Ted Ernst

http://www.tedernst.com

I have an electrical engineering degree, but have never worked in the field, nor have I done any programming in the last 11 years. Does anyone have any advice for where I could get started to learn a bit about programming? For example, if I were to learn a language, how would I compile the code? How would I run a script? Thanks much!

How to compile depends on which OS you're using, which language you're using, and which vendor supplied the language implementation. Similarly with a script.

If you provide further information about such things, and which language you want to learn, etc, no doubt people here can provide help, such as URLs of tutorials, and answering specific questions.

I completely fail to see how Vicki's comments about her math puzzles, that no one has fully solved, would even have anything to do with someone saying they wanted to learn math, let alone the actual expressed desire to learn about programming:

First, take an aptitude test. It's called MathQuizOne. You will soon learn the first two lessons...

1) It takes patience,

2) and persistence,

3) and care.

Surprisingly, the ability to count doesn't matter much.

By the way, try viewing the source of any webpage (i.e., click View, then Source). Consider how much you need to learn just to understand that one page. If undaunted, a visit to a reference library is the next step.

I've lightly browsed through How To Think Like A Computer Scientist [http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCSpy/] and think it'd be pretty nice for a complete beginner. That's the python version, here's the Java Version[http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCSjav/](unread by me) and C++ Version[http://www.andamooka.org/reader.pl?section=thinkcpp](s'ok, but focuses on what I would call 'good' Cpp a little late). Oh, and if you want to learn about my current darling, Ruby, you might like the Pickaxe book[http://www.rubycentral.com/book/], but it's not specifically geared to beginners.

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