#python programming book for beginners

[deepak-garhwal]

It is crucial to learn Python from the best resources available. books are one of the best resources to learn anything so we are going to check out the 5 best Python books for beginners. the episode of this podcast is dedicated to the top 5 Python books to build a strong foundation for beginners.

[izicodes]

Python for Software Development Book | Resource ✨

>> Link to the book <<

Does it look sketchy? Yes. But is it really good? Yes.

[blubberquark]

Why Not Write Cryptography

I learned Python in high school in 2003. This was unusual at the time. We were part of a pilot project, testing new teaching materials. The official syllabus still expected us to use PASCAL. In order to satisfy the requirements, we had to learn PASCAL too, after Python. I don't know if PASCAL is still standard.

Some of the early Python programming lessons focused on cryptography. We didn't really learn anything about cryptography itself then, it was all just toy problems to demonstrate basic programming concepts like loops and recursion. Beginners can easily implement some old, outdated ciphers like Caesar, Vigenère, arbitrary 26-letter substitutions, transpositions, and so on.

The Vigenère cipher will be important. It goes like this: First, in order to work with letters, we assign numbers from 0 to 25 to the 26 letters of the alphabet, so A is 0, B is 1, C is 2 and so on. In the programs we wrote, we had to strip out all punctuation and spaces, write everything in uppercase and use the standard transliteration rules for Ä, Ö, Ü, and ß. That's just the encoding part. Now comes the encryption part. For every letter in the plain text, we add the next letter from the key, modulo 26, round robin style. The key is repeated after we get tot he end. Encrypting "HELLOWORLD" with the key "ABC" yields ["H"+"A", "E"+"B", "L"+"C", "L"+"A", "O"+"B", "W"+"C", "O"+"A", "R"+"B", "L"+"C", "D"+"A"], or "HFNLPYOLND". If this short example didn't click for you, you can look it up on Wikipedia and blame me for explaining it badly.

Then our teacher left in the middle of the school year, and a different one took over. He was unfamiliar with encryption algorithms. He took us through some of the exercises about breaking the Caesar cipher with statistics. Then he proclaimed, based on some back-of-the-envelope calculations, that a Vigenère cipher with a long enough key, with the length unknown to the attacker, is "basically uncrackable". You can't brute-force a 20-letter key, and there are no significant statistical patterns.

I told him this wasn't true. If you re-use a Vigenère key, it's like re-using a one time pad key. At the time I just had read the first chapters of Bruce Schneier's "Applied Cryptography", and some pop history books about cold war spy stuff. I knew about the problem with re-using a one-time pad. A one time pad is the same as if your Vigenère key is as long as the message, so there is no way to make any inferences from one letter of the encrypted message to another letter of the plain text. This is mathematically proven to be completely uncrackable, as long as you use the key only one time, hence the name. Re-use of one-time pads actually happened during the cold war. Spy agencies communicated through number stations and one-time pads, but at some point, the Soviets either killed some of their cryptographers in a purge, or they messed up their book-keeping, and they re-used some of their keys. The Americans could decrypt the messages.

Here is how: If you have message $A$ and message $B$, and you re-use the key $K$, then an attacker can take the encrypted messages $A+K$ and $B+K$, and subtract them. That creates $(A+K) - (B+K) = A - B + K - K = A - B$. If you re-use a one-time pad, the attacker can just filter the key out and calculate the difference between two plaintexts.

My teacher didn't know that. He had done a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation about the time it would take to brute-force a 20 letter key, and the likelihood of accidentally arriving at something that would resemble the distribution of letters in the German language. In his mind, a 20 letter key or longer was impossible to crack. At the time, I wouldn't have known how to calculate that probability.

When I challenged his assertion that it would be "uncrackable", he created two messages that were written in German, and pasted them into the program we had been using in class, with a randomly generated key of undisclosed length. He gave me the encrypted output.

Instead of brute-forcing keys, I decided to apply what I knew about re-using one time pads. I wrote a program that takes some of the most common German words, and added them to sections of $(A-B)$. If a word was equal to a section of $B$, then this would generate a section of $A$. Then I used a large spellchecking dictionary to see if the section of $A$ generated by guessing a section of $B$ contained any valid German words. If yes, it would print the guessed word in $B$, the section of $A$, and the corresponding section of the key. There was only a little bit of key material that was common to multiple results, but that was enough to establish how long they key was. From there, I modified my program so that I could interactively try to guess words and it would decrypt the rest of the text based on my guess. The messages were two articles from the local newspaper.

When I showed the decrypted messages to my teacher the next week, got annoyed, and accused me of cheating. Had I installed a keylogger on his machine? Had I rigged his encryption program to leak key material? Had I exploited the old Python random number generator that isn't really random enough for cryptography (but good enough for games and simulations)?

Then I explained my approach. My teacher insisted that this solution didn't count, because it relied on guessing words. It would never have worked on random numeric data. I was just lucky that the messages were written in a language I speak. I could have cheated by using a search engine to find the newspaper articles on the web.

Now the lesson you should take away from this is not that I am smart and teachers are sore losers.

