Learning programming

A Former User

This thread's gonna be dedicated to means, ways and sources for undereducated people to learn programming, also possible guidance and advice from the educated.
We're also gonna chat tips, details and peculiarities.

Well, lately I felt like I should learn something to at least understand what geeks are sometimes talking about. It's the 21st century anyway, so let's be decadent to become a learned person before the World has gone awry.
So I got the idea of learning to understand the basic computer architecture first - what do you think? I thought "what's the sense of getting to know, say, a programming language if I have only a slight idea of electricity for all that stuff under the hood?"...
A friend from MyOpera offerred to teach me HTML, so we might definitely touch the subject here, as well as other web-programming tools - like CSS etc (let you not just forget that the thread is meant for learning people - no geeks, so please don't push any academical conversations far ahead of the content, right?).

linuxmint7

linuxmint7

10 PRINT "Hello";

20 GOTO 10

A Former User

Hello! :yes:

A Former User

10 PRINT "Hello";
20 GOTO 10

30 END
:lol:

sgunhouse

sgunhouse Moderator Volunteer

Can't have 2 line numbers on the same line, and BASIC uses colons between statements on the same line. Most versions did not require an END statement.

A Former User

Hey, Steve, I didn't build this site's quote rendering.

Well, thanks. Though I guess some do, and it's not a bad idea to keep such things "at hand", right?
Like closing tags in HTML - some of which are "not required" in some versions.:P

A Former User

Hey, Steve, I didn't build this site's quote rendering.
Well, thanks. Though I guess some do, and it's not a bad idea to keep such things "at hand", right?
Like closing tags in HTML - some of which are "not required" in some versions.:P

do you even notice me? >_>

A Former User

do you even notice me? >_>

What does noticing you have to do with the topic?

A Former User

What is the difference between "code", "kbd" and "samp" elements?

<h4>

Tag	_ _ _ _ Description

```	Defines computer code text  
``	        Defines keyboard text  
`<samp>`  	Defines sample computer code

http://www.w3schools.com/html/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_computeroutput

A Former User

I've made my first html with a "mapped" image just recently.
Topic - "British Breakfast"!

A Former User

Take some fun - open it in browser: http://www.facebook.com/download/580457528747854/button (1).html

sgunhouse

sgunhouse Moderator Volunteer

What is the difference between "code", "kbd" and "samp" elements?

Formatting. You may want text that is supposed to be typed in to look different - most often, in boldface in some monospaced font. By having separate tags they can format it differently.

A Former User

Hey! I've created a coffeecup-image chart (html), and in the header titled it using partially Cyrillic letters.
The problem is, when I opened it in my Opera (11), its title appeared corrupt: "ßíäåX coffeecup".
Well, I went to check the code - yeah, it was the same in the code; I tried retyping - same shit; I changed fonts to MS Sans Serif, retyped - o'k, saved, reloaded in the browser - same shit (I reopened the doc in my Notepad - it appeared o'k there!); opened the source in Opera, retyped there, clicked "apply" - it's got "????X coffeecup" altogether*:doh:*

What's wrong with this picture?
In the [applied] source (which is still open in a tab now) the title looks o'k: "<head><title>ЯндеX coffeecup</title></head>"

Edit/add:
Struck to recheck the doc after the "applying": hey, it's "<head><title>????X coffeecup</title></head>" there too!
Well, and I'd closed that source here in browser - and reopened it now: same "<head><title>????X coffeecup</title></head>" there now too!:doh:

What is it?
Some fonts incompatibility?
I didn't check the html in my other browsers yet**

sgunhouse

sgunhouse Moderator Volunteer

Platform? Some older versions of Windows don't like mixed encodings in title bars.

You might be able to achieve the same effect by typing the text in a comment, then setting Opera's encoding to something incorrect (for this site, "correct" being either Automatic selection or UTF-8).

A Former User

Platform?

Where is it?
Windows XP SP3.

Yes, and with Chrome, here in my yesterday posts the input looks the same.
Now I'll probably try opening the doc here... Yeah, same "????X".
Opening the source... Yeah, same "<head><title>????X coffeecup</title></head>" with that MS Sans Serif there...

A Former User

By the way, I can't seem to edit the code here in Chrome - while I could in my Opera yesterday*:)*

A Former User

Yes, and with Chrome, here in my yesterday posts the input looks the same. Now I'll probably try opening the doc here... Yeah, same "????X". Opening the source... Yeah, same "<head><title>????X coffeecup</title></head>" with that MS Sans Serif there...

Now opened it in my Firefox (it's 3.6.6!).
It had the same "????X" title. I edited the images a bit...
Then - in the very end, before closing the Notepad - I thought there'd be no harm to retry the mixed title...
No, I didn't change any fonts; I just deleted those question marks and typed "Янде" there, saved, reloaded in browser - TA-DA! :jester:
It appeared exactly what it had been and was supposed to be, ie just great/right*:yes:* Well - it's in my senior Firefox: same OS, bla-bla - but works!

A Former User

Now I created another html with not only a "mixed" title but also Cyrillic [plain] text in the body. And again no matter how I try to edit/change fonts, it's only correctly displayed in my Firefox 3.6.
Actually, this Firefox is the only one on here which is properly Russian-localised - it even originates from a Russian source.
I have these poops here:

:dunno: .íåçíàþ. :hi: .privet. :bye: .poka. :tut: .àéàé. :walla: .îáñòåíó. :spammer: .ïèøó. .chic. .hehe. .olen'. .elk. .êîëäóí.

When I edited that in my Opera's "source code", those became "?????"s as it did that time with my previous doc in question.
I tried tinkering with Opera's font settings - no avail.
What's wrong with it? Shall I use certain metatags in the header - like to style the document?
Why do some browsers not handle Cyrillic by default with the HTML5 doctype?

A Former User

And again no matter how I try to edit/change fonts, it's only correctly displayed in my Firefox 3.6.
Actually, this Firefox is the only one on here which is properly Russian-localised - it even originates from a Russian source.

Now I launched another Firefox I have installed - 4.0, and initially - at the very start, while loading - the "Coffeecup" doc's title was displaying o'k for a moment – then it turned to "ßíäåX coffeecup" as it always was in those two other browsers (Operapresto pseudo-Russian & Google Chrome Br-En).
Forgot to mention that this version of Firefox is localised British English too - as my Google Chrome is*:happy:*
Well, now I'm about to check this other - later - document here in 4.0... Yup, both the title and that Cyrillic content are "messed up" as they are in those two aforementioned browsers...

sgunhouse

sgunhouse Moderator Volunteer

Did you try checking your encoding? Characters that are not allowed in a given encoding become question marks, whereas characters that don't exist in a font become boxes.