What's the best thing to do to learn programming?

[Smith]

Hey guys i'm new on the website, and I just wanted to if you guys could help me a little;

1) I'm 21 years and trying to learn all the different programming languages there is (if its possible) and I was wondering what was the best way to do it. Right now i'm reading books and stuff on VB.NET ...i'm not too bad at it specially because I learn very fast.

2) My main reason for learning all this is because I want to become a computer engineer or a software engineer I still don't know which one to choose. So if someone have some perspectives on both I might need to know them.

Thanks a lot !
Smith

 

[JohnH]

I think the best way to learn programming is to do programming, but you have to know what to do so you read about it in books and other resources first, or go to school where they tell you what is written in books and other resources.

Programming books usually have many excercises that you should do, this is also an important learning tool in school, if you read an article on the internet there is usually code examples you can try out for yourself. Practice makes perfect.

What books doesn't have is the opportunity to ask questions and discuss stuff you find unclear with lecturers and fellow students, for this internet forums can be a good tool.

I think also it is better to focus on only one language to get faster progress and less confusion, and only later use your extended programming knowledge to learn other languages faster.

 

[Smith]

Thanks for the tip !

 

[ethicalhacker]

great tip johnh thats been the problem with me im doing almost all kinds and types of programming languages and sometime get confused with the syntaxes...