Lesson one: Everybody can build an encryption scheme or security system that he himself can't defeat. That doesn't mean others can't defeat it. You can also create an secret alphabet to protect your teenage diary from your kid sister. It's not practical to use that as an encryption scheme for banking. Something that works for your diary will in all likelihood be inappropriate for online banking, never mind state secrets. You never know if a teenage diary won't be stolen by a determined thief who thinks it holds the secret to a Bitcoin wallet passphrase, or if someone is re-using his banking password in your online game.

Lesson two: When you build a security system, you often accidentally design around an "intended attack". If you build a lock to be especially pick-proof, a burglar can still kick in the door, or break a window. Or maybe a new variation of the old "slide a piece of paper under the door and push the key through" trick works. Non-security experts are especially susceptible to this. Experts in one domain are often blind to attacks/exploits that make use of a different domain. It's like the physicist who saw a magic show and thought it must be powerful magnets at work, when it was actually invisible ropes.

Lesson three: Sometimes a real world problem is a great toy problem, but the easy and didactic toy solution is a really bad real world solution. Encryption was a fun way to teach programming, not a good way to teach encryption. There are many problems like that, like 3D rendering, Chess AI, and neural networks, where the real-world solution is not just more sophisticated than the toy solution, but a completely different architecture with completely different data structures. My own interactive codebreaking program did not work like modern approaches works either.

Lesson four: Don't roll your own cryptography. Don't even implement a known encryption algorithm. Use a cryptography library. Chances are you are not Bruce Schneier or Dan J Bernstein. It's harder than you thought. Unless you are doing a toy programming project to teach programming, it's not a good idea. If you don't take this advice to heart, a teenager with something to prove, somebody much less knowledgeable but with more time on his hands, might cause you trouble.

[python-programming-language]

"Python Course for Beginners" with Estefanía ...

Post #102: YouTube, Estefanía Cassingena-Navone, Learn Python In 2 Hours, 2023.

Estefanía is one of my favourite programming instructors. She explains step by step and visualizes wonderfully. I also like her voice and how she gets to the heart of the learning content. I have booked several coding courses on Udemy which are really excellent.

[projectadulthood]

39 Best Websites to Find Free Textbooks, Research Papers, Study Guides, and Books

Whether you’ve just received a long list of textbooks you need for a specific uni class or are looking for a particular book/research paper for a high school project, books (and journal subscriptions) can be expensive.

The good news is that there are plenty of resources online where you can find free PDF versions of most written materials, starting with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology and ending with Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Note that although some of the websites below provide access to copyright-free texts only, or texts that publishers/authors have agreed to share freely, others have been accused of internet privacy.

However, many people see open access practices as morally acceptable, especially considering the unsustainable prices of academic textbooks and papers.

To quote a recent paper on the topic:

"Since shadow libraries are a product of the cooperation between scholars, who contribute texts and other resources (such as donations, volunteer work, etc.), shadow libraries represent a ‘bottom-up’, radical approach to open access: a physical approximation of the Platonic ideal of knowledge sharing that would exist if there were no legal, economic, or institutional barriers to the circulation of scholarly knowledge."

Free Textbooks

Library Genesis

Library Genesis, or Libgen for short, is a shadow online library website where college students can find academic books (including those that are hard to find/very expensive) and scholarly journal articles.

The site also hosts general-interest books, audiobooks, comics, magazines, and images.

Z-Library

Z-Library is another shadow library website that hosts college textbooks, scholarly journal articles, and general-interest books. It calls itself “the world’s largest e-book library.” It mirrors Library Genesis.

The front page also features some of the most popular books at the time. When we viewed it, these included “Thinking Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and Harry Potter the Complete Collection by J. K. Rowling.

You can also use the right-hand navigation menu to see the books that have been added most recently, as well as sort through books based on category.

Use the Book Request option if you can’t find a book you’re looking for. There’s no guarantee your book will be added, but community members look at requests to see what books to upload (you can also upload books).

PDF Drive

PDF Drive is an online library with a ton of free ebooks and PDF textbooks in various categories, including academic & education (but also lifestyle, personal growth, art, linguistics, etc.)

ForCoder.su

Forcoder.su has lots of online textbooks on programming. It also provides free access to online courses, like Apache Kafka for beginners and object-oriented programming with Python. Currently, there are hundreds of free courses available.

Online Mathematics Textbooks

Online Mathematics Textbooks is your source for free digital textbooks on all things math. It’s just one page featuring 77 textbooks.

Tech Books for Free Download

Tech Books for Free Download is where you’ll find free science and engineering books on topics ranging from data mining to general relativity.

There’s no way to search for books easily. However, the site is divided into books on Linux, Java, Microsoft, C and C++, Perl/Python, Science, Networking, Database, Security, and Assembly.

Free Tech Books

Free Tech Books is an open textbook library. It provides access to free computer science books and textbooks, plus lecture notes. All the books and lecture notes listed on this site are freely available on authors’ and/or publishers’ sites.

You can browse books by category (computer science, mathematics, supporting fields, operating system, programming/scripting, miscellaneous), author, publisher, or license.

Directory of Open Access Books

Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) is a website that indexes and provides access to academic, peer-reviewed open-access books. All disciplines are covered, but there’s a particular emphasis on humanities, social sciences, and law.

Ubiquity Press

Ubiquity Press has been an open-access publisher of academic, peer-reviewed books and journals since 2012. It was founded by University of College London (UCL) researchers.

