How did YOU learn to program?

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ID:808851
 
Jun 10 2012, 2:19 pm
Hello BYOND Community, I was just wondering how did y'all learn to program? The way I learned was looking at ripped naruto source trying to edit them lol. I remember when I use to go on YouTube / Google and search how to code for BYOND. I was self taught, and over the years I got better. I'm actually still learning new things and how to code things an easier way. So back to the original question, how did you learn?
Jun 10 2012, 2:53 pm
I used resources and F1. I used ripped sources at first, but in the end they only taught me bad habits that I had to get rid of. Shove those habits now, you'll practically have to re-learn DM anyways.
Jun 10 2012, 2:58 pm
The reference, from friends, that's pretty much it. When I started with BYOND I didn't have regular internet access, so the only resource I had at the time was the built in help file. From that, I used the examples to learn the basic structure of the language and to start putting together simple games. After about a year of that, my family got AOL and I started browsing the forums and made a couple friends who were good programmers. They ended up teaching me a lot by including me in their projects and letting me bug them about things I didn't understand.
Jun 10 2012, 2:58 pm
Before I came to BYOND, I had prior experience with programming, so it was quite easy for me to adapt to the language. All I ever used was F1.
Jun 10 2012, 3:06 pm
I used F1, but didn't really understand it at all due to the fact of me being 11 lol. I used to copy and paste the example from F1 and tried to figure it out. But now, its really easy to understand anything DM related, read threw it like a book.
Jun 10 2012, 3:35 pm
I'm going to assume you mean programming in DM, because I basically learned to program before I came to BYOND. With DM, I mostly learned on my own, but I met someone here who helped me a lot. (Kaioken is his key, and he's all but disappeared.) After I understood most of the language, I used that guy for help a lot. I had all sorts of bad habits, because I taught myself, and I was pointed to the DM Reference (which is a quick read, really) and other guides that helped me out, like the Green Programming article and others by Lummox JR. IainPreregrine also had a webpage on his member page that introduced the parent_type to me, which I found mighty useful.

The funniest thing, which now seems to me as ridiculously obvious, is I didn't know the difference between:
if (X)
    //stuff1
else
    if (Y)
        //stuff2

and
if (X)
    //stuff1
else if (Y)
    //stuff2

It's an important distinction to make for certain programming schemes, but I didn't know the difference starting out. Haha.

EDIT: Also, yes, I taught myself off of ripped sources originally. Like the Dragonball Zeta source, for example. It's really not a good idea to learn from. (And Kaioken couldn't stress that to me enough.)
Jun 10 2012, 5:04 pm (Edited on Jun 10 2012, 5:19 pm)
Zilal tutorials and then a bunch of demos/sources. I learned how to do AI from one of Falacy's demos, missile() from DivineTraveller's demo, Calus CoRPS taught me some stuff over the pager or in one of those chatrooms ( the one before the Saloon, I can't remember the name ), and the rest I learned how to do was from the Dragon Ball Elysium source.

I saw the DM guide, it was tl;dr ( I didn't even make it past chapter 1 of that thing ), so I found every other way possible to figure out how to do stuff.
Jun 11 2012, 1:46 am
Just kind of woke up one day, and could program just about whatever language I liked. Kind of like when Neo learns Kung Fu in the Matrix.
Jun 11 2012, 2:50 am
In response to Stephen001
Stephen001 wrote:
Just kind of woke up one day, and could program just about whatever language I liked. Kind of like when Neo learns Kung Fu in the Matrix.

Don't think you can program. Know you can program.
Jun 11 2012, 2:51 am
In response to Stephen001
Stephen001 wrote:
Just kind of woke up one day, and could program just about whatever language I liked. Kind of like when Neo learns Kung Fu in the Matrix.

Win ^^ Lol .
Jun 11 2012, 2:51 am
In response to EmpirezTeam
EmpirezTeam wrote:
Stephen001 wrote:
Just kind of woke up one day, and could program just about whatever language I liked. Kind of like when Neo learns Kung Fu in the Matrix.

Don't think you can program. Know you can program.

I know I can't icon :C
Jun 11 2012, 4:19 am (Edited on Jun 11 2012, 4:32 am)
Well, for me it started during late 2008. At first I went to the DM Guide, read the first few chapters, but soon became too perplexing for my thirteen year old mind. So I went on Youtube and found an interesting playlist of tutorials from someone named Theriddler. After that I read Zilal's tutorials, browsed through a few great demos & libraries, abused the F1 function, and that's basically the gist.
It was my first time programming, and it has really helped me pick up languages like Python, Java, and C++ easily. It's too bad I've never shown what I could do with DM. Oh well, hopefully one day.
Jun 11 2012, 4:44 am
Vermilion taught me some basics, gave up on me, then I used the DM guide.
Jun 12 2012, 4:46 pm
I started learning using Zilals tutorials and reading the DM guide. Then, figuring that I learned better by reading Zilals I got into using sources to learn. That is how I learned all the basics anyway. After I learned all I could from ripped sources, I went through the BYOND forums, and the DM guide, and the DM reference, and learned things as I needed them. Doing this took a long time to undo most of the damage that the ripped sources caused on my learning though. Some of it still sticks every now and then.
Jun 12 2012, 5:08 pm
What is Zilal's tutorials?
Jun 12 2012, 5:12 pm
In response to Flysbad
Flysbad wrote:
What is Zilal's tutorials?

Look here: http://zilal.byondhome.com/tutorials/zbt.html
Its very basic, just trying to get you introduced into the basics of the DM language.
Jun 12 2012, 5:14 pm
OH YEAH! I remember looking at that too .
Jun 12 2012, 5:28 pm
I started to learn from an RPG demo that I think Kunark made, and then used the F1 reference/forums to learn the rest.

It looks like he took it down, which I guess is good because I don't think it was particularly high-quality code. Now I'm curious if I have a copy in one of my archives.
Jun 12 2012, 5:35 pm
I learned by trial and error, when I came across something I couldn't quite get I'd search the forums and ask a question if I couldn't find something helpful.

As for other languages, if I needed to know how to do something I'd Google it and usually find a good answer -- if not I'd figure it out on my own.
Jun 13 2012, 2:56 am
I didn't.
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