Welcome to LPTHW Hacker News Group

[Jason Rodriguez]

Hey everyone, just set up this group so that we can provide some support and encouragement for learning programming, especially through Learn Python The Hard Way by Zed Shaw. 

I figure anyone can post some updates on their progress, questions about any of the exercises or programming in general, or ideas for learning more and new projects. 

I guess I will start out and introduce myself. I'm a web designer by profession and have been using HTML and CSS for the past 5 years. In my day job I have been working a lot on HTML email campaigns for a major corporation, and sometimes feel dirty using tables and inline styles when coding HTML emails. If anyone has any questions about HTML/CSS, let me know, I most likely have the answer. 

I have been interested in programming for a while now, and have messed around a bit with various languages - Javascript, PHP, Objective-C, Processing...but nothing has really stuck, usually due to my own procrastination and lack of focus. I bought the 1st edition of LPTHW when it came out, and recently bought the ePub version of the 2nd edition about a week ago. 

Right now I am up to Exercise 6, and I am really enjoying it. I like Python and feel that I am grasping a lot of it so far, but I have a long way to go until I consider myself even mildly functional as a programmer!

Hopefully this group will be a good way to keep up with practice and help with not only my learning, but others' as well. 

[Andrew James]

Thanks for setting this up Jason. I'm really just returning to
programming after a long time away (won't go in to detail) and loving
it. It's my goal to have a firm grasp on all aspects of cs/computation/
software engineering, eventually returning to university for a cs
degree. With some effort, I hope this group will be of benefit to all
of us.

[Craig Olson]

Hello guys. I'm returning to programming also - did C++ as a CS major
in college (ultimately graduated with Accounting though). It's been
several years since I've done any coding, but the LPTHW course really
appealed to me so I thought I'd get back into it.

Glad to have some extra support here in the group and some others to
bounce ideas and questions off of.

[Craig Olson]

I forgot to ask,

Where are you guys in the exercises? I've finished through ex16.

[Jason Rodriguez]

I'm up to ex. 10, hopefully I will be able to knock some more out this weekend. 

[Andrew James]

I actually read Dive into Python, which is ironic seeing as Zed Shaw
wrote LPTW because he thought DiP was a horrible beginner's book.

Jason, why Python and not Javascript/jQuery?

[Jason Rodriguez]

Up to ex.13, got a few done last night. I like the raw_input function, nice to actually start interacting with a program...

Andrew, that's an awesome question and I have actually been wrestling with that for awhile. I'm a web designer by day, so I know bits and pieces of javascript and have used jQuery in the past. I have been thinking lately about trying to learn that as well or focus on that instead of python, especially since it would be more practical and immediately useful for me since I could more easily work it into projects, but I haven't really seen a resource that is as good as LPTHW. I really like how LPTHW just makes you start coding, whereas every other programming resource and tutorial starts you out with the theory that I have read a million times (e.g. what a string is, what operators are available, how to assign variables, etc.), but doesn't have you doing anything with it for a while. Not my ideal way to learn...

Plus, I really like the cleanness of Python and how readable it is. It definitely helps me, a non-programmer, to make sense of stuff pretty easily. I still may poke around with javascript and would eventually like to learn a curly-braces based language, but right now I just need to get used to coding, the structure of programs, and how to think like a programmer. 

Javascript is extremely interesting though, and there are a ton of libraries I would love to work with, specifically Paper.js, Processing.js (which is a javascript wrapper for Processing, a java-based programming language that I have played with for graphics), the Impact.js javascript game engine, and Raphael. 

I am specifically interested in graphics programming, game programming, and data visualization...so it may be strange to start with python, but I also think LPTHW would be the best way to get used to programming and be able to solve problems before diving into something else. And Zed started on Learn C The Hard Way, so maybe once that is done it will be a good intro into some more hardcore topics. 

Anyone want to weigh in on this discussion? Know of any good javascript resources that maybe I have missed?