Research Papers

Sci-Hub

Sci-hub has the most expansive collection of research papers. Its mission is to “remove all barriers in the way of science.”

Directory of Open Access Journals

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is an online directory of open-access, peer-reviewed research journals covering humanities, social sciences, technology, science, medicine, and art.

The directory indexes journals from different countries and languages. DOAJ is supported financially by publishers, libraries, and other organizations.

Wiley Open Access

Wiley Open Access provides peer-reviewed open-access journals across topics like biochemistry, economics, sociology, mathematics, and law.

SpringerOpen

SpringerOpen publishes open-access journals across a wide range of areas, mainly STEM.

Elsevier

Elsevier publishes open-access, peer-reviewed journals. You can search for journals by title, keyword, or subject (dentistry, nursing, decision sciences, etc.)

Springer Link

Springer Link provides access to ebooks, peer-reviewed journal articles, and other resources (mostly scientific).

BASE

BASE is a search engine for academic texts, including journals, digital collections, institutional repositories, etc. You can access about 60% of the indexed texts for free.

Study Guides

Bibliomania

Bibliomania has study guides to the most-read books, like “A Hero of Our Time,” “Animal Farm,” and even Irish politics. It also has over 2,000 classic texts, book summaries, author biographies, and more.

Books

Open Library

Open Library is an open library catalog of more than 3 million new and old books. The project was created by the nonprofit organization Internet Archive. It has also received partial funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation and the California State Library.

You can read old books without an account. However, for new books, you’ll need to set one up (it takes just a few minutes).

Internet Archive

Internet Archive is a digital library of ebooks. It also has free movies, music, and software.

Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg is a famous site where you can find lots of free books. There are more than 60,000 books in its collection.

Standard Ebooks

Standard Ebooks take public domain texts and make them as nice as new books. They fix typographical errors and typos, create cool cover art, and format the text for e-readers like Kindle and iPad.

Planet eBook

Planet eBook is where you can download free PDF copies of classics like Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.

What really makes Planet eBook stand out is its UX. It’s one of those rare sites that are super easy to navigate and actually look good (aesthetically speaking).

The Ultimate Book Search Engine

The Ultimate Book Search Engine is an ebook search engine that includes 350 open directory sites that relate to ebooks. It was created by the Reddit user u/NotoriousYEG.

Classic Bookshelf

The Classic Bookshelf is a site where you’ll find lots of classic novels, everything from Charles Dickens and Leo Tolstoy.

Literature.org

Literature.org features classic works of English literature, both fiction and non-fiction.

Bartleby

Bartleby is a site that features both fiction and nonfiction books.

Fiction.us

Fiction.us has a ton of books, including fiction, short stories, children's picture books, poetry, books on writing, and plays.

Classic Literature Library

As the name suggests, Classic Literature Library is where you’ll find classic literature works.

Ideology.us

Ideology.us is a site that has ebooks on philosophy, psychology, sociology, politics, and education.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare is where you’ll find all of Shakespeare’s work. The site is run by The Tech, the largest and oldest newspaper by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

Read Books Online

Read Books Online has around 6,000 ebooks, including novels, short stories, poems, essays, plays, and non-fiction.

Public Bookshelf

Public Bookshelf is a site dedicated to romance novels.

Categories of ebooks here include contemporary romance, romantic suspense, historical romance, regency romance, inspirational romance, vampire romance, western romance, general romance, and fantasy and paranormal romance.

The Perseus Project

The Perseus Project is a digital library created by Tufts University with books from Ancient Rome and Greece, published in original languages and English.

Chest of Books

Chest of Books has books on a ton of different subjects, including animals, finance, real estate, science, and travel.

The Literature Network

The Literature Network has books by authors like Anne Bronte, Lewis Carroll, and Lord George Gordon Byron. It also features forums, literature summaries, and quizzes.

The Online Books Page

The Online Books Page is a site by the University of Pennsylvania that houses books in categories like philosophy, history, medicine, science, agriculture, music, anthropology, and more. The site also links to the following:

Banned Books Online: A directory of books that were once banned and links to places where you can read them in full.

A Celebration of Women Writers: A directory that lists online editions of literary works by women as well as resources about women writers.

Prize Winners Online: A directory of prize-winning books.

Many Books

Many Books is “your friendly neighborhood library.” It houses over 50,000 books in genres like romance, mystery, young adult, horror, and non-fiction. You can read books online or download them to your device.

Authorama

Authorama turns public domain books on sites like Google Books and Project Gutenberg into HTML format, making it easier to read them.

Audiobooks

Librivox

Librivox has free audiobooks that you can listen to from any device.

[megumi-fm]

tune into megumi.fm ?

