[I decided to put this together after several friends told me they wanted to learn programming this year and asked me how to get started. This is what I told them]:
If you want to learn how to code this year, then you're in luck. Learning how to program has never been easier. It's also never been more important, so here are some tips for how to get started:
Total Beginner's Tutorial
My favorite beginner's intro to programming is Chris Pine's "Learn to Program." It's short, simple, and very clearly written. You can read it for free online, but there are also pdf and paperbook versions:
http://pine.fm/LearnToProgram/
Interactive Tutorial
There's a fairly new website called Codecadmy (http://codecademy.com) which offers some pretty cool interactive tutorials geared towards people with no prior knowledge of programming. I haven't played with it too much, but it looks fun.
Launch a web app (aka a dynamic web site)
There are three main "web frameworks" in use right now, which are all ways to make it easier to build and launch what they call a "dynamic website" (something like Twitter or Facebook with user accounts, etc.). The most popular framework, and I think the best for beginners---both because it's the simplest and has the biggest community, is Ruby on Rails, which you've probably heard of if you run in tech circles. Here is a great, free tutorial for learning Rails as its commonly referred to:
http://ruby.railstutorial.org/
After you complete the tutorial, try building a small app that you yourself would use. This is the best way to learn (and incidentally, it's also the best way to launch a startup).
Once you get started, for some more advanced guidance you can check out these other Rails-related sites:
http://guides.rubyonrails.org - the documentation provided by the maintainers of Ruby on Rails
http://railscasts.com - excellent video tutorials for intermediate Rails programming
Free Computer Science Videos and Courses Online
If you want to get more into the theoretical side of computer science, there is always open courseware: free, online courses from leading universities. Stanford, Harvard, MIT, and Cal all have great resources online. Here's a roundup of most of them:
http://academicearth.org/subjects/computer-science
Stanford, in particular, has recently launched an initiative of actual full (still free) online courses (with homework, tests, etc.). Here is a link to their class on artificial intelligence:
When you get stuck...
One of the most exciting developments for programmers old and new alike is the recent explosion of online communities around coding. These resources, in particular, can be extremely helpful when you get stuck:
Stack Overflow (stackoverflow.com) is a great place to ask programming questions (or search them --- chances are someone else had already asked)
Github (https://github.com) is a huge respository of open source software where you can usually find some code that already does what you're trying to do (then download it and use it!)
Many popular code libraries also have their own Google Groups, which you can message. There's also always Google itself as a last resort.
Things to read
If you really want to get into the coder's mindset in '12 you can also read what coders read.
Follow your favorite open source contributers on Twitter. For instance, @dhh created the aforementioned Ruby on Rails and @wycats has worked on Rails, jQuery (which you'll learn about shortly), and a new programming project called ember.js.
Read "Hacker News" (http://news.ycombinator.com). It's by far the best source for news about startups and programming.
There's also Slashdot (http://slashdot.org), which is an old standby news source for coders.
Good luck!
Starting out can be intimidating and frustrating at times, but if you can power through it, then programming is one of the most rewarding things you'll ever do. There's nothing like the feeling of clicking that button and getting the rush of when your program finally works.
Happy New Year! Feel free to post any other questions you might have in the comments. Or reach out to me on Twitter (@wxmn).
If you've read this far you should probably Follow me on Twitter and Check out my startup Grouper, which sets up drinks between 2 groups of friends (3 guys and 3 girls).
