Start learning at 50

Start learning at 50

I've always wanted to learn programming. I've read a blog post saying that at this age it was to late . Then I read a post here in saying the opposite.
I've found a site that was learn x in y minutes where it has a bunch of languages there. After reading them, the languages that caught my attention were Julia, Clojure and Go.
Are any of these good for a beginner or should I start with something else? I know what are variables, can spot an if/else statement but that's about it. What are some good resources for someone like me who likes to learn by doing things?

Ashwin1212 ,

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embed_me ,
@embed_me@programming.dev avatar

I would recommend C for the simplicity. You'll get familiar with the nitty gritties of a relatively featureless programming language. Which will let you view other languages and their tools with more nuance. But it all depends on what you want to do with it, want to program an MCU like Arduino or learn linux? C is perfect. If you want to build something with graphical interfaces like websites or GUI apps, I would suggest something else but C is still a good place to get started.

hardkorebob , (edited )

No to Python, Go, Lisp and C to begin. In fact at this level you just need to get a feel for process. You need to start where u feel attracted to. You need to learn principles and not languages nor frameworks. Im surprised not one of the replies gives an accurate picture of what it entails to think like a computer. Computation is not an efficient brain like a humans. It was made to work with the hardware we invented long ago. You have to learn the rudimentary and boring repetition the machine HAS to do so it can appear as a real memorable entity. A practical suggestion is to go install Linux From Scratch. When you complete that journey you will have a taste of some principles. Then I also suggest to simply rewrite character for character kilo.c. Why? So you learn how much a pain and a workout it is to crunch at the keyboard. Learn by doing. Learn by breaking and briking. Go find a game u love with all ur being and reverse engineer it. Who cares what u know at the moment, the goal is the process not the result and besides nothing is ever finished, just get it done. One baby step at a time. Oh and dont ask any more questions. All of those have been asked, its our jobs to find the answer. Please take all this as a simple nudges. None is written with any ill will, trolling nor negativity. Take away the knowledge not the pressumed attitude behind my words. Forget the internet and just dive into it. Another way is to pay some pro to mentor you. Good luck with that since most persons are too busy and are elite. Whatever u want to learn has to be done in the spirit of neglect. You cant care too much about computation. It is just a process for making fragmented business. No one NEEDS software nor money. We all agree to play these nonsensical games. Have fun and be grateful for the process itself. Good journey to you friend! Its a weird one. Ive been at it for 35 years and Im still a newbie.

PS The internet is filled with info. Its your job to determine the knowledge and not the judgement on the worth of the person who posted it. Too much drama and toxicity because everyone at the top of the food chain is pushing that vibe. Everyone everywhere is complaining about our violent ways, how we write to each other online and how we are all being subhuman. Peace to all!

-ape

somethingp ,

Never too old to learn. I think Python is a great beginner language. It has fairly broad applications, and easy to set up an environment (don't have to download/install a thousand things, you just install python and can run the text files in terminal). I also learned by doing starting in late middle school/early high school. I always found YouTube videos to be the most engaging way to get started. I used to like thenewboston. Once I had a handle on the basic programming language, I would do easy programming challenges where you have to solve some sort of basic problem. The challenges helped me learn basics like taking in input, changing the input based on the various rules and conditions of the challenges, then outputting the proper results formatted in the right way. Also helped me to think about algorithms, etc. After that, I started learning programming through a textbook. This was helpful for understanding some of the more technical aspects, basics of memory management, what different variable types are really for, OOP, abstraction, algorithms etc. I found that leaving these advanced topics till after I had a working understanding of the programming language helped understand the concepts better, and helped me understand why it's important to learn the concepts in the first place. I was using Java for learning most of this, which might also be a good place to start for you, but I feel like python has simpler syntax to start with. In the end once you learn one language, I recommend learning more and not being stuck to any particular language. Every language has it's own strengths and weaknesses, and understanding the commonalities and differences will only make you better in the long run.

Edit - now I use Go, python, JavaScript, R, Java, Julia, rust based on what I'm actually doing. It's fairly easy to switch languages once you get used to basic syntax.

slimarev92 ,

Go is a good bet for first language.

nickwitha_k ,

I've been in the tech industry for about 12 years and learned my first programming language about 30 years ago. The choice of language really will depend on the sort of things that you want to do. That said, if choosing one of the three listed, I'd say Go with no reservation. It is a much better language for beginners than the other two as it is widely used, not esoteric, and has a C-like syntax.

I would probably recommend either Python or JavaScript as a better first language though, biased heavily towards Python because JavaScript's type system is awful (it still gets a lot done on the Internet though). Python is a great interpreted language that is very human readable. Yes, some hate that it uses whitespace for party of its syntax but there are very few footguns (don't mix tabs and spaces for indents and just don't use tabs, that's about all that isn't covered in a hello_world).

EnderMB ,

I graduated in CS alongside a guy in his fifties. He's now retired, but he had easily 10-15 years as a software engineer, and was the lead of a group at a large company before he retired, so I assume it all went well for him.

If you want to learn something, do it. if you want to do it professionally, do it.

MadBob ,

I used to know someone who learnt Dutch from age 60, and granted he's very sharp, but if he can do that, I'm sure you can do this.

Wiz ,

Clojure is an interesting language that will improve the way you work and think with other languages. A passionate community, but there are very few "starter" Clojure jobs; they mostly expect you to have years of experience.

