Object Orientation and General technical topics

Object Orientation and General technical topics module Q100

Learning to Progam

Exercises, examples and other material relating to training module Q100. This topic is presented on public courses Learning to program in PHP, Learning to program in Python, Learning to Program in Java, Learning to program in Lua, Learning to program in Ruby, Learning to program in Tcl, Learning to Program in C, Learning to program in C++, Beginning PHP - weekend course / hobby / club / leisure users

Background

So you've been given a task for a computer to perform, and asked to write a program to do it. Where do you start [hopefully by looking to see if someone else has already written a program that does the job!]? Are you best to learn from an e-learning program, from a book, from your colleagues, or perhaps at nightschool or on a training course such as ours? What language should you learn, and how long should you allow? How will you mark your progress and how will you be motivated?

Related technical and longer articles

Why so many different courses?

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Articles and tips on this subject		updated
4008	Reading and checking user inputs - first lessons - Ruby Early programming exercises on a "learning to program in Xxxx" course involve asking the user to enter some pieces of data (usually numbers), doing a calculation using those numbers, and printing out a result. For that's a quite common requirement for a simple program - and this is the first realistic ...	2013-02-17
3895	Flowchart to program - learning to program with Well House Drawing a flowchart is how many people understand a process; it's something that's been used in schools and textbooks for many generations, and it provides a graphic representation of choices and actions that most people find easy to follow. For newcomers to programming, such as on my Learning to program ...	2012-10-20
3551	Some terms used in programming (Biased towards Python) Some of the elements of your program Command - typically a keyword followed by series of parameters - a "unit" of shell / batch / Tcl programming (You don't really have commands in Python) Statement - an atomic operational unit of a program - a "unit" of Python / Perl / PHP / Lua / C etc ...	2011-12-17
3120	Learning to write good programs in C and C++ - separating out repeated code From our "learning to program in C and C++ day" yesterday - that's how we started our working year in the training business in 2011. "Learning to" courses, where we take people through the basic coding principles and concepts and in the language they'll actually be using are both the hardest work to ...	2011-01-08
2973	Learning to program - where to start if you have never programmed before We teach many delegates how to program in "xxxx", where xxxx is a language such as Perl, PHP, Python, Lua, Ruby, etc. Some of those delegates arrive with us with prior programming experience, and require what is in essence a conversion course - the base concepts from Pascal will set them in good stead ...	2010-09-28 (longer)
2898	Programming Standards from the start! Yesterday was a "Learning to program in ..." lead in day - for delegates who are new to programming, and will be learning one of the languages we teach; we cover basic principles, but in the way that they're applied to the language the delegate is learning (no starting with Basic and switching to Perl, ...	2010-08-02
2504	Learning to program in ... These are bullet point topics to accompany the "Learning to program in ..." days which are available to complete novices in front of Well House Consultants programming courses. The day is presented using examples in PHP, Lua, Python, Ruby, C, C++, Tcl, Java or Perl as appropriate, with examples written ...	2009-11-29
2505	I almost put the bins out this morning It feels like Tuesday - so I almost put out the bins before I left home for the fortnightly rubbish collection. But it isn't Tuesday - it's only Monday morning, and only just 8 O'Clock It was something of an experiment when we added an optional day onto the front of our programming courses, when ...	2009-11-16
2326	Learn a new programming language this summer. Public Courses for newcomers to a language, running in Melksham Lua - Monday, 10th August 2009 () - 3 days Python - Monday, 17th August () - 3 days Perl - Monday, 7th September (*) - 5 days Java - Monday 21st September () - 4 days PHP - Monday 28th September (*) - 4 days More advanced programming ...	2009-08-06
2294	Can you learn to program in 4 days? "New to programming" on Monday Morning ... and understanding a program that reads and analyses a web access log file, reporting back on remote hosts that visited us and stayed for between one and five minutes by the end of Thursday. That's a good advert for Ruby - and a good advert for our Learning ...	2009-07-17
2286	New to programming? It is natural (but needless) for you to be nervous Yesterday, I ran the introductory day at the start of our Learning to Program in Ruby course. Delegates come to us to learn a programming language with two different backgrounds - "I have programmed before in xxxxx and now I need to learn QWERTY" (the converters) and "what is this programming thing ...	2009-07-16
2092	Tracking difficult bugs, the programmer / customer relationship If you've been programming for a while, you have probably come across one or two of those code bugs that are really really really hard to reproduce, track down and fix. And yet - when you do track them down / fix them from live (production) code, your users / customers just shrug their shoulders and ...	2009-03-20
2048	Learning to program in PHP, Python, Java or Lua ... ... or in Ruby, Tcl, C, C++ or Perl Are you new to computer programming? Is it so long since you programmed that you feel very rusty and would like to start again from basics? If you've said "yes" to either of these questions our new "Learning to program in ...." series of courses may be exactly what ...	2009-02-22
2001	I have not programmed before, and need to learn Yesterday was the second day of my Learning to Program introductory course - for delegates who are learning to program - as well as learning a particular language, and (since the target language is C), I wrote a number of new C examples. And these examples were written in front of the delegates to show ...	2009-01-21
1985	Learning to program as a part of your job Scenario - you have never programmed before, but you are required to do so as a part of your job. You see lots of course (like ours !) on C, or PHP, or Python ... but they all assume some prior knowledge. And when you pick up a book it seems very theoretic and irrelevant, or looses you in the first ...	2009-01-11
1963	Best source to learn Java (or Perl or PHP or Python) An impossible question - there is no best way - yet it's one that I'm asked from time to time. [["Hello. I'm doing a b.tech. My friends like ur site very much. Plz help us in Java programming - plz tell me about the best source to learn Java"]] So do I answer such questions, and if so, how? Firstly ...	2008-12-31
1605	Learning and understanding scripting programming techniques Can you have a book about programming that's not about a specific programming language? A course that covers useful techniques across the board? That applies right across languages, with tips and techniques and things to bear in mind? Now there's a challenge, and I think the answer would be "yes." ...	2008-04-09
116	The next generation of programmer Ten years ago, I was teaching languages like Shell Scripting and C, but the requirement faded. As computers became steadily more powerful, standard applications were developed by a few, to be used by the many, rather than each of the many having specific code written for them. So now, I'm teaching languages ...	2006-06-05

