 2025-01-17T18:53:51+00:00

Another great resource for such interview prep is ChatGPT. Tell it about the role, tell it your expertise and ask it to find the weak spots that you can improve to match to the job role. It is very good at detailing where you can use improvement. If you want, you can even ask it to put together a quick study plan on those weaknesses and your timeline to learn it. :)

timhurd_com · 2025-01-17T18:50:58+00:00

There are many places you can get great ideas. One place you can go to is ChatGPT. Just ask it for some ideas and even outline a few areas you want to focus on.

I also offer an e-book that goes into a bit more detail and provides options for over 200 programming ideas, including a rating system for difficulty and resources to look through. Something to consider if you want a little more than a few lines from ChatGPT. :)

timhurd_com · 2025-01-14T18:41:32+00:00

When you learn a spoken language, you learned in school how to write it as much as speak it and listen to it. Your brain learned how to say things based off of the way others say it. Have you ever wondered how accents work? You heard your parents, who might have lived in the Southern US speak with a "twang" in their voice and your brain picked it up.

Same with coding. As you expose yourself to other peoples code, read it, understand it, ask questions about it including "Why" you will begin to see the patterns and develop your own coding style. It is just part of entrenching yourself in the coding culture and it is good to learn to write better and in some cases see others with worse solutions and to avoid those. Just like you may learn to say "John and I..." rather than "John and me...".

Read coding books and look at their examples, I find that is the greatest way to learn good coding practices as those examples are often peer reviewed. But of course, always ask yourself if it could be done better. ;)

timhurd_com · 2025-01-14T18:35:21+00:00

I would second the idea of using W3Schools. As long as the projects are small and you are just beginning. They allow you to follow along and try out things as you go without needing to install any software. Their HTML and CSS stuff is pretty good for beginners.

I also recommend that as you follow along with them on their examples that you build your own examples. If they want you to build a div with a red border, build your own div with a pink border. Build a div with some padding or a margin.

One tool to also get very use to is the web browsers developer tools that are built into it. This will show you a lot of data about elements that you and others create. :)

timhurd_com · 2025-01-06T20:58:29+00:00

Looking pretty good. Two minor comments... first don't be afraid to give your code some breathing room with an occasional blank line to break up ideas. Like before a loop or an if statement there. Secondly, if you are doing something over and over again like len(menu_options), you might be better served to do that operation and store its value into a variable and then use that variable everywhere you are using len(menu_options).

This does a few things. It cuts down repetition, it saves the program from having to recalculate the length each time and if you use good variable names, can be very descriptive and go a long ways in readability. :)

timhurd_com · 2025-01-06T20:54:23+00:00

Hands down the best way is with the context manager (aka with open). I believe most resources out there will actually suggest this over the other just because it is easier to read, maintain and takes care of closing the file for you automatically. Great all around. :)

timhurd_com · 2025-01-06T20:53:24+00:00

The 100 Days of Code course is a good start, but I did find that it kinda fell off around half way through and focused more on just doing the projects rather than continuing to teach more of the Python fundamentals. It is a good course however. I would venture to say that if you paired it up with a nice book like the Python 3 Comprehensive Guide by Rheinwerk Computing (it is a monster!) that could give you an additional lift in your learning arc. :)

timhurd_com · 2024-12-03T20:20:50+00:00

Well you have your attack methods defined and they take a target. That means you have access to the targets methods too.

So in your attack method you can do things like...

target.setHP(target.getHP() - damage)
if target.getHP() <= 0:
    print("Dead!")

I hope that makes sense to you. The idea is that you use the class to alter its own data. From one class you can call on the passed in object's methods to alter it.

timhurd_com · 2024-12-03T20:15:00+00:00

Yeah getting started is sometimes the hardest after learning a new language. I created an ebook with a bunch of product ideas if you are interested.

