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Learn to Code

Welcome to the Learn To Code directory of the #dentropyDaemon wiki. Here we provide an overview of what is take to code as well as multiple places to start. The internet already has tones of amazing tutorials and courses on how to code therefore I have listed the ones I find useful and have listed a couple reasons why under each one of them. The goal of this page is to provide you the tools to integrate these tutorials into a cohesive understanding of coding, this involves asking as well as answering questions, producing your own notes or PKM with selected notes published for others to read, and an emphases on Project Based Learning.

People tend to not learn things for learning sake. People learn things because they want to do something with the skills and knowledge they have learned. I hope you take a look at the Learn to Code Questions, but in case you don't ask yourself now, Why do you want to learn to code? I highly recommend you open up your notes or PKM and write down three reasons you want to learn to code. When you get lost comes back to these reasons then use and or update them to make sure you are getting what you need from coding.

Asking the Right Questions

It is very important to orient oneself with the material before they dive deep into it. There are a lot of programming languages making the space pretty political at times and therefore complicated to navigate. The reason programming is so political is because you can use just about any programming language to solve your compute problem and all programming language's have a similar root set of concepts. For example all programming languages have their own versions of variables, types, lists, loops, and functions. Before getting started I recommend checking out Learn to Code Questions and see what Google and ChatGPT think of them.

Project Based Learning

Many people choose to learn to code because they are interested in building something or solving a problem. If you don't have a project or problem you are interested ask yourself what problems can you solve for other people using coding. Beside the the reasons you want to code which you should have written down in your notes or PKM I highly recommend you come up with at least one project or problem you can use coding to solve. We are going to have to solve a lot of problems and built quite a bunch of projects before we can build anything big and complex so keep in mind, the simpler the better. Before choosing your project take a look at some of the example ones below.

Simple Project Ideas

  • X's and O's
  • Hang Man
  • Rock paper scissors
  • Coding Project Ideas - A ShareGPT conversation
  • Guess number game, warm hot, etc...
  • TODO List
  • Quiz Engine
  • TODO List
  • Bug Tracker
  • Budget Tracker
  • Password Manager
  • Text Based Adventure Game
  • Checkers
  • Gantt Chart
  • Accounting Software, UTXO
  • Customer Management Software

Overview of Learning to Code

There are many different types of application you can write but at the end of the day people usually like to produce user interfaces that look pretty and are easy to understand by those that can't code. Most programming languages will require you to learn the CLI (Command Line Interface) then just have you learn all the basic coding skills before you learn something fun. Luckily there is a special programming language taught by the likes of Kahn Academy where you start by drawing a circle rather than printing Hello World. If you want to start the traditional way CLI then check skip the following section on "Processing".

Enter "Processing" the programming language

Now that we know why we want to code and have a project in mind we can start diving into the actual art of coding. Check out the follow links in order. Please note that we are learning P5.js not the old fashioned Processing here. Also remember that Processing (P5.js) is written in Javascript therefore javascript is a good choice of language to learn afterwards and will be easier to learn compared other programming languages like Rust, Python, or C.

Questions while Learning Processing

CLI(Command Line Interface)

Basic Python

Git

Server Management

SSH

Web Development

  • HTML + CSS
  • Javascript
  • NodeJS
  • Python + Flask

Youtube Channels

To find good youtube channels just search learn "skill" here. Some skills include python, javascript, command line, and