“Learn C in 7 Days!” “Learn Java in 24 Hours!” “Learn Python in 90 Minutes!” You’ve probably seen this before, the programmer’s version of 8 Minute Abs. It’s pretty much always been around in all kinds of books, courses, presentations, videos, and blogs. The time span generally ranges from weeks to minutes, with the shortest […]
Learn Programming
Welcome to the Learn Programming page, where, you guessed it, all the posts focus on helping you learn the basics of programming. As I always say, it's important to find projects to work on that you actually care about and start working on them as soon as possible. I hope this collection of blog posts will help you on that journey.
Coming Up with Programming Projects You Actually Care About
The best way to learn is often to do, to work on real-world projects. If you want to learn HTML and CSS, build a simple website. If you want to learn to play piano, commit to playing a song at an upcoming recital. If you want to learn about regime change, make some molotov cocktails. […]
Intro to Python, Epilogue – Only the Beginning
Congratulations, dear reader, on completing your quest. But be warned, opening the Door was but the first step of your journey. You now have an understanding of all the fundamental programming concepts required to begin making useful things. But what exactly will you do from here on out? Allow me to make a few suggestions: […]
Intro to Python, Chapter 8 – Opening the Door
Baldric was suddenly standing in a crowd of soldiers. Not Imperial soldiers thankfully. These were more ragtag, wearing random bits of armor here and there. Some had swords and shields, though most had spears or clubs or long knives. One formidable-looking woman appeared to be wielding a frying pan. They were all hurrying away in […]
Intro to Python, Chapter 7 – Imports and Nesting
Baldric had been a town guard for years, breaking up fights and catching thieves and helping the elderly cross the street. When the Empire arose and moved him to HR, he dragged prisoners to staff meetings and hauled corpses away without thinking much of it. Law and order was better than letting those rebels Management […]
Intro to Python, Chapter 6 – Built-in Functions and Methods
Magic-wielding escapees were desperately deflecting the Imperial attacks on the fortress’ supports as best they could, but Baldric could see it was only a matter of time before they all took a dive, like so many employees before them, into the lake of fire. Of course, HR prisoners usually died by some other means first, […]
Intro to Python, Chapter 5 – Loops
Baldric groggily opened his eyes and was greeted by a splitting pain in his head. He had been having the strangest dream, something about a crystal, and a snake eating its own tail, and…a singing head of cabbage? Strange indeed. He looked around in the dim torchlight and found himself in a large cell of […]
Intro to Python, Chapter 4 – Functions
Baldric emerged from the passageway to find himself in an enormous cavern, its ceiling lost in shadow. Great columns of black stone soared from the ground, and pools of lava bubbled throughout, lighting the cavern in a dark red. The heat was suffocating. Baldric saw Bill standing on a stone outcrop nearby, apparently scanning for […]
Intro to Python, Chapter 3 – Conditional Statements
Emerging from the sewer, Baldric found himself in the basin of a dry fountain. In its center was a marble statue of a massive fist which appeared to be composed of many entangled bodies. Employees, by how they were dressed. There were holes in various mouths and eyes that were apparently meant to be channeling […]
Intro to Python, Chapter 2 – Strings and Lists
Something was really bothering Baldric about 106479825301.0, the answer to the mysterious request he’d received. Sitting down at his desk after enduring his meeting with Kevin, he realized what it was. If you only looked at the answer’s whole number portion… …then every number from 0 to 10 appeared exactly once in the larger number’s […]