Is there a community or online knowledgebase for classic/vintage computing (C64, Spectrum etc)?

funkless_eck · 2012-05-21T19:53:22.421670+00:00

I cannot recommend strongly enough that you ditch BASIC and move on to a modern language (especially Python).

BASIC was an excellent place to start for complete beginners two decades ago. They are not simple programming languages, they were just simpler than the other languages at that time. Python and Ruby are much better languages to use to learn programming.

More importantly, you will be able to find documentation and resources for modern languages. You won't be able to find nearly as many people who can help you with obscure details of BASIC on these old platforms.

funkless_eck · 2012-05-21T19:51:21.133173+00:00

http://atariarchives.org/ has scans of several old Atari BASIC books.

TheSpaceOfAdes · 2012-05-21T05:45:29.282912+00:00

TL;DR:

http://inventwithpython.com

This the web page for the book "Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python". The book is aimed at total beginners, is free to download, and rated very well on Amazon.

Herp_in_my_Derp · 2012-05-21T05:39:06.635024+00:00

If you don't mind learning a new language (which I recommend, because C++ can be a bit much as a first language), I'd recommend this site:

http://inventwithpython.com

This the web page for the book "Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python". The book is aimed at total beginners, is free to download, and rated very well on Amazon.

Ineedsathelp · 2012-05-21T05:37:50.731463+00:00

I wrote several game programs that were designed to be 1) easy to read and understood by beginners and 2) have their programming concepts explained as well. The code is on this site http://inventwithpython.com (which also has the PDFs of the books free to download.)

Looking back, when I first learned how to program, I realized that most of my programs were just derivatives of programs I had seen before. So I wanted to make a large collection of different types of games ('cause games are fun) so that people could see them and then get ideas for their own programs.

amonkeyscousin · 2012-05-21T05:33:47.417053+00:00

http://inventwithpython.com

This the web page for the book "Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python". The book is aimed at total beginners, is free to download, and rated very well on Amazon.

EdgarAllenBro_ · 2012-05-21T05:33:41.123800+00:00

http://inventwithpython.com

This the web page for the book "Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python". The book is aimed at total beginners, is free to download, and rated very well on Amazon.

zabzonk · 2 days

I wrote my own response to Jeff's piece: A Modest Proposal: Please Don’t Learn to Code Because It Will Damage Your Tiny Brain

TL; DR: Remember, Jeff isn’t just saying that most professions and lifestyles wouldn’t be significantly enhanced by programming ability. He isn’t just saying that “coding is the new literacy that you have to have” is hyperbole. (Both are arguable points.) If he was, he would have titled his post, “You Don’t Actually Need to Learn to Code”. Rather, he wants to keep the unwashed masses from embarrassing themselves with their amateur code which he and the other elite coders will end up having to debug. That’s why the title is “Please Don’t Learn to Code”.

It’s his plea for you to not even try.

timelighter · 2 days

Scratch is by far the best resource I've seen for that age group. If they are willing to sit through some boring typing and not getting that immediate graphical feedback (but would want to learn "real" programming), I wrote a free book for complete beginners as young as 10 or 12 for Python:

Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python

badtim · 3 days

In that case, totally skip Scratch. Scratch is absolutely wonderful, but I use it as a stepping stone because it has immediate graphical results and also sidesteps the problem of typing (which can be a frustrating hurdle for kids).

If you want to teach her "real" programming, Python is the best language for total beginners. I wrote a book aimed to be readable by 10 year old-ish kids that you can read for free online: Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python

hahnsolocup · 3 days

I would go with Python; as a first language there's nothing better for beginners.

I wrote a (free) book called "Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python" that is for beginners. You can read it online at http://inventwithpython.com

cptjmshook · 4 days

Reddit is extremely reactionary. everything is an emergency, crisis and the outrage machine goes full blast.

So, reddit is pretty much like a 14 year old girl?

No, reddit is pretty much like Fox News.

UNLEASH THE DOWNVOTES.

kracekumar · 5 days

Nobody recommends the 3,168 pages of Knuth's Art of Computer Programming as a first step for people who want to learn programming.

