Code Justin

I thought it would be nice to start a list of tips for new programmers.  I will start off with saying that my personal tip to someone that is new to programming is to start low-level and small.  I feel that most people including myself that have started programming just this century have a lack of knowledge for low-level concepts.  Dynamic langauges are great but they don’t teach the core concepts of whats going on under the hood.  Of course you can learn how to program from learning say Ruby but I think you can learn more then just programming from learning C or even C++.  My tip is obviously very opinionated and the thing is I don’t even know C or C++ but I’m starting to learn Assembly (or maybe C) simply for the fact that it will help me understand the low-level concepts.  A good example of this is looking back at my programming ‘history’.  The first language I really used was PHP which I got so used to the ‘hackish’ style of it and learned the syntax of PHP not the concepts of programming that it hurt me in the end.  I’m glad I took the step to learning Java which opened my eyes to the fact I know almost nothing when it comes to theory.  So when you start it might be ok to play with QBasic or Python but just make sure you take the time to learn a low-level language or even just study the theory behind it becuase it helps you understand programming beyond just memorizing the libraries.

Do you have any tips? You can leave them in the comment section below.