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Examples from our training material

Chloe.java	First use of functions and command line - Java
colin	Ruby example - planning and documenting your code
eleven.c	Reading data from file
fifth.c	Named blocks of code (functions)
first.c	A first program - a series of instructions
fourth.c	Calculations and precedence
fur2.py	Operator precedence
fur3.py	Conditionals
furry.py	Whole program
second.c	Calling named blocks of code
seven.c	Repeating blocks of code with a loop
sixth.c	Conditional code
small_demo.php	A first useful program in PHP
stuff.txt	Data for eleven.c and twelve.c
ten.c	An array to store multiple values
third.c	Calculate and print
twelve.c	#define, breaking a loop, == testing
vcw	without validation / Ruby
vcx	Quick first validation example / Ruby
vcy	Second validation example (function) / Ruby
vcz	Third validation example (catching errors) / Ruby

Background information

Some modules are available for download as a sample of our material or under an Open Training Notes License for free download from http://www.training-notes.co.uk.

Topics covered in this module

What is programing?
Why are there so many langauges?
Which language for what purpose?
How to plan your progamming project.
Making best use of existing resources.

Complete learning

If you are looking for a complete course and not just a information on a single subject, visit our Listing and schedule page.

Well House Consultants specialise in training courses in Python, Perl, PHP, and MySQL. We run Private Courses throughout the UK (and beyond for longer courses), and Public Courses at our training centre in Melksham, Wiltshire, England. It's surprisingly cost effective to come on our public courses - even if you live in a different country or continent to us.

We have a technical library of over 700 books on the subjects on which we teach. These books are available for reference at our training centre. Also available is the Opentalk Forum for discussion of technical questions.