7 replies to this topic

[hoping]

Hello,
I am a prenewbie . . . My experience in code/programming is almost nil. However, I've got a wild hari-brained idea that I'd be interested and good at it and could make a future career change. Just curious what you all think, and where to get more info (somewhere on this forum, projects to attempt, other sites?)

Background: I am in my early thirties and my educational background is non-technical. My career has included everything except tech stuff (sales for elctronic production supply, accounting, recruiting, manual labor/home depot type work). However, my logic and work ethic have served me well and one of the biggest contributions in my current position in accounting is being able to train and assist the office with Excel including advanced nested formulas, pivot tables and data structuring to streamline being able to enhance pivot table use or lookups, etc. I have probably already saved the office several hours of other peoples work just with a little excel training or creating a macro or two (with the recorder, not vba)

I also years ago (10-15 years) I had Linux (redhat and more recently ubuntu) running on my PC and I used it nearly every day for everything from browsing to image maniplation (gimp) This may seem impressive for a non-tech non-programming guy, but I did make regular use of questioning friends with comp.sci. degrees and forums/chat rooms to get things to work properly (like mounting hardware, that just didn't want to mount).

I also tend to think of things as systems and try to find hte conditions for optimal structure/functions - everything from gardening and home repair to relationships and politics, i think of in these terms.

So, with that little bit of background. Where would you suggest I begin in my search to determine if a change into this field is for me? If it's a project that's great, but using what tools/language? If it's just reading and research -where do I look? If it's something else - what?

Thank you and I hope to be able to be able contribute if I choose this path and get beyond the PreNewb status.

[WingedPanther]

It sounds like you've started doing programming in Excel. It is a type of programming environment. I'd pick a language in an interesting area, and dive in.

Welcome aboard!

[Vaielab]

Welcome in this forum & in the world of programming!

The fact that you are using linux AND that you are able to ask question is already awesome.
And well, where to start all depends on you. What do you wish to do.
Do you wish to try making website, software, games, or maybe browser game.

Tell us about a project that you would like to try and we will help you to get started

[hoping]

Well, I don't know where to start. I have ALWAYS had the problem of paralysis by analysis. There have always been too many options before me and resulted in me not knowing what direction to head in. Maybe that's why I'm in my 30's and still not sure what I want to do when I grow up. I think Programming may be a piece of it. What do I want to do when I get into programming? I don't know. I really am not into games and stuff like that, probably something more mundane like functional business type applications.

I don't know what the most common/powerful languages/environments are right now and know absolutely ZERO about tools/programs to use. I would preferably choose something with a future and decent compensation for my time - not planning on making a fortune with some stupid game though - no offense to gamers, but to me it seems a waste of time (though the military and some avante garde companies have found some pretty cool uses for some). I also prefer tools that I can leverage to do more than one things, so though VBA may be a good starting point (don't know is it?) it probably wouldn't be an endgame. HTough I know I can learn more than one language and use them for different purposes.

Websites are cool and maybe learning wordpress or something like that would be useful - it certainly is popular right now, but what is the lifecycle on a skill like the (I know HTML isn;t what it used to be)

[Vaielab]

So no for gaming, I understand, it's the same for me.

Every language have their pro and cons, VBA is good for working environnement, but only on windows (as far as I know)
Vb.net & c# is for create software directly, but look a lot like vba (yet still in windows only)
java can be build on linux, windows or mac, but if you wish to have a interface you will need a plugin, or some serious coding
c++ or c is more powerfull, but harder to learn.
Assembly... well that just plain headache, but can be usefull sometime

Website is a great way to make money, and use your creativity. And tool like wordpress can really help you doing so.
I don't know why you say html isn't what is used to be... everything on the web is in html (I mean everything), you cannot do a website without html.
So I suggest this could be a good start point, html & css.
Once you understand thoses, you will be able to make usefull website with wordpress.

[hoping]

I apologize to anyone who programs games - didn't mean to offend. To each his own.

I guess website programming would be a good starting place. There is a plethora of need at all levels, so it should be easier to get into. Will website type programming skills be transferable to more traditional application programming? If so, what would be a good starting place, beyond html.

How about apps - how hard is it to learn programming for apps (android, iphone, etc) and is it transferrable?

[WingedPanther]

If you want to do website programming, I'd suggest this path:
HTML -> CSS -> PHP -> SQL and or JavaScript

If you want to do application programming, C# or VB.NET would be good choices.

If you like digging into the guts of things, C++ is always a good option.

[CommittedC0der]

Welcome to CodeCall hoping! Cya round'
~ Committed.