I don't know much about w3schools, but seems like it could be a good resource. Comparable to Codecademy. But what really got the ball rolling for me was Karel the robot and CodeCombat. But I did get lucky on having a good Python instructor, have me a sweet Python Shadow Run dice roller now.

Most of my casual coding is with Vue.js. I've made the most progress with that language by just using Vuetify? example pages and playing around.

Yes. It's one of those industries where you're resume can speak for itself. However, until you have 5+ years experience before people stop looking at your lack of education.

I could never handle the mental mapping needed. Same with electrical engineering, just can't seem to visualize what's going on.

Reminds me of an old joke that got me and my dad in trouble...

Why do they call it PMS? Because Mad Cow Disease was already taken.

I got in trouble for telling the joke. My dad got in trouble for laughing. Grandpa laughed the hardest but never gets in trouble.

Any situation where a partial counts as a whole. Charging by the hour? 1.1hrs is charged with 2hrs. Container only holds 5 but you have 6, need 2 containers. I'm sure there are plenty of situations I can even consider when even a slight excess is counted as another whole.

There are also a bunch of web sites with their own code editors so you don't have to even set that up. It's never been easier to learn how to program. There are even a bunch of games for children to help learn it.

It's just not everyone can do it.

As an employee, code what you're being paid to code. Don't coffee what you think would be better. Have a friend who can't keep a job for more than a few months because he won't give up on what he thinks would be the better way to do things... To make it worse he's often wrong...

Never been or even heard of these. Depending on the instructor and material, it can be a good way to get the ball rolling.

I'd agree on some ways if coding wasn't such a great way to teach troubleshooting skills, critical thinking, mental mapping, and breaking complex problems into smaller problems. Those skills are more valuable than my entire education. Nearly all of what I learned in a classroom has never or will ever be used outside of a classroom, and it only required the skill of regurgitation.

I'm looking into Vue.js and probably use the game idea to help me learn things more in depth. Figured I could kill two birds with one stone, okay with the game to help learn a language in more likely to use for other things.

Then if things go well I'll look more into Unreal Engine or more other software that can export to multiple platforms. Might even play with Construct 2, that sounded interesting.

Any particular reason?

Algorithms and finding a personal task/use. I also started with Karl the Robot. Simple commands to navigate complex scenarios. Algorithms help teach how to break up large problems into small steps. That's a really helpful skill. Too many try to program too much all at once instant of one tiny part, make sure it works, then move onto the next tiny part. That way, when it comes back with errors you know exactly what part isn't working instead of hunting for hours.

There is this one game where you program tanks to fight, reminded me of Karl the robot. Which was my first experience with Java.

My first and only language I was any good at was Python. Ended up building a dice roller for shadow run. I remember my brother really liked Ruby on Rails and the books Test driven development with Python, Two scoops of Django, and a few JavaScript books we've lent out and I can't remember the names. O'Reily and The Pragmatic Programmers have some great books for learning. Then there's 57 exercises for programs to help develop programing skills with any language.

Plus there are always things like Code Academy to get the ball rolling.

Now I'm trying to pick up JavaScript. I like it, but mostly I like learning from my brother. He has a great coding style that so SO much easier to understand than any of my college courses. Part of why I started looking at other colleges was because my instructors were making me unlearn his teaching to learn some out dated get my ass fired mess of coding.

It's still one of, if not the most used language. Academia and government doesn't keep up with the industry and some corps hate converting to anything different.

The internet is too much. I'm 30 years old and I don't even brave those waters.

My brother has been an amazing tutor and the Python instructor was my best programming instructor.

My first project was creating a Shadowrun dice roller for my Python class. Probably my best learning experience.

First, Python is a pain in the ass when it comes to graphics. But it was fun to logic out the design. Creating one dice, then a row, then multiple rows, all while keeping track of where the graphics point will be.

Then it helped me explore different libraries. I ended up going with Tkinter, creating buttons instead of graphics.

So i learned a lot from that project; breaking a complex problem into small individual parts, optimizing code so I create the element once then apply it repeatedly (do not repeat yourself), user interactivity, applying images (i remember that being a pain), and saving/loading.

That was the first project that I coded on daily for long periods of time, I couldn't step away from it. So the best thing I learned was to learn programming by finding a personal use/interest and trying to code it out. Really helps keep me focused and a bit of a perfectionist with it.

Right now I'm trying to pick up ReactJS with some Mobiscroll components, I'm pair programming on it and it's so massive of a project it's breaking my brain. Trial by fire can also be a great motivator. I'm picking up more than I did in school but I'm definitely lacking some fundamentals.

You can give this a try.

https://www.codecademy.com/learn/python

Then move on to a book like, O'Reilly Test Drivem Development with Python or Two Scoops of Django.