Coding... where to start???

[gingerjedi]

I’m a bored support monkey who is fed up with the dwindling rates and centralisation of this sector, it used to be fun but I’m little more than an admin boy these days so…

From a complete novice perspective where would be a good place to start learning to ‘code’? VB? My only experience is a little BASIC on a BBC B about 25 years ago and some fiddling with HTML.

I don’t expect to pick it up in a few months and start making a living from it but I have about 27 years of working life in front of me and I don’t plan on listening to people’s problems for most of it!

[DimPrawn]

If your background is support, then I would have thought a scripting language (VBScript, Perl, who knows) would be the best fit with your current skills.

Maybe VBA (scripting office applications) too.

[voodooflux]

I’m a bored support monkey who is fed up with the dwindling rates and centralisation of this sector, it used to be fun but I’m little more than an admin boy these days so…

From a complete novice perspective where would be a good place to start learning to ‘code’? VB? My only experience is a little BASIC on a BBC B about 25 years ago and some fiddling with HTML.

I don’t expect to pick it up in a few months and start making a living from it but I have about 27 years of working life in front of me and I don’t plan on listening to people’s problems for most of it!

Any idea on whether you'd be looking to do web or application/systems development, or just a bit of scripting as DP suggests?

[t0bytoo]

Try Ruby on Rails.

It's fun. And trendy. And a growing market.

[gingerjedi]

Any idea on whether you'd be looking to do web or application/systems development?

I'm guessing web as more and more companies seem to be favouring web based solutions these days, but to be honest I have no idea?

[Churchill]

Coding? Where to start?


With a "requirements document" would be a good start...

Churchill - In "Ducks and runs like fck" mode!

[mailric]

Xml?

[voodooflux]

I'm guessing web as more and more companies seem to be favouring web based solutions these days, but to be honest I have no idea?

I'd say have a dabble with PHP (and by implication HTML/CSS) to get yourself started, then perhaps integrate some pages with a database backend to get a feel for SQL.

[lilelvis2000]

Try Ruby on Rails.

It's fun. And trendy. And a growing market.

Agreed and PHP is also very popular. Drupal would be good to know for content management and e-commerce web sites.

[BrilloPad]

If you are going to learn VB then please learn C++ first.