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comment by JethroTulli
JethroTulli  ·  3373 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Need advice on learning a programming language

Thanks

Just one question, do you think the course tracks on CodeAcademy suffice for good learning of the language or it should be done through other professional courses such as an outside academy or a paid course on Udely?





bhrgunatha  ·  3372 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Try Coursera

* Introduction to Python - starts in February

* Introduction to Systematic Program Design - Part 1 - which I think is still open to join and which also teaches very solid practices to designing code.

Or Edx

* MITs introduction to Computer Science - which uses Python and starts in Jan

JethroTulli  ·  3371 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Thank you. I would definitely sign up for these.

Dendrophobe  ·  3373 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I haven't done CodeAcademy, so I can't say. It doesn't really matter though. From your posts, it sounds like you're focused on the language part of programming. The language isn't really the important part though. If you're already a programmer, learning a new one takes very little time. The hard part is learning how to reason about programs & breaking down a problem into something that can be expressed as a program. This is something you need to learn by doing. Unless it's got the world's best homework assignments, I wouldn't spend any money on a basic programming course. All the information you need is freely available.

And if you go with Python, keep in mind which version of it you're using. There are small but significant differences between 2.7.x and 3.x, so be aware what the tutorials you're reading refer to (if you see 'print("text")' in it, it's python 3. If you see 'print "text"', it's python 2) . Both versions are widely used, but I think 2.7.x is still more popular.