How to Become a Programmer

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It's funny you ask that, OP. I just posted in a separate thread recommending that OP try some personal projects without looking at any pre-existing code.

Just make something up and then try to implement it, even if it's already been done by someone else before.

Start very simple, with hello, world. Then add something to turn it into, anything, an elevator simulator, an ATM simulator, a role playing game in a tetris world, whatever. A falling cat timer. A shopping cart app that yells at you if you buy too much stuff.

Just make stuff up and try to implement it.

Nurture the imagination, brainstorm, don't be afraid to spout nonsense. Remember that nonsense is only slightly removed from abstract mathematics. Both exist only in our heads.

I think some AS people (perhaps all) can be very resistant to brainstorming. I'm not sure why that is. But practice it and be supportive, laugh and applaud any wild ideas. The dumber the better!

The best real world applications come from the absolute stupidest ideas. In fact, the most amazing stuff in the world would have been thought of as absurd and pointless before it succeeded.

Maybe make him read Calvin & Hobbes books. I swear to god, that might help.

Help him see the angel in the marble, then he can carve until he sets her free.

Doing JS now. Try codecademy.

1. Install Linux. Not strictly required nor a panacea, but it will dramatically improve your odds.
2. Start simple. Console applications are very easy to write. GUI is very complicated and the libraries have a learning curve. If you try to start with GUI, you will simply being running copy-pasta code since GUI libraries use a lot of concepts (callbacks, threading, OO) that the beginner has will not grasp immediately. If you took advice (1), then you have a readily available console, and lots of console commands so you can do useful stuff from the command line.
3. Pick a scripting language and a compiled language and just use them. This is just my hypothesis based on what seems to work. Programming, if you want to really learn it, is a way of thinking. A lot of my growth as a programmer happened writing simple Python scripts, sometimes simple stuff in the interactive shell that didn't even get saved. Again automation and scripting is way easier on Linux. Develop a problem-solving attitude to computational problems, and use programs to solve them. You will want your scripting language for simplicity and quick results.

You will want your compiled language for structured thinking (OO, type safety, etc.) and writing polished standalone programs, though the line is really more blurred nowadays. I still think it's worth learning C and then learning a modern OO langauge like Java.

4. Expand. Once you truly learn some paradigm, you can easily move on to something else. After learning Python, Lua and Ruby basically took no effort. After learning C and Java, C++ and C# and even Ada and Pascal make perfect sense.

Having played with open source programming, I have to recommend against it. I trust none of the languages or technologies are as bad as PHP, but if they're even close it's a horrible path for a noob.

Visual Studio Express is freely available, as is Microsoft SQL Server Express. And you can code C# from scratch in a text editor and simply compile it from the command prompt with the free .net framework SDK installed. IIS can be installed in most non-home versions of windows.

That gets you C#, C++ using that command line compiler, asp.net, and T-SQL. Real tools with real capabilities.

And VS Express can get you into windows development if you're so inclined, though these days I'd recommend against it except for unusual cases like distributed laptop applications where air cards aren't feasible.

Pretty much all the tools are freely available to write better software than most commercial websites use.

I also would not start with scripting languages. I can't entirely explain why, but scripting languages tend to leave out unifying architectural constructs like entry points. I think it's extremely important for a new programmer to understand how software is entered and exited, and how extensible and powerful it is when not trapped in a scripting sandbox.

PHP is EDIT: a philosophically and paradigmatically confused, as well as confusing, flawed language; but it is successful because it's still good at what it does. It doesn't make sense to mention it since every language not invented by Microsoft or Apple is open source.

I wanted to become a programmer and went to college for it... I couldn't hack it.

No, that's not a terrible pun... I really just couldn't do it - and it wasn't due to social difficulties. The thought process for being a coder is very specific...
I made a fantastic program designer - the layout of how the program should look and work. I could NOT make the code do what I wanted when it came to complex procedures. It wasn't like the BASIC I played with through school... COBOL stinks!!

If you're not at least noodling with it now, don't spend $10,000 to find out you can't do it! Many colleges, etc. have $500 night-school courses you can try out. If you do well there, you can apply it towards a larger course!

I just had a visit from an old high school friend... we did a good project together. He was an amazing coder but didn't know what direction to take that code. I had ideas and design for what the program should be and do. I made the art, music and literature and provided input for what needed code, then he took that and created brilliant code to do the job. I don't know why we didn't place in that contest, despite the fact they chose our project for display purposes.

Good teamwork really makes a critical difference!

I'm used to holding unpopular opinions; I'm a Republican.

What on earth makes you think that an unpopular position is necessarily wrong?