Hey, gents and ladies. I've reached (what I consider) a dead-end in my current career.

In a few years I'll be able to stop (contracted work kinda deal), and continue pursuing education...but I don't really want to wait a few years.

I'm basically looking at programming, robotics and mechanical engineering. Ideally, I'd like to one day work on AI or medtech research/engineering.

So...my question for you folks is where do I start? I really only have a basic understanding of if/then/else relations so...not much.

I've sent a few e-mails to professors working on AI and such, but I get bot responses, so...help!

Thanks in advance!

Codecademy has free, easy online lessons in coding. It's designed to be kind of like playing a game. Maybe somewhere to start to see if you like this stuff.

Hey, gents and ladies. I've reached (what I consider) a dead-end in my current career.

In a few years I'll be able to stop (contracted work kinda deal), and continue pursuing education...but I don't really want to wait a few years.

I'm basically looking at programming, robotics and mechanical engineering. Ideally, I'd like to one day work on AI or medtech research/engineering.

So...my question for you folks is where do I start? I really only have a basic understanding of if/then/else relations so...not much.

I've sent a few e-mails to professors working on AI and such, but I get bot responses, so...help!

Thanks in advance!

2) if you are just learning, i would start with Python. install ipython and all of the necessarily python libraries. you can do this in Ubuntu through the Synaptic Package Manager, which can be found under System->Administration. once you feel comfortable writing code in python my next recommendation is to move on to C++. this will make you much more employable as C++ is the current "workhorse" language. it has a lot more subtleties than python, and you will need to learn about compilers, but it will be worth it. If Python is Jazz, then C++ is Classical Bach, Mozart, or Chopin.

I've sent a few e-mails to professors working on AI and such, but I get bot responses, so...help!

Sweet Jesus, no! Python is strongly typed only at run-time, which means that a) Python IDEs provide almost no value over a straight text editor (no auto-completion, no immediate flagging of problems, etc.,) and b) it's much, much, much more expensive to discover your errors at run-time, which makes learning a lot more frustrating and a lot slower for the newbie. Plus, Python's documentation is probably the most useless I've ever had the displeasure to use.

A complete newbie would be better off grabbing a copy of VB.Net Express (free) which has a lot of hand holding, a very friendly IDE, easy GUI creation tools, one button builds, OO, easy to google for code examples/help, etc.. Once a newbie gets the general concepts down, then they can move on to a more professional language or pick up a scripting language.

you don't need to learn how to use an IDE to use it (any text editor will do, and this is true for all languages)

Except you want to use an IDE as soon as possible, so that you can debug your code in a sensible way. Trying to compile and understand error messages from a command line SUCKS, and I would've gladly spent five minutes learning where the "create new program" and "run" buttons before writing "hello world".

i guess that's a matter of preference.

True. Some people like whips and chains, some people like their masochism in digital form.

Except you want to use an IDE as soon as possible, so that you can debug your code in a sensible way. Trying to compile and understand error messages from a command line SUCKS, and I would've gladly spent five minutes learning where the "create new program" and "run" buttons before writing "hello world".

Beginners should not go straight to an IDE. The small simpler programs for a beginner don't require it, and at that stage learning the ins and out of the IDE get in the way of learning the language.

I started programming in the desert, modifying threat libraries in the countermeasures systems of fighter jets. All I had was an LED display and a number pad and the whole thing was in hex code. Everything had to be learned from a binder marked "SECRET" that was thicker than a phone book and I could not take it home to study it.


How you get your start does not matter. So therefore I recommend you pick a goal, an easy one, that requires you create a program. Make it a goal in the lines of what you want to do (graphics, communications, databases, control, etc) and then, search on the internet for your answers.

Just about everybody who does anything with programming puts stuff on the internet showing how to do what they do. So finding the right information is not as hard as you would think.


Once you get a feel for it, congratulations, you are doing what 90 percent of programmers already do in their daily work. There is no point where it's said that you know what you are doing. Most programming work is finding a solution that already exists and adapting existing code to your own solution.

So don't learn all the details of the IDE right away. "Create new c/java/whatever file" and "compile and run" is a total of two buttons. I bet you'll spend just as much time looking up what the command line syntax for your compiler is, and way more time if you have to install an entire new operating system like some people are suggesting.

Even very basic things like syntax highlighting, visual pointers on compiler errors, etc are way better than doing it with a command line, and even a very basic understanding of how to use breakpoints/watch lists/etc makes debugging a program much easier. The only reason not to take advantage of those features is if you're one of those idiots who thinks that you aren't a "real" programmer unless you've had to suffer x/y/z pointless difficulties.

**** that **** use netbeans, or eclipse. VIM or emacs or other stuff is out dated and not needed. Dont go buy VS or a super frame work (Even though they are awesome...really) but a bunch of people want you to suffer like they did for no good reason. It wont make you a better programmer that's just haughty nerd elitism. (Reason why you'll spend less time figuring out stupid errors like misspelling or ; placement, and focus on the important aspects)