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Forums › IT Pro and developers › What online programming courses are good?


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Uber Geek
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Topic # 198664 18-Jul-2016 11:47
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I am trying to learn programming in between working and family life. I have been a sysadmin for a few years now and I have always preferred working in Powershell thanks to a push from the guy who got me into my current job. I have recently moved into Devops. As I work for a Microsoft shop, this means more Powershell. I do everything I can in Powershell and really enjoy it. I want to go further with programming so I have been looking at dotnet/C# as a next step.

 

Are there any recommended courses I can take from home to speed up my learning? Any recommended books? I have found a course on Sololearn that teaches C# and I am currently working my way through that. I have learned a lot already and I am even learning things I can apply to my powershell writing as well.

 

How do you get more hands on experience to apply things you learn? I am writing small programs to try and implement what I learn.

 

 

 

 




Try Vultr using this link and get us both some credit:

 

http://www.vultr.com/?ref=7033587-3B

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  Reply # 1594686 18-Jul-2016 19:02
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I would suggest Microsoft Virtual Academy as one resouce.




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Master Geek
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  Reply # 1594703 18-Jul-2016 19:42
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Starting Out with Visual C# 2012 is what we used at Waikato Uni for intro to C#. It might be below your current level but it's a pretty good book.

 
 
 
 


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  Reply # 1594726 18-Jul-2016 20:22
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www.pluralsight.com



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  Reply # 1594939 19-Jul-2016 11:07
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Cool, thanks very much. I am sure starting out with C# won't be below my level, seeing as my level is 0 or maybe 1! Will have a look and see if there is an updated edition for dotnet 4.6/dotnet core. Will have a second look at the MVA courses and evaluate the cost of a pluralsight license, I keep hearing good things about them. .




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  Reply # 1595758 20-Jul-2016 17:39
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yuk microsoft, cough rubbish. Oh wait doesnt even work on my mac.

 

Learn C, then C++. 







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  Reply # 1595762 20-Jul-2016 18:03
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dotnet core works fine on Mac... Linux too... I figure learning a language and concepts of programming to start is going to be better than learning the "right" language.




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  Reply # 1595765 20-Jul-2016 18:19
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Concepts are transferable.

If it was me I'd start by learning C# and Java.

I started on VB. Then due to necessity self taught myself C/C++. However while it comes in handy it's not required much nowadays as devices have so much compute (even mobile) there is not much need to optimise and streamline using C++.

Go for a popular language. Hedge your bets with C# or Java.


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  Reply # 1595847 20-Jul-2016 20:30
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You can get a 3 month subscription to Pluralsight through https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/products/visual-studio-dev-essentials-vs.aspx. It's a free signup, and you just need to click on the "Use your benefits" link once you've signed in to get the code.



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  Reply # 1596581 21-Jul-2016 23:41
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Thanks, that reminds me I used my work VSTS entitlement to sign up. I need to check I still have that active. Would be a shame if that had lapsed and I didn't use it. If it is lapsed, I will sign up for a personal dev essentials. 

 

Thus far, I can recommend hackerrank. I am only doing the 30 days of code challenge so far, but is the first time things have really clicked and I have written some real programs that do something. Their videos are good too. It isn't a teaching site per se, but it has taught me a lot.

 

Sololearn and uDemy have been good but frustrating. For the courses I am trying with them, they both break things down into small bits. You get an overview of what is a class, what is a method, what is an operator etc, but you don't get a good view of how it all fits together. Maybe that comes later, not sure. Finally feel like I am getting somewhere though which is good. I think the key so far is trying to put what I learn into practice.




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Ultimate Geek
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  Reply # 1596587 21-Jul-2016 23:50
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I have an the material for An Advanced Java course if you want. it covers the basics of programming. I didn't learn much since it was all basic but it is an excellent starting point

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  Reply # 1596633 22-Jul-2016 08:25
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darylblake:

 

yuk microsoft, cough rubbish. Oh wait doesnt even work on my mac.

 

Learn C, then C++. 

 

 

Weird. I was coding C# on my Mac 5 minutes ago. I even targeted an iPhone with it. Do you think my machine may be faulty?



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  Reply # 1596690 22-Jul-2016 09:53
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dclegg:

 

darylblake:

 

yuk microsoft, cough rubbish. Oh wait doesnt even work on my mac.

 

Learn C, then C++. 

 

 

Weird. I was coding C# on my Mac 5 minutes ago. I even targeted an iPhone with it. Do you think my machine may be faulty?

 

 

laughing




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Ultimate Geek
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  Reply # 1597876 24-Jul-2016 22:19
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dclegg:

 

darylblake:

 

yuk microsoft, cough rubbish. Oh wait doesnt even work on my mac.

 

Learn C, then C++. 

 

 

Weird. I was coding C# on my Mac 5 minutes ago. I even targeted an iPhone with it. Do you think my machine may be faulty?

 

 

xamarin?

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  Reply # 1597922 25-Jul-2016 08:54
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dryburn:

 

 

 

xamarin?

 

 

Yep.

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