Does Google’s "unified" header make you go slightly crazy?

qtakerh · 5 months

My 2 cent suggestion would be either Python or PHP.

However, worry less about WHICH language you want to learn, and instead pick one and GO CODE. That's how you'll learn. Practice practice practice. Can't go wrong if you're practicing.

If you want a little more elaboration, there's this short article

dirtyatom · 5 months

Ah crap you're kinda right. I originally submitted to /r/technology but felt like I read articles similar to this one from this /r/programming as well so I stuck it here too. My suspicions as to why Google has little product integration in this area is that it has something to do with software design and the programming culture there.

I'm not sure where else I would have gotten comments like, "I used to work at Google. Here's my thoughts..." which offered some nice programming insight.

dirtyatom · 5 months

This totally nailed most of my first world problems.

Does anyone have any suggestions/solutions?

dirtyatom · 5 months

Seriously nailed some of my first-world problems in this article.

dirtyatom · 5 months

I found the writing to be top-notch.

slurpy12 · 5 months

Oh neat you already took some of the suggestions from this article regarding next steps and are making a 2D game.

And it looks like you're starting to wonder how to store the map data (a very interesting problem indeed).

My suggestions might be to learn some data structures (if you want to get into some intense brainy stuff), or if you'd rather not get into brainy stuff join some game development communities (java 4k or ludam dare come to mind) and see how they figure things out.

Good luck!

SethBling · 5 months

Nice, succinct, entertaining, and informative.

Pacing was great.

TekTrixter · 6 months

I'd suggest two things:

Taking on a personal project. Make a game and continuously add features/complexity. Or maybe a mobile phone app. If you want, learn how to use a repository and make your code public. You could get a lot of feedback and if anyone else joins and starts contributing code you'll probably get a lot of motivation/inspiration.

The other thing I might suggest is taking some classes. You can either find classes online (see sidebar) or maybe take some evening classes at your local college/university.

Also, this guide was really helpful/inspirational in taking my programming skills to the next level: http://www.netinstructions.com/2011/10/next-steps-for-aspiring-programmers-after-you-know-the-basics/

nomemory · 6 months

Because Python is accessible and fun. It's easy to get started and you can create cool or useful things quickly.

Sure all the nuts and bolts, all the nitty gritty structs, pointers, classes, objects, inheritance, polymorphism, etc., etc., is eventually damn important, but beginners shouldn't be stressing out or being forced to learn that stuff from the start. That wouldn't be fun at all. Newbies would get discouraged quickly if they had to plow through that before they could write any useful software.

I think this article sums it up pretty well.

philly035 · 6 months

I have no experience with phonegap so I can't speak to its ability. Looks like you'll need to learn a bit of HTML5 though. HTML5 or something "web-based" might be the best way to do a cross-platform app since most mobile platforms will all have a web browser built into them.

philly035 · 6 months

Are you hoping to display the raw XML data or will you be parsing it and presenting it in a neat way (other than just a string of text)? Not sure what your skill level is, but here's a short primer (and examples) of parsing XML.

If you really want to make a cross platform app, you might want to make a mobile-friendly web page and the "app" can just be a wrapper for that page. Otherwise I don't know how you'll write code for just one OS. Android development is typically done in Java, and iOS development is typically done in Objective C. (Let me know if there's a better way to make a "cross-platform" app for both Android and iOS).

I didn't really answer all your Q's but that's my two cents.

dirtyatom · 6 months

Just going through some of the tips and tricks and saw this. I was all like, man, this is so wrong.

But I guess it makes sense. Kill the peasants, they're not worth much.

NewThowAway191 · 6 months

Woah, cool I can relate.

There are definitely times when I am like "why is this taking me so long?" and I feel royally dumb. After enough time I figure it out though, so, hooray?

Snake606 · 6 months

My experiences are pretty similar to this great article/reflection on learning to code and would recommend giving it a read.

Basically I learned PHP first and used it to make a pretty fun website. Then I learned Python and learned actual "computer sciency stuff". Then I moved onto Java and started to appreciate what the hell polymorphism, objects, inheritance, etc were all about.

yamahabob · 6 months

I actually took a Data, Communication, and Networks class taught by the computer science department.

Originally the instructor was going to have us do all the homeworks/projects in C, but on the first day of class he said he realized that C had "pretty lousy" networking stack/library/whatever.

He then told us he'll be giving us examples in C# (His choice language for the course) but that we could use Java or C# or whatever we wanted.

I used both Java and C# for the class and would recommend either one.

Aerocity · 6 months

It is accessible, quick, and relatively easy to learn.

What you can do in 20 lines of Python code you might have to do in 100+ lines of other code. (That doesn't meant Python is better, there are many reasons why you would want to do something in 100 lines of Language X instead of 20 lines of Python).

An example of the same functionality in both Python and Java can be seen in these XML parser examples.

And here is that same author's reflection on learning Python, PHP, and Java.

TimeBomb006 · 6 months

Not sure if this will be redundant information, or it may be too basic, but I thought this article was a nice primer on parsing XML (with both Java and Python examples)

How to parse XML and connect to an API

fiendslyr · 6 months

Check the links to the side.

Head First Java is a good book, but isn't exactly a comprehensive and exhausting guide to learning Java from scratch.

Also, why Java? Is it your first language? If it is NOT your first language, Head First Java is a great book. If it IS your first language.. you might want to try an "easier" one that is more...... quickly rewarding. Java is a great language and my first choice, but I wouldn't recommend it for beginners.

jwong112157 · 7 months

I would either start a personal project or I would start doing the homeworks/labs from an online course.

A personal project could be a game or simple software that you can spend a little time each week working on and learning new things.

Otherwise find an online course at Stanford or MIT. Data structures are typically something people learn after "the basics". Here's labs and homework from a 2010 Berkeley course: http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~jrs/61bf10/

dirtyatom

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