Introduction to programming (Python)- help with materials

[Mina]

Intro to Computer Science on Udacity was how I first learned Python (recommended by Thesp, actually), and I loved it. (All the course material is available for free.)

The course is meant for total beginners, but it teaches core concepts by walking you through designing Google's search engine. The teacher is great, and I like that it lets you code directly into the browser, but what's best is that it teaches you how to think like a programmer. Some of the sample problems and assignments are really challenging for a beginner, and can take hours to solve.

I personally dislike Codecademy, because it's good for teaching you syntax through rote practice but bad at showing you how to program. (The exercises just hold your hand and go, "Do exactly this, but change the name of the variable!") It's fine for showing a complete beginner that coding isn't as scary as it looks, or for practicing syntax in a different language, but you won't walk away from it having the first idea of how to apply your skills. That said, I found it useful for HTML/CSS since those are mostly about syntax, and the site has some good exercises for designing sample web pages.

There are tons and tons of resources for beginner programmers out there, though--it really depends on what your end goals are. Are you interested in building web sites, designing games, or just useful time-saving tools? (Disclaimer: I'm not a programmer, just someone who went through a phase of being addicted to hopping aimlessly between programming tutorials.)

[Mina]

Also, my Mech. Eng. degree had a total of one required programming course, and they decided to divide the semester 50-50 between Fortran and C. The logic of whoever instated the curriculum was a mixture of "university is about TEACHING YOU HOW TO THINK SO THAT YOU CAN LEARN MORE EASILY IN THE FUTURE (from people who aren't us), not teaching useful, employable skills that might become obsolete someday, so we'll start with the hardest of the hard!" and "we've used Fortran since the 70s, and we'll be damned if we're gonna change, so let's train the next batch of potential grad student lackeys early."

C wasn't

so

bad for a beginner, though (with the caveat that we only learned as much as can be crammed into half a semester, so probably didn't get to the worst parts).

[Mina]

Apparently, some aerospace engineering grad students had to use Fortran as research assistants at my university, which is a major reason it was on the curriculum.

I don't know if there are any actual advantages to using Fortran over another language to solve engineering problems, though. I suspected it's in use moreso because it's what researchers were exposed to growing up, and non-comp-sci professors don't want to learn a new programming language. Or does your neighbour know why, Claus?

But yeah, I don't think they cared in the slightest about preparing us for the future of programming. Only the students in mechanical and civil engineering took this course. The computer engineers were learning Java.