[Bradford] Re-learning coding

[Brian A]

Apologies if you get this twice I didn't mail it properly last time.

My original programming experience was very similar to yours Andrew.
However, I taught myself PHP and I've done a fair bit of Javascript and the
utilised the magic of AJAX. However, I agree with David in that it would be
worth looking at Python. The free, on-line, FullCircleMagazine has some
special editions that are a compilation of Python articles from the
magazine. You could take a look there. The reason why Python might be a
good one is that it is Python that many  Raspberry Pi aficionados appear to
favour for teaching to kids. Personally I am more web inclined and that is
why I like PHP and Javascript - though it is a long time since I programmed
in the latter to any great extent. Whatever you do I think the very best
way to learn is to have a project - i.e. something you want to do that
would bring you an additional service or functionality.

Another thing you might learn is html5. Whilst it might be said that there
isn't so much to learn I found that there is quite a lot of stuff once you
drill down into it and, bear in mind, that Firefox OS uses applications
that are written in html5. If you want to learn html5 then take a look at
the tutorials from Bucky Roberts (a.k.a. TheNewBoston) on YouTube
 https://www.youtube.com/user/thenewboston.
There are about 50 videos in the series. If you look at his videos, in
general, you'll find that he is a surprisingly multi talented person. His
chemistry 'do not try this at home' videos are amusing.
I find YouTube to be a fantastic resource and I much prefer it to reading
as a method of learning.

Brian


On 16 November 2013 10:38, Andrew Coulson <coulson.andy at gmail.com> wrote:

>  Good morning everyone,
>
> It's been a while since I made it over to a meeting, but hopefully I will
> manage to get over again in the New Year. In the meantime I've got a few
> ideas I'm working on that convince me I need to get back in to doing some
> coding.  Mostly I'll be tinkering around at the command line to try out
> different algorithms or ways of dealing with data (eg parsing XML in
> various ways).  I know I could use shell scripts for some of that, and may
> well do so, but want to think about taking it further and perhaps using a
> browser to present the results of whatever I'm doing so I can stay as
> platform (and OS) agnostic as possible.
>
> My programming experience stems from the eighties - BBC Basic, Pascal,
> some C, but mostly coding in 8 bit microcontrollers based around the 6802.
> So I have the fundamentals of conditional loops and such like, but entirely
> missed out on object orientation and graphical interfaces.
>
> Can anyone suggest a good language to update myself with, that could be
> applied to the ideas above? Also any suggestions of good resources to
> support the gaps in my knowledge?
>
> Thanks for your suggestions, and hopefully see you all after Christmas
>
> Andrew Coulson
> email: coulson.andy at gmail.com | tel: 07834 269850
> *Ryburn TextWorks* <http://www.ryburntextworks.co.uk> - Proofreading,
> Copy-editing, Writing
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>
>  *Sent from my IQTELL <http://goo.gl/EWViH> Virtual Workspace*
>
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