💗 about me

name: meg/megumi age: 20+ pronouns: he/she/they currently: studying b.engg biotechnology languages: english, hindi, korean (beginner)

🌙 interests

subjects (academic): structural biology, network theory, programming (mainly python, a little bit of R), organic chemistry, genomics subjects (non-academic): mythology, etymology, literature, film studies and screenplay, animation hobbies: reading, singing, dancing, listening to music, watching video essays on youtube other interests: kdramas, jdramas, anime, kpop, indian classical music, indie games

📚 academic goals

short term - getting through my undergrad degree - completing my internship project - preparing for my masters - writing GRE long term - getting a PhD (hopefully)

🦋 personal goals

- tracking my finances and learning to spend less - learning to cook healthy food that I personally enjoy eating - movement! learning lots of kpop dances - reading lots of books, and exploring new genres - developing a mini game

📍 navigation:

- 2024 weekly tracker - Ongoing Daily Challenge - Academic progress trackers (+liveblogging) - Internship progress trackers - Misc to-dos - Resources - Adventures in journalling - Interactions with besties archived - Apr'24 Habit Tracker - 2023 daily tracker

[liliths-missing-pen]

Idia With Yuu Who Wants To Learn How to Program Games

Not gonna lie this is a very self indulgent piece because my computer programming class is making me want to code but I also want to write 💀 This is my compromise here.

Notes/Warnings: Reader is Yuu, I am in the English server and wish to not know what happens in Book 6 till it comes out so artistic liberties will be taken. Also, Idia might seem a little ooc but when checking the wiki it says he gets excited and talkative when stuff he likes gets brought up so I took it and ran with it. Enjoy!

Masterlist

Before you came to Twisted Wonderland you already known how to code. Mostly just from camps that your family made you do or just out of general interest. Nonetheless you only knew the minimal to basic things, like HTML, CSS, a little bit of Javascript and Python as well C++. So to say the least there wasn’t that much you could do especially as a beginner. You’ve always seen video games or visual novels and wished you’d be able to do something like that one day but yet, you never got around to polishing skills or making yourself actually do anything to get yourself to that goal.

Jump skip to know that you are in Twisted Wonderland. You didn’t know much about this world at all, lots of things were different than your own world. The way things were done, school expectations, slang, magic. So to say, you just expected that anything you knew would be just thrown out the window one way or another. Once you met Idia though you felt more secure in your knowledge. Idia was someone who you can imagine to be the most normal in your world. He was one of those kids in your class at the back of the room, typically not speaking to anyone unless prompted. Now you may wonder, “How did the Ramshackle prefect become associated with the shut-in hermit?” Well like any other instance, Ortho.

Ortho was extremely persistent that once you expressed interest or made an off-handed comment that you knew some code and loved visual novel games, you should meet his brother. Honestly, the issue wasn’t to convince you, it was Idia that needed convincing.

Since it wasn't Idia who invited you to his dorm, he was flipping out when Ortho told him to expect you. He's heard about the notorious Ramshackle prefect who dealt with Overbolts even though they're magicless. He couldn't lie and say that he wasn't interested in you though. Not everyone was able to do that. He just wasn't sure if he could do this right now.

Once you did arrive, Ortho carried most of the conversation. Idia was trying his best to try to make conversation as well but he couldn't bring himself. It was hard to talk to a normie okay?!

Well, that's what he kept thinking after each of his failed attempts. Ortho knew what to do though, he knew his brother would have issues so he hacked into your Magicam account to learn more about you till he ran upon all the gaming and anime accounts you followed. He put to and to together and this was Ortho's plan to make you two talk normally. Once he mentioned a game he knew both you and Idia played it was the start of something great.

Idia's attitude towards you changed completely once you talked about video games and anything else he was into. Which dragged into how the game was coded and whatnot. Once you mentioned how you wanted to program your own game and your vision he was just like an over-excited child he ushered you over to his game, asking how much you knew about code and how fun it would be to create a game.

But basically, once he dragged you in it'll be very hard to leave. Your whole friendship with Idia from then on was built on the game y'all were creating together, anime and gaming. Not that you'd complain it was very to have Idia around. Just that you'd always have to start up the conversion since Idia will always second guess himself

Even once you two finish creating your game Idia would still keep you around. He'd even start being the one to invite you instead of just showing up! After helping you learn and sharpen your skills in programming by working on a game together, you'd start to help him out too! If you know anything about programming, especially C++ you know how picky it is with its writing. Whilst he's off typing quickly you start to point out to him certain things he's missing, like a semicolon on something that'll screw the whole code up.

Wholeheartedly once you make friends with Idiai from one of his special interests it's going to be hard to pull him away from you <3

[xpc-web-dev]

Hi! I have just recently deciding to switch careers and leave the vet industry , go into tech. Have spent past 2 years in tech school to become a vet assistant but after being in my field, I always wondered how it would be like to have a career in tech, ive always thought for so long that being in tech comes w Math and science and i suck at both 🤣🤣🤣. so I’m deciding to enroll myself in a completely online program to become an IT tech yet i have always admired hacking and coding so without getting sooo much into it, which leads me to my question:

- what do I have to do to be in the code career?

- do I have to go to boot camp out of my state or should look into going online completely?

- is coding beginner friendly especially as someone who doesn’t have ABSOLUTE NO IDEA about coding?

Please let me know and I love that I have found a community of women jn the tech industry, it’s pretty inspiring which why I want to go into the tech career.

Hi Stone, first of all welcome to our small and growing community.

I'm glad you're giving yourself this chance to try technology and see if it's for you or go back to vet or even go to art(yes I stalked you UEUHEHUEHUE) and I also thank you for finding my opinion relevant.

As you said that you wanted a career and that you are interested in coding and hacking, here you need to choose which one to prioritize. Because whether back-end, front-end, mobile, fullstack or cybersecurity there will be a lot to study, practice, make mistakes and practice again.

