Programming

I would recommend C for the simplicity. You'll get familiar with the nitty gritties of a relatively featureless programming language. Which will let you view other languages and their tools with more nuance. But it all depends on what you want to do with it, want to program an MCU like Arduino or learn linux? C is perfect. If you want to build something with graphical interfaces like websites or GUI apps, I would suggest something else but C is still a good place to get started.

Here is something written by AI:

• Mental Toughness: C can be challenging, but mastering it builds strong problem-solving skills and a deeper appreciation for higher-level languages.
• Widespread Influence: Many popular languages like Java and C++ borrow heavily from C's syntax and concepts, making it easier to learn them later.
• Under the Hood: C provides a closer look at how computers work, memory management, and hardware interaction compared to higher-level languages.

I've had some students who started at 50. The biggest problem is that it is hard to find a junior position as a 50 year old. Age discrimination is definitely a thing. If your goal is to make a career in programming from scratch, you might be too late, but 30 is sometimes already too late in that regard. Networking, nepotism and the good old "foot in the door" helps there. If your goal is just to learn and maybe apply it to your current job or your own business, than it's perfect to start now.

Most succesful students I've seen of the older category are those that have drive and passion. One student had her own fotography studio and wanted to build a database and website for that. She struggled a lot, but persevered and made a great application. Another was a taxi driver who's children put him in the course. He turned out to be very talented and made and excelllent application for planning taxi rides as his final project.

So it depends what your goals are.

Hey I'm you at almost 40! I was always dev adjacent, but never learned to do much more than basic scripting for work.

I started with a couple books: Chassels intro to emacs lisp and Python the hard way.

Python was helpful for a couple things, but the ecosystem is kind of a disaster. I found just the general emacs config helps quite a bit get your feet wet with lisp likes.

Other people have mentioned Go is a great start point because its simplified, and I've definitely found it a lot more helpful than the java and C compliers I tried to learn on in my teens.

The only other thing I'd throw out is Lua, it's super verbose in a way thats pretty easy to understand. it's also relatively easy to find programs like wezterm that are configured through lua and offer instant reaponses when you change something and see changes.

Just like any new language it takes time, and some hard work to internalize what youre learning, but I don't think there's a too old.

You don't have to be the best programmer ever to do useful things.

No to Python, Go, Lisp and C to begin. In fact at this level you just need to get a feel for process. You need to start where u feel attracted to. You need to learn principles and not languages nor frameworks. Im surprised not one of the replies gives an accurate picture of what it entails to think like a computer. Computation is not an efficient brain like a humans. It was made to work with the hardware we invented long ago. You have to learn the rudimentary and boring repetition the machine HAS to do so it can appear as a real memorable entity. A practical suggestion is to go install Linux From Scratch. When you complete that journey you will have a taste of some principles. Then I also suggest to simply rewrite character for character kilo.c. Why? So you learn how much a pain and a workout it is to crunch at the keyboard. Learn by doing. Learn by breaking and briking. Go find a game u love with all ur being and reverse engineer it. Who cares what u know at the moment, the goal is the process not the result and besides nothing is ever finished, just get it done. One baby step at a time. Oh and dont ask any more questions. All of those have been asked, its our jobs to find the answer. Please take all this as a simple nudges. None is written with any ill will, trolling nor negativity. Take away the knowledge not the pressumed attitude behind my words. Forget the internet and just dive into it. Another way is to pay some pro to mentor you. Good luck with that since most persons are too busy and are elite. Whatever u want to learn has to be done in the spirit of neglect. You cant care too much about computation. It is just a process for making fragmented business. No one NEEDS software nor money. We all agree to play these nonsensical games. Have fun and be grateful for the process itself. Good journey to you friend! Its a weird one. Ive been at it for 35 years and Im still a newbie.

PS The internet is filled with info. Its your job to determine the knowledge and not the judgement on the worth of the person who posted it. Too much drama and toxicity because everyone at the top of the food chain is pushing that vibe. Everyone everywhere is complaining about our violent ways, how we write to each other online and how we are all being subhuman. Peace to all!

#allerrorsmatter #cod-ape

ChatGPT is great at tutoring python. Go as well. Not sure on the others.

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