Computer Coding Courses for Men

As many of you know I spent 15+ years as a systems analyst and programmer before I started my career in real estate development. Lately I have found I really miss the days I spent on my old Atari 800 through the mainframes of coding just for fun.

I am looking to get back into coding as a fun hobby for myself. The languages I learned in college and used in my old jobs are Assembler, FORTRAN, COBOL, RPG, SAS and even BASIC. Looking at what is popular now I suppose I should work with C++, Python or some other more practical language at this point.

Does anyone have some recommendations for free college or other online classes to pick up some new skills? Also, what languages or IDEs do you recommend for someone looking to program PCs and or Apps?

I am happy to learn more than one new language, but I can’t justufy paying got college courses since this is more just to exercise my brain and have fun. I am even thinking of developing some Apps or other software pro bono for some non-profits just so I have something fun to do.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

a reply to: Metallicus

I've usually just bought some good books and go from there.

But a classroom atmosphere is a nice help to learning.

a reply to: MisterSpock

I learn best when I am doing rather than reading. I would like to find a course integrated with a specific IDE. Also, I am not sure what language is the best choice to learn since I want to find one or two rather than learn a bunch.

Eta...there must be some good, fee coding courses out there for men.

a reply to: Metallicus

codingame.com

this I think might be up your alley. You combine gaming, with learning to code. Fun, simple to use.

Camain

originally posted by: camain
a reply to: Metallicus

codingame.com

this I think might be up your alley. You combine gaming, with learning to code. Fun, simple to use.

Camain

Thank you. I will have a look.

ETA. This looks promising...you have any more?

Python and/or Javascript (for web apps).
For mobile apps, C (iPhone) or Java (Android).

IDE either Eclipse or IntelliJ IDEA

Courses online:
Alison Free Courses
Amazon AWS

Good luck. If you have questions, PM me here.

a reply to: Metallicus

Takes me back to the days of coding on a VIC-20 and just waiting for the amazing Commador 64 to come out so I could have 32K to play with!!!

As someone who has drifted in and out of programming for my whole life for fun and profit, I would focus a little more on C# than C++. Just a personal opinion from someone who now likes a framework to work in, as opposed to a framework I have to build first. So I like Visual Studio.

Microsoft has a myriad of classes on C# and VS...

Start Here

I like D.
I liked this book for D.

D is awesome. It's everything c++ should have been without all the bull#.

Compile times are really fast, almost as fast as an interpreted language...actually you can use rdmd to run a .d file as a script without compiling. It's easy to use with existing c libraries. Has an easy to use build system with a large amount of native libraries easily available. code.dlang.org...

It allows for procedural, functional and object oriented programming. Has a great template system and generally has just been really enjoyable to program in.

I also found lua to be a nice little language to learn.

It only has one data structure worry about. Tables that can be used s an array or a hashmap.

Metatables allow you to extend the language to create classes or other cool stuff.

It's a bit limiting in the end but i enjoyed learning it and found itbto be a good language to pick up the basics. Especially if you already have experience.in other languages.

I agree with Lumenari, C# is a good bet, and Visual Studio is a very good IDE. Also, with Visual Studio and .Net now you can build apps for Windows, Linux, Mac, etc, as the .Net framework has been/is being migrated to other platforms, so you only need to learn one .Net language to be able to target any of those platforms.

Besides that, Unity, used in many games, also uses C#.

Visual Studio has a free version, as does Unity, so you can do it all for free.

As for courses, a couple of years ago I got access to some free online courses, but that free access expired, and I haven't had the time to look for more.

Good luck.

Well if you want to learn a real mans programming language, the only choice is C++. There are countless resources on the internet for learning C++, I have found there are quite a lot of well made video courses on YouTube but I'm sure some of the popular learning websites such as Coursera have more professional lecture series. If you're working only on Windows then the Visual Studio IDE is probably the best option. If you intend to make portable programs then I would suggest the Code::Blocks IDE along with the GCC compiler.

C# or Bb

a reply to: Metallicus

Hey brother. I’m an old school AS/400 RPGIV programmer, 25 years in.

I took a C++ course a few years back. My advice would be to not do C++. It’s just a big sell/con job. Not that I couldn’t do it. But Object Oriented programming is not the panacea that it’s made out to be. It’s awkward and way too low level for application programming, unless you’re gonna write operating systems.

All how OO programming is just a big show is just starting to come out generally lately, but I knew it all along.

There’s a video on YouTube somewhere where a smart guy talks all about it being a sham. It’s called Why C++ isn’t a good language, or something like that. He does a good job of explaining why it’s a crap language, and why OO is a waste of time. I’ll see if I can find it. But you might be able to find it yourself. There are a ton of YouTube videos out there that explain why OO and C++ are bad.

But like I said, I wouldn’t waste my time with OO or C++, and stick with procedural programming.

a reply to: Starbuck799

When I was in school, c++ was huge, but things certainly have shifted.

Iirc it's still a good language for some operating systems, out side that it seems pretty "obscure".

I've been meaning to read up on some of the newer languages frequently used for mobile apps.

I am greatly appreciative for all of the responses.

You guys rock!

originally posted by: Gothmog
C# or Bb

Major 7ths and suspended 2nds add tension to any programming.

originally posted by: Krakatoa
Python and/or Javascript (for web apps).
For mobile apps, C (iPhone) or Java (Android).

IDE either Eclipse or IntelliJ IDEA

Courses online:
Alison Free Courses
Amazon AWS

Good luck. If you have questions, PM me here.

I will.

Thank you for the resources.

originally posted by: chr0naut

originally posted by: Gothmog
C# or Bb

Major 7ths and suspended 2nds add tension to any programming.

Someone got it...

a reply to: Metallicus

Yes


Udemy.com

Nothing else even close for the price since they constantly have $9.99 sales.

a reply to: Gothmog

As opposed to LISP... (Lost In Stupid Parentheses).

Get Intellij and learn Kotlin.

Really, it's great. Try a framework like SpringBoot or Micronaut. You can also use TornadoFX for a desktop app. Kotlin has full Java interop and also Kotlin Native is very effective for multi-platform development. I bought a personal license for Intellij and it was one of the best purchases I have ever made. Kotlin is by far one of the most concise, powerful languages I have ever used.

Second place: Swift. I really like Swift. It has decent interop with C++ and doesn't run in the JVM. Xcode sucks but iOS isn't too bad to develop for. Swift is (maybe?) faster than Kotlin and more C-like.

Third: ES6 JS you might love or hate but I use a tool called Brunch (as opposed to webpack) to set up front end code for web pages. Vue, React, and Stylus are my favorite tools. Then you can use a simple text editor like Sublime or double up on IntelliJ for development purposes. Intellij has a nice front-end js debugger.