Here I give an addendum that if you don't know what these areas mean in technology, I recommend doing a search, reading and watching videos on youtube about it to see what might please you.

So based on what you've told me, again I think the best first step is to know what you want to prioritize and what you want to make money from.

Because trust me, you won't be able to study everything together at the same time. And if you manage to find an hour, there will be a burnout, so take it easy my friend. (from personal experience)

Even more so if you want a job, it's best to focus on 1 and then move on to others. Then find out what might be best for you / what you most identify with.

I also like hacking, I have books and I have already found courses. But this is something I want to study as a hobby and a safety measure (after all, there's no shortage of motherfuckers doing shit with others with that knowledge). So I put it in the background. Because my priority is money and hacking has work, but not in my country.

Now about entering the code career. Despite being a junior/student, I've seen a lot and I've also learned in these 2 years in the technology community in my country and watching you from the outside, so I can have a more mature view to help you with that.

So let's go:

1) - To know what you need to do to enter your career in code, you need to know how the technology market is in your country.

Because with all these layoffs, we have a lot of professionals with experience and academically well qualified and depending on the country, we currently have more demand for professionals than job offers. (Here in Brazil this is happening, because the layoffs in North America reflected here).

And here I don't want to discourage you, I just want to give you a realistic parameter for you to enter the area without illusions and not get frustrated like me and a bunch of people on the internet. (I wish someone had guided me like that). Because what we have most on social media is people making it seem like programming is easy and getting a job is even easier, or that you're going to earn A LOT since you're just a junior and THAT'S NOT THE REALITY..

BUT all the effort pays off in the end.

Within that, here I think it's cool that you try to observe what vacancies in your country ask for juniors/interns.

From Skills like knowing python to asking college or accepting bootcamp. See what's most in demand out there and within that see if you like what's in demand.

I tell you this, because here in Brazil, for example, we currently have more vacancies for internships (and here you need to be enrolled in a college to do an internship) than for juniors without college and only with bootcamps. So if we want a job around here, the first thing is to go to college and not be completely self-taught. So again, research and study your country's technology market.

In my conception TODAY getting a job in programming without college will be 10x more difficult than in 2020 for example, things have changed. The market now is not lacking developers, quite the contrary, now it has hight demands from developers but not for JOBS.

What the market wants most are senior people (and I've seen seniors I know saying that after layoffs even for them it's more willing to get a job, again supply and demand), but there are still opportunities for us beginners, in some countries there are more and in others less.

Speaking in the sense of the United States from what I observed from the US (content producers and twitter) + my experiences here in Brazil.I don't know the current situation of the technology market in Africa, the rest of Latin America , Asia and Europe.

Of course, you can be lucky and succeed without , but I, for one, got tired of believing that I would be lucky and be one of those people who succeed and changed my strategy to get a job.

Or you could also join a job-guaranteed bootcamp. Check how it works and if you have this type in your country.

And here we come to your second question.

2) The answer is it depends.

For example, will this bootcamp in your state guarantee you a job or is it possible to do an internship at a company or will it connect you with companies after the program?Or is he recognized by technology companies in your state?

If so, I would recommend doing it and dedicating yourself to getting in.

Because look, if they guarantee you an job is even better , you'll just have to study and do what they tell you to get your job.

But if you don't guarantee it, but this training has merit/respect in the market, it also pays off.

Here, I wanted to take the opportunity and talk about apprenticeship.

In our community we have our queen @xiacodes @xiabablog (it's the same person), she did an apprenticeship and today she is a junior developer in UK .

She shared her journey on her blog and is also the most engaged and resource sharing person in our community.

Here I would like to say that FOR ME Apprenticeship is one of the smartest strategies today to get into the technology market.

I myself will start on a Monday and it was my solution to get a job in code by the end of the year. (I'll talk about this in another post too)

So I recommend looking for apprenticeship in your country / state and how they work there.

And obviously observe and read the rules of the program to see if there are any catches that put you in absurd debt or contractual fines.

And see if you can handle it if you have the possibility.

Here I give an addendum that if you find an apprenticeship but that you will earn little in the beginning, for you to analyze well before saying no. Because salary we can evolve after we have experience, the important thing for us juniors/students is to get the first experience and the rest later becomes easier. (At least that's what the Mid /seniors I know say)

Now if in your country you don't have this kind of opportunity, I would recommend trying to see if it would be possible to do bootcamp/online courses + college to get an internship.

And you don't even have to start with paid courses, in my opinion if the bootcamp won't guarantee you a job, it's not worth paying for it. We have a lot of free resources on the internt (youtube biggest school) .

But it's up to you.

Free Courses:

-Freecodecamp

-Odin project (And it has both fullstack with ruby ​​and with node.js. )

For me, paying will only pay off when you don't find quality resources for what you want to study. So I would advise you to always think about whether it pays off or not.

Accessible paid courses:

- Codecademy

- Udemy (there are good courses there and there are always promotions)

+++ Here I also wanted to talk about knowing that public colleges (100% free) are not possible in all countries or when they are, they are very elective and difficult to get into for poor people as it is here in Brazil.

