learning by yourself?

[LXA.Hunter]

Hi, my names Louie and I'm new to this forum but not so new to programming and computers. Recently I've been trying to learn C/C++, Perl, Ruby, SQL...programming in general, and i get distracted easily and end up working on something else. I really want to learn and i know no one will tell me how to learn (obviously that's up to me) but I was wondering if anyone could tell me how they taught themselves or learned to program. Thank you in advance.

[DingleBerries]

Lots and lots of reading + Lots and lots of trying + Lots and lots of failing = Some sucess

Just read about what you want to do. Google is o.k. but i would really suggest some physical copies(books).

[Timmo]

i agree. read up. if u wanna get started in programing do a little bit of java to make applets (its what they teach here in computer science) also if your on a windows box have a look at autoIT. its really easy and if your unsure about a command press F1 and there u go an example and description of it and its options. its very similar to VB x Java actually. i cant really talk i have only worked with a few different languages. but another note to think about trial and error. if it fails read up on the line that failed if its a success then your good as gold :)

[LXA.Hunter]

Lots and lots of reading + Lots and lots of trying + Lots and lots of failing = Some sucess

Just read about what you want to do. Google is o.k. but i would really suggest some physical copies(books).

I bought the K&R C programming language when i started learning, as well as a reference book on HTML/XHTML, i do agree it's easier on the mind and eyes to look at pages than a screen.

[wire]

My learning has mostly happened through various projects. Plan something specific you'd like to do and then see if you can (with some research) do it. That way you'll have a cool project at the end rather than just a head full of knowledge.

But of course you must first know what is possible, so some reading (and introductory programming classes) are a good idea. Try the community college for cheap, real-world classes. Perl is an excellent language for web-based hacking (and I mean hacking in the tinkering sense) because of the extensive repository of available code modules.

[unn0129]

a good way to practice your coding skills is to build a mashup of something, anything really. build a blog, a website, a project that will motivate you to try new things, learn your shit and eventually become good at it.

read a lot of tutorials, study manuals, read books, experiment, and don't give up.

[PLuNK]

Think of something you do everyday,

Try thinking of a ELABORATE concept of (partially) automating the process.

Don't stop regardless.

[Loony Guitarist]

I just took on PHP, HTML/XHTML, CSS, and a little bit of JavaScript to update my Church's website. An interesting task since I hadn’t touched any programming languages in almost 6 years.

I knew what I wanted to change and what I wanted to add so I just started playing with the languages until I figured it out. I have a couple of reference books but mostly I used the web and looked at allot of other peoples code to see how they did it.

But yeah, to restate what has been said... Books, Books, Books. And when the books are too expensive or just don't cover what you are trying to figure out then there are many good reference guides for just about any language on the internet. Google is my buddy.