Best coding to learn?

[EdithKeeler]

I really want to sign up to learn basic coding, but I’m not sure what’s the best to learn to be immediately useful. I know we have lots of computer people who hang out here.

My last computer class was a Basic class in high school. While I’ve done a (very tiny, very basic) bit of HTML stuff, my skill level is total neophyte who does a pretty decent spreadsheet.

So—what should I take? I want:
—something I can learn online and via self-taught
—something pretty useful to me to be able to build a decent website
—to be able to handle forms and data in ways beyond excel and Word.

So... recommendations?

[ducknalddon]

PHP, I know many in the industry turn their noses up at it but it is very easy to get started with, in particular if you want to create something on the web.

[daylen]

Web programming, python, C, C++, bash, assembly. Depends on what level of application you want to create. Compare networking with file systems.

[EdithKeeler]

Web programming, python, C, C++, bash, assembly. Depends on what level of application you want to create. Compare networking with file systems.

Yeah, I know those are my choices... just not sure which to do. Neophyte. Really.

[Scott 2]

You don't need to be able to program to create a website these days. Many good turnkey solutions out there.

The principles transfer across languages. I'd get started with whatever draws your interest and take it from there.

[Quadalupe]

For web development I'd look into HTML + CSS + JS. Easy to learn, difficult to master.

Check out this (free) website with a complete course program: https://upskillcourses.com/

If you want to learn a more general purpose language, I'd check out Python. It is used for AI/Machine Learning, Full Stack Web Development and Robotics. It's also a easy language to get started with.

[jacob]

In my amateurish but rather experienced opinion, the principles of a functional language paradigm don't transfer very well to object oriented paradigms. This isn't just me. I've seen several examples of bodged/atrocious code bases wherein people were trying to replicate structures familiar to them in the other paradigm.

In science, the kids tend to start out on python these days (unless something has changed again). It's quick to write code, relatively straightforward, and widely uses for analysis and making simple/albeit slow models. For speed, fortran90 and C++ are preferred.

In quant/finance, it's python, R, and java.

But I don't think these are the droids you're looking for.

[OTCW]

Visual Basic maybe?

[Tyler9000]

You don't need to be able to program to create a website these days. Many good turnkey solutions out there.

+1. If your goal is simply to get a nice website up-and-running then just dive into Wordpress. No coding required, and there are plugins for all kinds of things. You can even find free services to host and display those fancy spreadsheets you're good at.

But if you're looking for something more technical than that, I don't have much to offer. I was in engineering school the last year that Fortran was the default coding language requirement. I'd personally like to learn R as I know it's particularly good at data crunching.

[phil]

Software developer (Java) here. Agree that if your goal is to create a decent website you don´t need to be able to program.

As programming languages are concerned, I would rule out R as a first language to learn because it is specifically tailored to statistics and data science. C and C++ are ´old´ and you might not easily find a suitable introduction course online (although I might be wrong here).

I would pick either Python or Java. Do you have any background in math, engineering or something similar? If not, I would suggest Python as it is relatively easy to learn. Not saying that a math background is required for Java, but it will be more challenging than Python and perhaps more suitable to dive into once you have some basic programming skills and are getting the hang of it.

[ducknalddon]

python, C, C++, bash, assembly.

Only one of those is used for web programming and even then it's only a small part of it's scope.

[EdithKeeler]

Thanks. Yeah, I’ve done a couple of basic websites with—something similar to Wordpress—can’t recall the name just now. That was my “basic html” that I meant.

What I’d really like to be able to do is create a certain program—either on or off the web—to handle inputting documents and forms and inputting data into the documents—kind of like a word or PDF document—but where data is saved so you don’t have to input it again. Not like a mail merge, where you’re sending Letter A to a bunch of people. More like today I want to send letter A to John Smith, along with document B.....but in a few weeks I want to send document C, but I don’t want to type in the same thing again. And in the meantime letter Z and Y are going to John Doe and Jane Jones. I’ve experimented with this in Word and Excel, but it’s clunky and not quite what I want. I’m sure a programmer with experience could do this in 2 minutes, but it seems like a perfect project to learn on, and it would be useful to me personally.

[daylen]

I didn't say they where used for web programming; I was giving examples of tools used across the different levels of networking. They operate closer to the functional paradigm where coding is more procedural than object-oriented.

[EdithKeeler]

thanks for the ideas. I think I don’t know enough to know what I don’t know, so this discussion has been helpful.

[Gilberto de Piento]

I don't completely understand what you are trying to do but it sounds like something you could use Microsoft Access for. You probably won't learn any programming though.

[phil]

I’m sure a programmer with experience could do this in 2 minutes.

Ehm... no. There is probably some tool out there that you can use for this, which will require some configuring, not programming. To build it up from scratch will take days and requires programming knowledge way beyond an introductory course.

I´d say look for existing solutions for your email problem and start learning programming only if you think it might be fun and might have some (as yet undefined) use in the future.

[EdithKeeler]

I´d say look for existing solutions for your email problem and start learning programming only if you think it might be fun and might have some (as yet undefined) use in the future.

Thanks. That’s why I’m asking, but it’s mostly fun and self-enrichment.

[OTCW]

MS Access is probably what you need based on your description.

[James_0011]

Check out a site called - learn python the hard way

[7Wannabe5]

Doesn't speak to your exact request, but I am doing a few different things to boost my technological literacy this year, and one thing I think might be particularly useful for any female peer is a beginner course at technician level. For instance, learning how to build your own computer from components, troubleshoot various operating system problems, nuts and bolts of how the internet functions, etc. KInd of analogous to all the stuff we never learned about how the innards of a car works either, because we didn't care about drag racing OR drag racing video games. Kind of stuff I don't want to be the old lady who has to ask her grandson how to do 20 years from now.