[merlinfire]

I have been trying to teach myself programming for several years. I played around with BASIC back in high school - I did some cool things. I went to school to learn more, I couldn't motivate myself - despite the fact that I wanted to both learn and succeed. Since then I've been attempting to teach myself everything under the sun. I've tried JAVA, C++, C#, VB, and Python. I just can seem to get myself really started and motivated. How common is this, and what can possibly be done?







Completely at a loss,

Merlinfire

[pr4y]

You need to find something that interests you and run with it. For instance, if you are interested in game development... set realistic goals such as:

1. I want to code my own twist on space invaders by next friday
2. I would like to research how collision detection works and why it is used
ect....


I started out programming at the age of 11 because there were no cheats publically available for "NeoPets" (Please don't flame... I was 11 for christs sake). I sat down and taught myself VB6, and within a month I had written the first public release of a Gold Generating program.


11 Years later, I understand most of the major aspects of game design, web development, server applications, database management... you name it.

How did I get there? By giving myself something to work on that actually sparked my interest.




If you aren't interested in writing a "Hello World" program... then make your own twist on that same concept. Understand what I'm saying?

This post has been edited by pr4y: 25 February 2009 - 05:09 PM

[merlinfire]

I've tried most of that, and I can try again. But I didn't know if perhaps there was anything else that I could try or do.

[no2pencil]

If you are having trouble getting motivated, then maybe it just isn't for you.

It's the same with me & cars. I would love to be able to get elbows deep into my car, & know what I'm doing. But when I do, I usually end breaking something that worked fine before, & I really should have just left it alone. I try & I try, but I just really don't care enough to spend the time on it as I do other things.

Truth is, I just don't have the motivation to work on cars that I do for other walks of my life.

[merlinfire]

Well, my problem may have little or nothing to do with my desire at all....I've considered that I may have ADD. Which either means I have to

1) Take caffeine all the time
2) Go to the doctor to deal with it or the more likely but more difficult

3) Just power through it with force of will. With this approach I have been able to get some things done, but I just couldn't keep the fire going once it got lit. I suppose if I could get a project in a workable state to the point that I refine it in seperate iterations I might be able to keep momentum going.

[pr4y]

If you have ADD I would recommend NOT taking caffeine all the time... that's a bad mix O__O



What are you interested in with programming? Perhaps if I had some ideas about what you are interested in I could give you a few challenges for you to complete!

[merlinfire]

Hmmm well most of the small projects I've done have been text games. What I would really like to learn how to do is to make a ui dumb terminal app that could interface with a backend program that would run the actual game, just to sort of abstract that away from the interface. I've got lots of ideas of course, but there's a big jump between the basics and most so called intermediate stuff out there. Knowing syntax and classes is not the same as knowing how to make data structures and logic

I should also mention my last attempt was in C++, and I have to say after having played around with that a bit Java is looking a lot easier right now

[pr4y]

Java and C++ are almost _identical_ in syntax and structure. The only thing that limits how much you learn is how much you dedicate to learning. I've been coding Java for 4-5 years... and C++ for just as long. I started learning them at the same time (which isn't recommended), and picked them up very quickly. To be honest, sometimes when I'm helping people on this site I will look at their problem and start working towards a solution... and realize I'm coding in the wrong language.

If you stick a basic java loop and a basic C++ loop side by side, there is barely a difference whatsoever.


My suggestion to you if you want the hard honest truth is to just sit down and do it. Stop thinking about "oh well this seems harder than this so I'll throw out what I've learned so far and pick up this other language"... it doesn't work that way. If you are learning how to play the guitar, you don't start by learning rock solo's, do you? Take baby steps. Everyone that has ever learned how to program had to take the same baby steps you have to take... you just really need to sit down and DO IT.



I'm not trying to be mean / rude or anything of that sort, I'm just trying to get you to push yourself. You are a beginning programmer but you want to design a client / server communications application for a gaming platform? You need to put into perspective that that kind of project takes YEARS of experience to even begin to know where to start. Let alone the fact that it takes game programming companies tens of thousands of hours of labor to complete games.

Take things slow. Work on a multiplayer tic-tac-toe game or something. There is always something you can do to help motivate yourself, but you are the only person that can help you.

This post has been edited by pr4y: 25 February 2009 - 09:10 PM

[merlinfire]

I appreciate your comments, but I don't want you to get the wrong idea here. I'm not trying to make an MMO here, or even a networked app. I was thinking something that utilized file i/o for communication. Though I have to say this conversation got me thinking a bit so I've been coding and learning tonight. It has helped some

[KYA]

no2pencil, on 25 Feb, 2009 - 07:34 PM, said:

If you are having trouble getting motivated, then maybe it just isn't for you.

It's the same with me & cars. I would love to be able to get elbows deep into my car, & know what I'm doing. But when I do, I usually end breaking something that worked fine before, & I really should have just left it alone. I try & I try, but I just really don't care enough to spend the time on it as I do other things.

Truth is, I just don't have the motivation to work on cars that I do for other walks of my life.

I'm the same way. As long as it runs...am I right?

The guy at the repair/tire shop thinks I'm an idiot. I had more fun checking out the ordering software they were using....

[pr4y]

merlinfire, on 25 Feb, 2009 - 08:21 PM, said:

I appreciate your comments, but I don't want you to get the wrong idea here. I'm not trying to make an MMO here, or even a networked app. I was thinking something that utilized file i/o for communication. Though I have to say this conversation got me thinking a bit so I've been coding and learning tonight. It has helped some

Great! I'm glad we've sparked some motivation for you. If you have any questions at all, FEEL FREE to PM me and ask me! I'm here to help, so don't be shy

[Hyper]

pr4y, on 25 Feb, 2009 - 04:09 PM, said:

I started out programming at the age of 11 because there were no cheats publically available for "NeoPets" (Please don't flame... I was 11 for christs sake). I sat down and taught myself VB6, and within a month I had written the first public release of a Gold Generating program.

... You're the one who wrote that?

[merlinfire]

I just want to thank those that posted, due to our conversation I got the motivation to do some programming! I fully converted my barely working source from C++ to java, then made a primitive parser.

I think I discovered part of my problem before. I was getting so wrapped up in trying to strictly stick to OO and good programming practices that I wouldn't hardly put code to keyboard without it being perfect. Coding doesn't work that way unless you're a pro - you do your best and then you refine it as you learn and discover new things.

[mikemankin]

merlinfire, on 27 Feb, 2009 - 07:32 PM, said:

I just want to thank those that posted, due to our conversation I got the motivation to do some programming! I fully converted my barely working source from C++ to java, then made a primitive parser.

I think I discovered part of my problem before. I was getting so wrapped up in trying to strictly stick to OO and good programming practices that I wouldn't hardly put code to keyboard without it being perfect. Coding doesn't work that way unless you're a pro - you do your best and then you refine it as you learn and discover new things.

If you just needed motivation that's one thing, but if you think you have ADD or ADHD, you should be checked. I went to UPenn in Philly, they have a great program, and I'm starting to develop a plan to deal with my adult ADD, medication helps.

I'm also trying to learn programming and I think I need a mentor, or I'll have to find a quiet place to start reading books again.

[firebolt]

I think, set yourself small projects at first. Then when you feel the urge that this is not enough, begin major projects. oh. And stay in touch with website forums like DIC so you have the programming feel!