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I struggle to find material that is easy enough for me to follow and well structured (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/learn_programming@programming.dev
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I've done a bit of programming before. I'm in a bachelors program for structural engineering, but they only get us to focus on Python.

Python material is so very wordy. I often try to restart from basics, and there's a lot of 'you have to reinstall it and use the pure python version, it's the only way you'll learn it properly' - but I find this way more confusing than using an IDE. I struggle to implement new libraries as well, in my existing IDE (i use spyder). Feels so clunky.

I want to be able to make things i can actually use, practice programming regularly, but I'm really not good at self directed stuff. Or even setting things up, as i tried to explain with the second paragraph. Any pointers towards relevant resources?

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[–] 3 points 1 month ago (1 child)

I always shout out "Automate the boring stuff" because it is excellent and free: https://automatetheboringstuff.com/3e/chapter1.html

I find picking simple tasks that I want to accomplish can be a great way to learn things, and the book above is a fantastic resource for this. If you want to learn how to modify values in a CSV file or perform calculations or get data from the internet, this teaches you how. When you need to understand a function, go read the documentation for how it works but dont get bogged down. Small iterative cycles with a feedback loop are how we learn. Read how to do something, extend the idea and apply it yourself, see what works and what doesn't. It becomes fun after a while.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago

    Also seconding Automate the Boring Stuff. I skimmed the beginning and it seems very usable for beginners. Also very useful for folks NOT new to programming but looking for an easy intro to a new programming language (Python), which is what I used it for.

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