But here despite that, studying A LOT to pass the exams and having worked to save money and support yourself until you get scholarships to support yourself (and if you do), you manage to get into the best colleges that are free and that is more viable than being poor and being able to pay for college in the US, for example.

So I know that it might not be very viable depending on where you live and whether or not you are a resident of the country.

So I don't know if college can be an affordable thing for you, but if not that you can find the best strategy to achieve your financial prosperity in technology!

But if you are from the United States for example, this week I discovered this spotify program: https://fellowship.spotify.com/

The one where they only hire people with bootcamps and not colleges and open in the summer there.

And despite the layoffs, I still think there are more entry level openings there than here HUEHUEEHEU.

3) What do you mean by friendly?

If you mean easy, no, she probably won't be friendly to you at all AND THAT'S OKAY.

As you yourself said that you know absolutely nothing, it will be natural for you to have difficulty, to think about giving up and to make a lot of mistakes to get it right.

It's going to be a process of failing and trying again and again.

NOTHING IS EASY. And since you've already taken a veterinary course, I think you already know that things are really difficult. So this is another reminder that it won't be any different here.

BUT it will end well because EVERYTHING IS LEARNED.

And that also goes for math, if you ever have to deal with it (and if you go to cs college you will) you will make a lot of mistakes, but you will succeed, because EVERYTHING IS LEARNED based on trial and error.

And that doesn't mean you're bad or stupid, just that you're learning something completely from scratch. It won't be overnight that you will understand, it may take months or years, but persisting you will succeed. THIS IS NORMAL.

I cried (literally) to do conditional algorithms in 2021, I banged my head in books, said I would never make it and felt like the biggest dumbass in the world and today 2023 are the easiest things for me. I have no problem making them.

And that was only possible because I didn't give up.

Here I wanted to advise you to start your programming studies with low expectations, to help you manage your frustrations and maybe burnouts. It won't be overnight that you will become the best programmer and do many projects at the level of a senior developer or the people who do tutorials on youtube.

They will be small steps that lead you to your goals in studies. Again, constants.

There are people who could get their ek code jobs in 3 to 6 months of study.

BUT FOR ME, currently having a plan to get an opportunity between 2 years and 4 years (if you actually go to college) study is the healthiest way to pursue your studies and goals. If you get it sooner, even better for you, but if not, you'll be fine with yourself because it's within the period you stipulated.

Finally, I ask you not to take anything I say as absolute truth.

Question what you read Take what I said, analyze it and see how it works in your reality.

I also recommend trying to find women in technology from your country on linkedin and see if they can help you with tips and so on. I feel very good knowing so many Brazilian women in tech since I did this, my network there is composed only of them precisely to create a place without judgment but of welcome and inspiration.

Well, I invested about 3 hours answering the best way I can, I hope you read it and that it helps you.

Anything, if you want to talk more, you can call me in the chat, I'll take a while but I'll answer.

I wish you good studies, discernment to see which is the best path for you and that you stay well! Lots of protection in studies and career.

[zorlok-if]

Coding Tip: Books & Libraries

Was just looking at this post and thought of some new advice for learning to code. Check out books from your local library.

This may seem a little counter-intuitive or strange for learning about computers, but it's extremely helpful. As someone who has ADHD and would get overwhelmed trying to find the correct/exact answer I was looking for when I knew very little about coding terminology, books are fantastic. There are so many different options that explain (in plain language) how to code for beginners in addition to easily-readable compendiums that have all the essential information you need about a programming language (so there's no frantic searching online). Here's some that I've been using recently: ( * = my favorites)

CSS(/HTML)

CSS, The Definitive Guide: Visual Presentation for the Web (4th Edition) by Eric A. Meyer & Estele Weyl

CSS: The Missing Manual (4th Edition) by David Sawyer McFarland *

JavaScript

Sams Teach Yourself JavaScript in 24 Hours (7th Edition) by Phil Ballard *

Learning JavaScript: Add Sparkle and Life to your Web Pages (3rd Edition) by Ethan Brown

Other

An Artist's Guide to Programming: A Graphical Introduction by Jim Parker (this one is part of a series of "no-nonsense books" from No Starch Press with books aimed at teaching code visually for visual artists, I know the series has several books for learning Python—what Ren'Py uses—too)

Speaking from my experience with American public libraries, you can go online to your library's digital catalog, see what's available, and reserve books (or whatever else) to pick up. In addition to picking materials up in person, libraries may also have books lockers, drive-up windows, or curbside options if you want to minimize exposure or just avoid interacting with humans (in general I recommend looking into what your library offers for accessibility services too, both on and off-site).

In the library, if they use the Dewey Decimal System, then the coding books will be in the early 000s (around 005-006). If not or if you want help, librarians will happily show you where to look, what's available, and (if necessary) can use inter-library loans to order in books from other libraries so you can pick them up and check out from there.

Note I: This is also helpful for writing books (like how to craft intriguing plots, how to stay motivated, prompt books, improving creative writing/thinking, etc.). Creative writing and screenwriting books will be shelved around 808 in the DDS. Game writing/design is around 794 (and try checking the children's section if you don't find any in the main one).