I don't think anyone could go with doing the "Clojure For The Brave And True" book which is online and available in dead-tree form. I liked it so much, I bought the book.

It's a Lisp language which is the oldest kind. Instead of "object oriented", I think if it as verb oriented. Each statement is a verb (function) possibly followed by all the nouns you want to apply it to. Easy peasy, right?

People complain that there's "too many parentheses". People like to complain about dumb stuff.

SmartmanApps ,
@SmartmanApps@programming.dev avatar

People complain that there’s “too many parentheses”. People like to complain about dumb stuff.

😂I'm off on a tangent here, but this made me laugh so much! As a Maths teacher I see all the time people complaining about "this is ambiguous - add more parentheses for clarity!" when the reality is Maths is never ambiguous and they've just forgotten 2 of the most important rules of Maths (meaning we already have the correct amount). 😂 These very same people often put the brackets in the wrong place anyway when they do add them adding/removing brackets

Shareni ,

there are very few “starter” Clojure jobs; they mostly expect you to have years of experience.

That's because the language is made for people who wrote java for the last 10 years. It's cool and all, but it's horrible for learning programming when you compare it to cl or scheme. Neither of them break language uniformity and simplicity in order to accommodate java interop, while also having decades worth of excellent teaching material.

It’s a Lisp language which is the oldest kind.

Fortran, COBOL, ALGOL are older

Instead of “object oriented”, I think if it as verb oriented. Each statement is a verb (function) possibly followed by all the nouns you want to apply it to. Easy peasy, right?

I think you're over complicating the explanation, it's just a different notation:

(1 + 2 + 3) == (+ 1 2 3)

(1 + (2 * 3)) == (+ 1 (* 2 3))

People complain that there’s “too many parentheses”. People like to complain about dumb stuff.

I think it's got more to do with everything seemingly being completely different. Most languages have C-style syntax, and python is like the only popular exception. It's like knowing only latin and having to learn cyrilic or alphabet.

uhmbah ,

Lots of great advice here. NEVER too old to learn.

Check this out, if you're interested. Excellent free course to help you learn how to learn:

Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects

realharo , (edited )

Kotlin is a really nice language with plenty of users, good tooling support, gets rid of a lot of the boilerplate that older languages have, and it instills many good practices early on (most variables are immutable unless specified otherwise, types are not nullable by default unless specified otherwise, etc)

But to get the most "bang for your buck" early on, you can't beat JavaScript (with TypeScript to help you make sense of your codebase as it keeps changing and growing).

You will probably want to develop stuff that has some user interface and you'll want to show it to people, and there is no better platform for that than the web. And JS is by far the most supported language on the web.

And the browser devtools are right there, an indispensable tool.

SmartmanApps ,
@SmartmanApps@programming.dev avatar

Pascal was designed for beginners, so I'd start there. Get a handle on the basics before you move onto something which is using object-oriented programming, as that's a whole thing to understand in itself. One step at a time (I'm a teacher, and we always only teach students one concept at a time). And once you've got the basics then C# in a Nutshell series of books (one for each version of C# as new features come out) is very good with explaining the next level stuff and not rehashing the basics (there may be similar books available for other languages, but that's outside my area of expertise).

SmartmanApps ,
@SmartmanApps@programming.dev avatar

For the people saying Python is beginner friendly, no, it isn't. I had to teach it to high school students (I had no choice in the language). Having to have exact indenting, whilst also not caring at all about how you use your variables, not to mention is OOP, is all a bit much for some students, some of whom don't even fully grasp how to use loops yet. One step at a time.

SapientLasagna ,

One nice thing about learning (and teaching) python is that it's a multiparadigm language. Students don't have to learn about indenting until you cover flow control. Classes and OOP can come way, way later.

I started with C++. Also multiparadigm, but the syntax and compiler errors were brutal, not to mention pointer arithmetic.

I'm not sure I can think of a language that would be better suited to learning. GDScript seemed kind of nice, and you get to make games.

SmartmanApps ,
@SmartmanApps@programming.dev avatar

don’t have to learn about indenting until you cover flow control

Which is one of the very first things they're taught - "hello world", variables ("Enter your name", "hello {name}"), branches, and loops, in that order.

I’m not sure I can think of a language that would be better suited to learning

Pascal - it's what it was designed for. Variables, branches, and loops, with strong types and optional indenting. Once people have a handle on that, THEN move onto OOP.

realbadat ,

I am shocked there is someone besides me who still enjoys the wordy C.

Pascal was the first real language I learned (after basic)

SmartmanApps ,
@SmartmanApps@programming.dev avatar

Pascal was the first real language I learned (after basic)

Same. Taught myself some Basic in high school (first on a school computer, then we got a computer at home), learnt Pascal in 1st year Uni (programming basics - wrote a bunch of stuff for myself in Pascal for my computer) then C in 2nd year (OOP), and then Assembler in 3rd year. Later I taught myself (with the help of some books and courses.... and intellisense! 😂) C#.

SmartmanApps ,
@SmartmanApps@programming.dev avatar

Oh, I nearly forgot! I had to learn Python too... because I had to teach it. Did try to argue for C#, which is allowed under the curriculum (and would be a more suitable language to teach), but then found it's hard to get that agreed on because so many schools just run Python because it's easier for them from an administrative point of view - I found I wasn't alone in this predicament. Thanks school admins...