How do you learn to code?

@NeverBeenTimid www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/

@impruuve Scala is nothing like Haskell. Haskell is as close to purely functional as you can get. Scala is NOT a functional language, it is a multi-paradigm language. Simply put, it allows you to do functional programming, but it also allows you to do some of the most pure OOP too. This allows you to have the best of both worlds. As for needing to know a lot of math, that's a bunch of BS. You would know that if you've actually used either. They're the same as any other language in terms of the math required (very little), the difference is, if you choose to, you can get into some very theoretical math/cs concepts. Furthermore, you're talking about how it's all math stuff, and then say everything is poorly defined; those two are incompatible. Math and CS are all about strict definitions and clearly laid out concepts. As for most people going to university and learning there, that's total BS. Almost every university teaches old, archaic languages such as C, C++ and Java, and do so very poorly. The overwhelming majority of people I know that use Scala did not learn it at university, and learned it either on their own or on the job.

Anyway, the biggest problem people have with learning Scala is that they try to learn every concept in the language, which is entirely the wrong approach. You should be learning the language as you need it. Programming languages are complex tools, in which you don't need to know all the ways it works to solve problems. Similar to if you're trying to drive a nail into a piece of wood, you only need to know 1 function of a hammer. It doesn't matter if you can pull nails with the hammer, as long as you know how to use the part related to hitting the nail into the wood.

I hear that learning Haskell is like learning Swedish:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=RqvCNb7fKsg

Hahahahaha, @Toadofsky how nice.

@JDawg0 i just installed Scala. Are you happy now?

It hurted, but it worked. (Intellijay is a fat but smart monster). Have compiled 'Hello, World' in 56 seconds, ugh, but i see, it also has worksheets, and repls and stuff, nasty. Feels like Pycharm.

@NeverBeenTimid Pythons built in turtle module may also be interesting for you. Thats also how i started coding (just that it was not Python but Basic and the only two screen colors were dark green and light green ...)

docs.python.org/3/library/turtle.html

'How to think like a computer scientist' also starts with turtles:

http://interactivepython.org/runestone/static/thinkcspy/PythonTurtle/toctree.html

Also interesting (is incomplete but already has some nice examples what you can do):

github.com/asweigart/simple-turtle-tutorial-for-python/blob/master/simple_turtle_tutorial.md

Bumping this thread as I am now seriously considering a career change. I am 27 years old and have a trade in cnc machining/programming but the oil and gas sector is dying. I have the opportunity for voluntary redundancy with quite a healthy redundancy payment which could help me retrain in something else.

I got a higher grade A at secondary school in computing but I know nothing about computers tbh. I am thinking about taking a university course in software development. In Scotland Tuition is free but I would obviously need to take out student loans to live.

I would like to know how easy it would be to get a job with a degree. And if anyone has completed one how steep is the learning curve.

J2code

@Alihene um, this is programming for children, no? He is a 27 year old CNC programmer...

@NeverBeenTimid

It sounds good to take the university course. But before you do, read through the first ten result pages of

www.google.de/search?q=how+difficult+is+it+to+become+a+programmer

to get an overview of how your future job may be like ;-) If you dont like it, consider becoming a taxi driver :-)

well... I did creat a login in it

@NeverBeenTimid
Go for it.
Call or email the companies you would like to work in, get appointments, and ask THEM for advice. That might give you a better picture.