About 5-6 weeks ago now, I purchased a step by step book on learning C#. I really wanted to get into programming and I was really determined at the start that I was going to succeed in overcoming C# and then going on to learning languages.
Fast forward 5 or so weeks and I don't have anything driving me to learn anymore. So far all I have made is a program that I use for calculating how much metal keys are worth in Team Fortress 2. I know, not the most advanced or the most needed of program's, but hey, I'm only about 3 chapters into my book and I wanted to make something. So basically you input the key value, you input the amount of keys and it'll give you how much it's worth in raw scrap and also refined, reclaimed and scrap. You can also do the process backwards, say, put in metal and see how many keys it is worth. If you haven't played TF2 you won't have a clue at what I'm on about. Just as a note, it's a free game. If you haven't played it, go get steam and try it out.
Anyway, everytime I look at the book, I just cannot be bothered to learn. I don't know if it's just cause its a big ass book with loads of information and most of it seems pointless to me, or if it's I'm not seeing any results to my efforts.
If you have any suggestions as to what I can do to get over this programming block or of you have any ideas for a basic program I can try and make then let me know. And when I say basic, I can do variables, maths operators and if/else things.. I know, I'm a wizard right?
Also, apologises if my spelling is poor. FP seems to be lagging extremely badly on my phone :(
My favourite way of learning is to set a task that I want to accomplish, and use the Internet to research and overcome any hurdles I reach.
I'd suggest that you make a basic web browser
[QUOTE=Jookia;34455245]My favourite way of learning is to set a task that I want to accomplish, and use the Internet to research and overcome any hurdles I reach.[/QUOTE]
Do this. Maybe find a game to mod?
when i learnd i stop for 6 months one time, take break, u will get inthusiam back
Thats normal.
You need to take a step back and do something that you know you can do.
Some time ago I wanted to hack a game and I couldn't quite get my hack to work the way I wanted it.
I've read some tutorials on different topics about hacking techniques, but it didn't help (yet).
I took a break and did something else. I made a nice interface for the hack and played around with the c# "windows forms" and did some other stuff that was unrelated to the original problem (the hack).
Then a few weeks after that I tried to work on that hack again.
Suddenly the stuff was a lot clearer to me. Sometimes it just takes some time to really understand what you have read.
Well, whatever, just don't give up and have fun at what you're doing. :D
[QUOTE=Jookia;34455245]My favourite way of learning is to set a task that I want to accomplish, and use the Internet to research and overcome any hurdles I reach.
I'd suggest that you make a basic web browser[/QUOTE]
This, minus the web browser part. That's either little more than drag-and-drop or really complicated.
I think it helps if the programs have an interesting purpose:
Some of my first a bit more interesting programs in C# were solvers for math and logic puzzles. (My math teacher started a small math competition, but the questions were usually very tedious, like finding all solutions for that pentagram jumping puzzle given the first move. I made a typo in that program and finished second or third, can't remember :v:)
You can try recreating a board game for the console. That way you'll learn a bit more about control flow data structures.
You can add a computer player or network multiplayer to the finished game; both should be relatively simple programming wise (unless you made chess :suicide:) but there probably won't be an exact solution for the problem on the internet.
Sometimes I just make something silly while thinking about a problem, like this program that jpeg compresses an image 1000 times over with random quality: [IMG]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5013896/forum/Facepunch/Programming/7c877d70952bc7ee7ec23ece05c7bcb5ff10de41_full.jpg1000.jpeg[/IMG]
It's extremely simple but I still learned something because I didn't know the API for jpeg compression and because there is a small quirk in Windows' file access that I had to work around.
[url]http://projecteuler.net/[/url]
[url]http://codingbat.com/[/url]
two websites that I hit frequently when I want to seem productive in class but don't feel like trudging through the assignments.
hell, here's two more sites:
[url]http://www1.bellevuepublicschools.org/curriculum/dbabb/index.html[/url]
[url]https://sites.google.com/site/metroprogramming/[/url]
those two are maintained by my teacher, the first is literally two classes' curriculum but you might grab inspiration from it. it's very much python and java-oriented though. the second is a sort of competition run by him, there aren't any going on right now but you can push through the problems in your own language at your own pace if you like.
really you just have to find something you're passionate about. remember if you want to show off anything at all you're working on you can hit up WAYWO and get lots of programming kings (even if a few are ironic).
we believe in you!
[url]http://projecteuler.net/[/url]
I can't recommend this website highly enough.
[editline]31st January 2012[/editline]
Also, you could always join one of our Game Jams. There's one going on at the moment actually.
Try to get into graphics programming sooner than later, making programs with windows forms or just the console gets boring fast if you're more into making games, and it set me back at least 3 years before I bothered to learn OpenGL, but honestly you don't even have to go the OpenGL route, since you already learned C# try to pick up on XNA and go from there, you'll be able to make both 2D and 3D games and the possibilities become endless, so does the inspiration.
I kind of have a similar problem - I take cpp classes, and while I'm doing very well in them, I just don't have the enthusiasm to do any programming in my free time... don't even have any ideas.
I'm at the exact same point (including the book and all)
I have found some tutorials of the things that you need to learn for C# (the main parts to learn) which I will be doing this week and then once I know those I'll just make my own programs and go from there.
Same with my computer science thus year, now I'm bored of it. Can't wait for next years more interesting python.
My friends are in the same comp sci course and they are bored. I would rather dick around right now than do so next year. Also, none of my friends want to learn python now, since we will learn it next year.
Well, that hasn't stopped me from making simple text games in python right now though (last year)
More interested with a bit of Android dev and Java (which will also be taught after python, maybe android dev. I've stressed to have it. For some reason, the comps won't install or work with the android sdk... oh well.)
I just want to dick around as much as I can now, that's all.
[QUOTE=garychencool;34483769]Same with my computer science thus year, now I'm bored of it. Can't wait for next years more interesting python.[/QUOTE]
Why wait, go learn python first. If you want to learn python.
[QUOTE=Jookia;34455245]My favourite way of learning is to set a task that I want to accomplish, and use the Internet to research and overcome any hurdles I reach.
I'd suggest that you make a basic web browser[/QUOTE]
Call it Sparkbrowser
[QUOTE=nicatronTg;34456272]Do this. Maybe find a game to mod?[/QUOTE]
yes yes! do this, I found hl2ctf when I was a noob programmer, year later I was the lead programmer.
[QUOTE=MalwareBites;34490466]Call it Sparkbrowser[/QUOTE]
Then create a company based upon SparkBrowser and then build in its own protocol!
[QUOTE=Topgamer7;34489159]Why wait, go learn python first. If you want to learn python.[/QUOTE]
My friends are in the same comp sci course and they are bored. I would rather dick around right now than do so next year. Also, none of my friends want to learn python now, since we will learn it next year.
Well, that hasn't stopped me from making simple text games in python right now though (last year)
More interested with a bit of Android dev and Java (which will also be taught after python, maybe android dev. I've stressed to have it. For some reason, the comps won't install or work with the android sdk... oh well.)
I just want to dick around as much as I can now, that's all.
It's important to set achievable goals. Come up with a project and try to take it through to the end. Attempting multiple things but not getting far can be very discouraging.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