Note II: This is helpful for learning widely-used languages like JavaScript, CSS, Python, etc., not for coding with Twine specifically (I don't think there are any books that have been written about Twine). For Twine, it's best to stick to online tutorials/templates. You can find a list of the resources I've used to learn Twine by running this template and clicking the link in the menu called "Credits + Resources". I'll also be streaming a tutorial on Twitch this Friday (July 29th) about beginning Twine and plan on uploading that/future video tutorials to this Youtube channel.

[hayacode]

Hey! Absolute beginner here- I’ve been wanting to learn python but I’ve been holding it off for the longestttt time - I already got myself an online course and a book or two on how to code, but nothing seems to work??? I genuinely want to learn, but I can’t seem to stick for long. What do u recommend???

This is going to be so long please bear with me.

Do you have a goal in mind? Why do you choose Python specifically?

You need a reason to keep going.

And even if you have a goal in your mind or a reason to do it, the fact that nothing works no matter how much you try means it’s not strong enough.

And maybe it’s not really the thing you want to do, not now at least and that’s okay.

Don’t force yourself! Sit and think why this should be important to you.

At first try to set only 15 mins in your day to study python.

Then if you start to get the hang of it and you finally have it as an important part of your routine, increase the time and make it 25 mins or 30 mins.

Think of ideas you want to build in the future.

You can’t build anything now but write whatever comes to your mind.

Join a community (like our community here), talk with us and ask and we will do our best to help.

Share your progress, it will motivate you and us.

But remember again, the motivation to keep going is what's gonna make you reach your goal.

Side story, I have a friend who wanted to study programming with me.

She talked about her ideas of the future so passionately but suddenly stopped.

Her reasons weren’t enough, her goal wasn’t that important to her enough.

She has many important things to do, coding and programming weren’t.

And that’s okay, at least she knows.

She chooses to focus on what’s important to her right now.

And in the future, if she has time, she will give coding a second chance.

[izicodes]

hi!! do you have any free resources or textbooks for learning python? i’m doing my dissertation and i need a refresher before i start doing it properly. thanks!!

Hiya! 💗

Here you go:

Book

Python Objects and Classes

Roadmap.sh

Random Python Resources

Top 20 Python Projects for Beginners to Master the Language

Free Programming Books

Python Notes and Resources by @trialn1error

Python Official Roadmap

Python Project List

Python 3 Cheat Sheet

Python Cheatsheet for Beginners

These are the ones' I've shared on my blog over the years! Hope their helpful! 🥰👍🏾💗

[metamatar]

Could you recommend a beginner's book or books for someone who wants to get into programming as a hobby? I know HTML and CSS, working on learning JS, but I kinda wanna get into mainline programming for kicks, and I'm unsure about how to branch out of web development.

Hello!

There's lots of things programming as a hobby can mean: do you want to do leetcode for fun? do you want to write programs to automate workflows? write mini video games? write programs for microcontrollers to affect the world outside your computer? do things with data analysis? figuring this out is likely to making learning way more interesting to you!

I have zero frontend experience with doing anything on web. My only experience with JS is figuring out what to block on websites. So if you want to add functionality to websites, keep at JS? I hear that the gold standard for learning web related technologies for free is freecodecamp.org so might be worth looking at if you haven't already!

In 2023, 75% of what you want to do can be done with python, so imo it is worth picking up! It's also a very intuitive language to start with if you feel like JS is slippery.

I picked up python from MIT's 6.001x, when it was still for free on edX with the autograder but all the material is still available here on OCW. This is a very traditional course so I think you get a sense of whether you'll like classic problem solving in the leetcode way.

A friend of mine had a good time using Automate the Boring Stuff with Python which is a non programmers introduction to writing scripts to do useful things for python, which is much more practical course.

A more language agnostic approach might be looking through the introductory stuff in OSSU's Computer Science self taught curriculum.

Once you feel reasonably comfortable with any language, this link leads to some curated tutorials to program projects in different languages. Pick anything that you find interests you :)

[dankdungeonsrpg]

Make Your Own C64 Dungeons!

I recently came across a fun YouTube video about programming in basic/python using an 80s guidebook (thanks YouTube algorithm).

P.S. the Commodore 64 had a radical advertising campaign!

Peak '80s Fantasy

The book they were using was published by Usborne Books in the early '80s and is part of a series which are available as free PDF downloads on their website. I was immediately enthralled by:

Write Your Own Fantasy Games For Your Microcomputer: "Dungeon of Doom"

This hit me so hard with the '80s TSR/Games Workshop vibes I almost passed out.

As I dug into the ~50 page book I was not disappointed. It's full of fun art, wonderful layout spreads, and very useful guidance.

The book starts off talking about what a TTRPG is and outlines the tenants of your standard fantasy D&D-style game.

However it also points out that different genres besides fantasy can be played in, which I appreciated.

The way it all works is here; the dungeon levels, the classes, the monsters, the treasure!

Okay, So I Can't USE It Per Se...

Now, I don't have an coding experience, so using this book for its intended purpose would be tough for me. I majored in English after all, this kind of stuff confuses the heck outta me.

That said, these books are for beginners so with a little work and a C64 emulator I'm sure I could figure it out. Maybe I will someday, but I think it has a lot of value in another way.

Teaching The Flow

As someone who has written a few games, and read a few more, I've become really familiar with good instructions and how they are useful anywhere.

In it's explanation of the flow of player input and computer response it lays out the exact kind of procedures we in the OSR are always harping on about.