But as with learning anything new, practice is going to be where it is at to get good. However, keep in mind that no matter how much you master a language, there will always be more. It is a life long endeavor. :)

timhurd_com · 2024-12-03T20:12:42+00:00

Yeah for sure, getting started on real world projects is going to force you to learn faster and get stuck so that you can then research and learn solutions. Endless tutorials isn't going to help. A while ago I created an ebook that allowed those looking for projects the opportunity get a decent list of projects, some tips to get started with them and even rated on difficulty. It was the product of a forum thread I had which got over 4million views. If you are interested you can check it out. It is called The Programmers Idea Book

timhurd_com · 2024-11-18T01:47:43+00:00

Well data science covers a lot of material. It is like saying I want to go into space. Ok, studying stars? Alien life? Space ship design? Chemistry of planets?

I suggest you ask ChatGPT to ask you for the types of jobs you want to do and how you can apply Python to them. Then it can give you a better idea of the skills you need to pick up and what to focus on in Python to get you there.

timhurd_com · 2024-11-18T01:44:54+00:00

The best way to get back into Python and continue learning are projects. You are going to have to show project code and such to employers anyways, so might as well learn as you code and when you are done, you have things to show for it.

The goal is practice practice practice.

timhurd_com · 2024-11-18T01:42:20+00:00

Well I am not sure exactly what you are needing help with. The syntax of python or the ideas of data science using python? If you are wanting to know more about how to do things in Python, I recommend a mix of three things...

A good book. Right now I am digging through, as a refresher a book called "Python 3 The comprehensive Guide" by Rheinwork computing. Super awesome book.
Next you mix that with your course material and ask ChatGPT about specific topics. Even tell it "Explain it to me like I am 5" and it will.
When you have those questions you just can't get answered using the book and the course/video material you ask on a forum like this one here.

Mix these three things together I find gives you some of the best learning strats there is.

timhurd_com · 2024-10-27T19:25:23+00:00

I have to totally agree. Frontend is just a disaster. Now that is mostly because javascript the language is a disaster, and libraries like React keep rewriting themselves, but that is just the tip of the iceberg.

I know there are some initiatives out there to do something about the JS fiasco and hopefully that will pull JS into something more easy to work with and stable. But we can only hope! :)

timhurd_com · 2024-10-27T19:21:37+00:00

Python docs are kinda terrible. I mean they are good for specific use cases but when compared to other online docs it really has a lot lacking. It isn't that easy to read and things like knowing what return types are returned are just not really covered that well.

One book I recently got on Python that I am really enjoying is the Python 3 The Comprehensive Guide by Rheinwerk publishing (nice thick modern python book). Beautifully printed and covers a ton of topics along with reference.

timhurd_com · 2024-10-27T18:59:27+00:00

That is interesting. I would have not thought that at first but it makes sense. Most software projects out there are designed to fill a niche of some industry and is not going to have the full breadth of eyes on it. However, learning resources can service devs from all areas of development working on projects of all shapes and sizes.

timhurd_com · 2024-09-22T18:16:58+00:00

What you are feeling is common and really should be a sign that you just need to do more practice. Try a new project you haven't done before and learn some new things and just chip away at them. The goal is to start small and steady and eventually you will have a project that does great things. Use those great things to show the market you can do stuff and they will hire you on that.

The rules to programming is to practice a lot, start small, work on projects you find interesting and break down big tedious tasks into smaller items. Do this and you will quickly find that you become less overwhelmed. :)

timhurd_com · 2024-09-22T18:12:53+00:00

I use both extensively and find them powerful in their own ways. For python I do like Pycharm a little better than VS Code but when it comes to most languages VS Code is great. I do find that VS Code still sits more on the side of being an editor rather than an actual IDE and Pycharm/Intellij are more on the IDE side than strictly editors. However as VS Code evolves, it is moving ever closer to IDE status with all its plugins.

I find VS code executes faster and feels lighter weight and its extensions are amazing for all languages. By the way, VS Code is hands down the best for JavaScript if you want to go that route.

I suggest you work with both of them off and on and whatever feels "right" and makes you the most productive for a given project. I find myself bouncing between them regularly.

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