Bitcoin Forum

I've always wanted to learn to program so that I can get more involved in Bitcoin and other alternative crypto currencies and I have finally decided to get started, no time like the present! What language would you recommend is best to start with and most relevant?

Can anyone post links for any decent material to get started on learning or recommend any courses to do in the UK. Much appreciated.

PHP, Ruby, Python, Java, or C++. All of them are nearly identical, so you can go from one to other fairly easily. After the basics the primary differences are names for functions and the syntactical layout of stuff. PHP is the one of the most widely used web-programming languages, and that knowledge can be fairly easily moved to another. C++ or Java would be a decent place to start too, as they're the most abundantly used languages for desktop-based applications and mobile applications. If you want to start right up with desktop/mobile apps my suggestion would be C++, that's what the BitCoinD/BitCoin-Qt applications are coded in.

Programming is a very broad term. What sort of development are you looking to do? Are you looking to build computer applications like bitcoin, or websites?
Personally, almost 20 years ago now I started with Visual Basic, and C then html, javascript, and flash actionscripting <- (is that still even a thing? lol) then I stopped for a while then did SQL and PHP. I've learned some on my own and others I went to school.

Codecademy.com is a free place to start if you're looking to do websites.
Maybe someone else here can suggest a good place to get started with C?

Codecademy is good.

Udemy is another place to look at; they have user submitted tutorials, some are paid, others are free. PluralSight is another, but that is paid, after a 10-day free trial. Surprisingly I still find some books to be relevant; at least as a starting point and reference guide.

I'd say that starting with something like Python is probably a good idea. If you are interested in doing web stuff, maybe PHP instead. Definitely try one of the tutorial sites that others listed as they are good resources for learning.

If you want to develop web based programs then learn php and java script

http://www.w3schools.com/

https://www.edx.org/

https://www.udacity.com/

http://www.w3schools.in

https://www.udemy.com/

Javascript. It is getting mainstream. You can create Android app.. exe with it.

I think you're confusing Javascript with Java... You can't code an Android app entirely in Javascript. It uses straight Java for most of its programming SDK. You can use Javascript on top of it but not to code the whole thing.

I recently came across this, maybe it helps you.

https://i.imgur.com/d9cU904.png

It depends on that you want to do with it I think, but learning more than one type might be good to. I would start with scripted oriented languages because they are very easy to learn (like python, or pearl, or even matlab).

I started out with web programming with HTML for my robotics team way back in high school. Today I am still churning out websites, mostly in PHP but as a hobby.

I've used edx and it works well for me.
Berkeley has some of there stuff for free online as well. its not a "class," but it is the content.

I quite liked the way our college structured the programming component of our introductory computer science course. We started off with Python since it's easier to grasp for newbies in the beginning compared to languages like C++. There is a popular textbook for Python licensed under the Creative Commons license called "Think Python: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist" which you can download online and a modified version of this was what we used during the course:

http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython/

Afterwards, we moved to Java in our second semester. Not only is it a highly useful programming language, but learning Java will probably make you feel more comfortable with learning C++ and PHP too since they share much of the same syntax.


Isn't HTML more of a markup language than a real programming language though?

I suggest PHP because it is simple and believe it will satisfy all your needs for creating web sites and services. If you plan to gather and store information then you will have to learn SQL (recommend).

http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/

That graphic is amazing!

Yeah, well you probably need to study for about 3 years before you try to do anything related to bitcoin. Take it from someone who learned the hard way

As mentioned Zeb Shaw's book 'Learn Python the Hard Way' is a pretty good intro. There's also this Coursera specialization (https://www.coursera.org/specialization/fundamentalscomputing2/37?utm_medium=listingPage) which covers algorithms and basic computer science plus it's all in Python so can stick with that language after reading LPTHW.

Harvard's beginning Computer Science course is also excellent, heavily C based so you can learn about buffer overflows and other issues https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-computer-science-harvardx-cs50x

It doesn't matter what language you learn just learn how to program first in any language.

I learned by reading SICP, Structural Interpretation of Computer Programs and watching these old vids and I use Gambit Scheme and Racket (Scheme) for a lot of projects http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-001-structure-and-interpretation-of-computer-programs-spring-2005/



Edit: Some guy made a 'Mastering Bitcoin' book, I haven't read it
http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920032281.do