It's got me thinking that flow charts are something I should just use in my game design. Bulleted lists are all well and good, but curved arrows! That's the stuff.

I think most kinds of modules would benefit from this kind of spread too, especially anything with a strong narrative arc.

I will point out that a couple WoTC 5e modules do think to use this method, but commit to it so poorly that the sparse chart is nearly useless (I'm looking at you Descent into Avernus).

Well That's Basically It

I don't have too much more on this subject other than "Look at this book!" and "Wow, everyone should incorporate the lessons here in their writing!"

Maybe I can convince one of my friends who actually knows programming to help me and we can create our own Dungeon of Doom computer game?

It can't be that hard to make a video game right...

[newcodesociety]

My Recommended Pathway to Learning Code

Why Learn to Code?

Unleash Creativity: Coding is like painting with words. You get to create digital masterpieces, bring ideas to life, and build things you've always imagined.

Problem-Solving Superpower: Ever felt the satisfaction of solving a puzzle? Coding is a series of problem-solving adventures where you're the hero armed with logic and creativity.

Endless Possibilities: From websites to apps, games, and beyond, coding opens doors to endless possibilities. Imagine the impact you can make in the digital realm!

Where to Begin?

Starting your coding journey can be overwhelming, and I don't blame you for thinking so. Begin with these beginner-friendly languages:

HTML/CSS: The dynamic duo for web development. HTML structures content, while CSS styles it. Perfect for creating your first website. Think of HTML as the structure for a building. The frame, if you will. CSS will be the decor of it all.

JavaScript: The language of the web. It adds interactivity to your sites, making them dynamic and engaging.

Python: A versatile language, loved for its readability. Great for beginners and used in various fields, from web development to data science.

The Importance of Learning Foundations:

Think of coding as building a house. You wouldn't start with the roof, right? Learning foundational languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is like laying a strong foundation. Here's why it matters:

Understanding the Basics: Foundations teach you the core concepts of programming, helping you understand how code works.

Transferable Skills: The skills you gain are transferable to other languages. Once you grasp the logic, moving on becomes a smoother journey. You can't read a book if you don't know the alphabet.

Confidence Booster: Starting with the basics builds confidence. It's like leveling up in a game – you become more adept and ready for the next challenge.

Problem-Solving Mindset: Foundations instill a problem-solving mindset. As you conquer challenges, you develop a resilient approach to coding conundrums.

Starting up:

I highly recommend using what you have on hand. Notepad on Windows works great but if you'd like something more code based try out:

Notepad++

Sublime

Visual Code Studio

Coffee Cup

Atom (This has been sunset though, so use at your own risk)

Any questions? Please feel free to message me! I might take 24 hours to respond, but I will get back to you!

[jambeegoatson]

Step-by-Step Guide to Coding for Beginners

Coding is a valuable skill in today's digital world, and it's never too late to start learning. Whether you're looking to switch careers, build websites, or create apps, coding is a great place to start. This guide will help you get started on your coding journey, covering the basics of coding and providing a roadmap for further learning.

What is coding, and why is it important?

Coding is the process of writing instructions for computers to follow. It's the language that computers use to communicate with each other and with humans. Coding is important because it's a fundamental part of the technology that drives our daily lives. From websites and apps to software and automation, coding plays a crucial role in nearly every aspect of our digital world.

What do you need to get started?

To start coding, you'll need a few things: a computer, an internet connection, and a text editor. A text editor is a program that allows you to write and save code. There are many free text editors available, including Sublime Text, Visual Studio Code, and Notepad++.

Once you have your tools set up, it's time to start learning!

Getting started with coding

The first step in your coding journey is to learn a programming language and learn what are do's and don'ts of coding. There are many programming languages to choose from, but some of the most popular and widely used include HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, and Java. HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is used to create the structure of websites. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is used to add styling and design to HTML pages. JavaScript is used to create interactive elements on websites. Python is a versatile programming language that can be used for a wide range of tasks, from data analysis to machine learning. Java is a popular language for developing Android apps and building enterprise-level applications.

Once you have chosen a programming language, it's time to start learning! There are many resources available to help you get started, including online courses, books, and tutorials. Some popular resources for learning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript include Aspire Coding, Codecademy, W3Schools, and Udemy. For learning Python, try Codecademy, Udemy, or Coursera. And for learning Java, check out Udemy, Coursera, or Oracle's Java tutorials.

Practice, practice, practice

The best way to learn coding for beginners is by doing. As you learn the basics of your chosen programming language, start experimenting with small projects. Try creating a simple website, building a calculator app, or writing a program to automate a task. The more you practice, the better you'll get, and you'll soon find that coding becomes second nature.

Take your learning to the next level

Once you have a solid understanding of the basics, it's time to take your learning to the next level. Consider taking an online course or enrolling in a bootcamp to learn more advanced concepts and skills. You can also participate in coding challenges and hackathons to put your skills to the test and learn from other coders.

Final thoughts

Coding is a valuable skill that can open up a world of opportunities. Whether you're looking to switch careers, build websites, or create apps, coding is a great place to start. With this guide and the resources available, you'll be well on your way to becoming a coding pro. Remember to practice regularly, take advantage of online resources, and never stop learning!