If you're going to learn how to plumb a house, learning how a toilet works is a good first step. If you're going to learn how to maintain JavaScript for a website, playing around with Logo is a good first step.

kracekumar · 5 days

Even if Mr. Bloomberg did "learn to code", with apologies to Adam Vandenberg, I expect we'd end up with this: 10 PRINT "I AM MAYOR" 20 GOTO 10

Ha ha, silly mayor. Thinks he has the smarts to learn to code. He'll just embarrass himself with his toy spaghetti code.

Jeff is right to use the sarcastic quotes. The very idea of the mayor of New York being able to write small scripts to automate some simple tasks on his computer is absurd!

tompa_coder · 5 days

If you think having a hiring problem is unique in this business

Copy and paste the text where I said or even implied that hiring problems are unique to the software industry.

It sounds like the situation was, there's a lot of crap devs out there and the dev that was hired turned out to be crap.

But if there weren't a lot of crap devs out there and just the good devs, it sounds like the position would have gone unfilled. If you could have hired a good dev, then the good dev would have been hired regardless of how many other crap devs are there.

So the fact that someone was hired over nobody being hired means that the company thought even a crap dev was better than no dev. Nobody was forcing the company to hire someone. If the company hired someone who ended up being more trouble than nobody filling the position, the mistake was in hiring that person. Not hiring someone isn't the optimal option, but it sounds like it was a better option than hiring the crap dev.

(Also, to be fair, replace "crap" with "inexperienced". Everyone sucks at first.)

tompa_coder · 5 days

I have worked with far too many people who got into it because its a good job and utterly fucking suck at it. Worse, they fuck shit up beyond repair.

Sounds more like a hiring-decision problem rather than a programming-skills problem.

vikksorg · 7 days

Read this book cover-to-cover, twice: Code Complete by Steve McConnell. Learn how to use a source control system and the basics of "software configuration management" (SCM). Learn how to write proper bug reports and source control log messages. Read the best posts of Joel on Software and Coding Horror.

The thing that separates coders and developers is knowing about all the infrastructure that goes into helping you communicate and work with a team of developers. That's pretty much it.

Oh yeah, and completely skip past UML or "Extreme Programming" methodologies.

zahirah73 · 7 days

It's about as realistic as the 1 True Millionaire Fan theory.

DeanKeaton · 7 days

In short, read this book. It is aimed at complete beginners, is free, and covers Python (which is the best language for beginners to learn):

Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python

add7 · 7 days

McCoy_Pauley · 9 days

Pygame is an excellent way to start.

If you want a tutorial with the source code for several games, here's a free book: Making Games with Python & Pygame

If you want ideas for games to make, here's a list: "I Need Practice Programming": 49 Ideas for Game Clones to Code

add7 · 9 days

Learn Python. It is the easiest programming language to pick up. Read this book (it's free online): Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python Even if you don't read through the book, just typing in the game source code will make you familiar with programming in Python (Python is very readable).

Then if you want to continue on to graphical games, read this other free book: Making Games with Python & Pygame

If anything, it'll give you an idea of how different programs work.

Email this guy if you have questions about the book or programming: al@inventwithpython.com

Disclaimer: I am the author of the two books and I am "this guy".

bholzer · 9 days

If they are willing to hire you, you are probably plenty ready for it.

In all seriousness, this is the best answer for the OP's question.

There's an ancient Chinese proverb, "The man who waits to apply for a software dev job until they feel ready for it will be waiting a very long time."

meteors · 10 days

Because of differences in life expectancy, however, lifetime health expenditure was highest among healthy-living people and lowest for smokers.

I don't think I'm crazy for saying this: lauding the fact that smokers have lower healthcare costs because they die earlier is... well, horrible.

Smokers choose to take that risk themselves

The nicotine has a pretty large say in that decision. Choosing to continue smoking or not isn't as easy as choosing between Coke or Pepsi, or other things we consider to be fairly free choices. Ask anyone who has quit: it's easier said than done.

And making a profit by putting incentives on unhealthy behavior is what is wrong with the way capitalism works today, and it's one of the things that needs to be fixed.

My only concern with cigarette taxes is that it could either make the state dependent on cigarette consumption for revenue or the taxes make cigarettes so expensive that a black market cigarettes become feasible.

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