Yea I thought about that, but it seems like community colleges always take for ever to get into the nitty gritty. I decided to just give Lynda.com a try. It's pretty damn cheap and they have quite a few videos that seem to be aimed at the beginner.

I did a brush up today on my CSS with their vid from sitepoint and it was rather basic, but still taught me a few things I didn't know. I watched a few vids on js and it seemed like the vids are good enough that I'll be able to get a basic understanding of it. I'm gonna watch a few on php next and decide which way I want to go first.

Practice, practice, practice. That's how you learn.

It's easier to just beg Woj to quit looking at Gay Porn and pay him to do it.

But if you run twink sites I doubt he would ever get anything done :1orglaugh

Dive in !!!

:2 cents::2 cents:

once you grasp the basics, just grab a code and start modding it. this is indeed teh fastest way to learn.

THE best way to learn to program is to need/want something programmed.

You can get all the books you want that teach you whatever language, but you will get bored fast writing hello world and stupid little logic puzzles they come up with.

At least thats how it is with me, I can't just sit and learn a language just to pad the resume, but if I need/want something done, then I have motivation and pick it up fast.

There's a large difference between 'coding' and 'coding well'.

There's also a large mental step: you might *think* you're a good coder, because you don't have the skills to realise that you're actually average / below average.

PHP is an OK choice to learn on, but it neither teaches nor reinforces OOP [although this is changing w/ 5/6] nor proper structure.

However: the biggest issue with PHP and new programmers is security. Until you're proficient, you'll leave yourself, or your clients exposed.

Examples of this come up frequently on GFY.

I see alot of people posting shitty advice in this thread. Don't waste your money on books... they will end up just cluttering up your place. The most important step in learning programming is to learn the logic of how it works. You can learn that very very easily by starting with something simple like Visual Basic.

Download it here for free.
http://www.microsoft.com/Express/VB/

They have ALOT of great resources and tutorials on that site that will help you get a good start....

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/beginner/default.aspx

Next... download Visual C# Express for free
http://www.microsoft.com/express/vcsharp/

C# has a very similar syntax style to php, perl, javascript, java, etc because they are all based on C syntax. Once you have the basic logic of developing with visual basic it's just a matter of learning how the C syntax works and then you really have an open field ahead. I think that anyone that really takes the time to go through the tutorials on the MS site and has a real desire to learn how to develop applications can learn enough to start building their own applications in less than a couple of months. If you use my method you will be prepared to learn any programming language very quickly.

BTW... I wanted to add... stick with Windows Programming tutorials... the web development side of MS is a waste of effort for you since you use linux servers... windows development will give you the skills you need to develop any web application later anyway.

I see alot of people posting shitty advice in this thread?
 

Everyone takes different paths.
Everyone has their favorite tidbit of advise.

Here is another favorite of mine:
When you can successfully write a few lines of code or think you're good. Don't become a "know it all" asshole. As you can see by "some of the posts" in this thread it's a disease. It just really sucks to work with these types of individuals and their crappy code.

It may be difficult but make an effort.:thumbsup

:GFYBand
happy coding:Oh crap

Coding discussions are like Mac/PC discussions. Everyone thinks they're right, they're better, and more well informed than the other.

There's no resolve. Take the best of each argument and make your own choice :)

best advise yet :2 cents: :1orglaugh