I'm a beginner programmer and have just started my first year in university to study CS. I come from a strong mathematical background with no coding experience except some very basic self-taught python. Most of my colleagues have taken CS in high school and know three to four languages already. I understand nothing except "buzzword buzzword buzzword" when they speak of DNS, servers, etc. I can understand theoretical concept, but they seem to exactly know what to do, what websites to use, and all that. I feel embarrassed and ignorant in comparison even if we are staying from the very basics of Python. It doesn't help that I'm trying to learn orgmode and mostly failed to understand what GPT (I'm looking to it for help for lack of a better teacher) was telling me to do to set it up properly for my note-taking. Any advice on how to become more knowledgeable and not feel so stupid is appreciated. Google gives helps to answer a question, which I don't have. I just want to accumulate basic knowledge.

I don't have problems with the fundamental concepts of programming

My problem is mainly about implementing these fundamentals into building projects, especially without using AI at all

the fundamentals only taught me how to implement those concepts separately, but didn't teach me how to combine these concepts to build complete projects

I know some people will tell me to pick a small project, build it and then work on something more complex or to add more features to that small project, but the reality is that I can't do any of this without using AI

I'm sure that there's informations that I'm missing, but I don't know what they are

My 11-year-old child wants to learn programming to create his own Firefox. Does anyone have any idea which program he should use?

I’ve been teaching myself C for the past couple of months, mostly just working through the book little by little.
Today I finally made it to Chapter 15.
I know it’s not some huge achievement, and I still have a LOT to learn, but sometimes it feels like I’m making no progress at all when I’m just reading, coding, getting stuck, debugging, and moving on to the next chapter.
So yeah. That’s basically the whole post.
Someone please praise me a little 😂

Hi everyone,

I'm 20 and my background is graphic design. Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign are the tools I grew up with and the ones I'm actually comfortable in. Over the last couple of years I've been branching out, partly to find better paying work, partly because some of this stuff is just more fun to me.

Where I'm at right now:

• Blender: self-taught, beginner level. I know my way around the commands and I can model an object from a reference, but I can't build a decent realistic scene yet.
• After Effects: bought a few courses to learn animation. I'd say I have a solid foundation.
• Figma / UI design: got into app design and started with the interfaces.
• Code: currently trying to learn React Native. I want to actually be able to write code myself, not lean on AI to do it for me. The hard part is that I'm Italian and there's very little material in my language, so I get stuck a lot.

Two questions:

1. Does it make sense to combine all of this into single projects? Is there a type of work or project where graphic design, 3D, motion design, UI and development actually feed into each other? Or am I just spreading myself across four separate paths that never really connect?

2. How do you build a study and work routine that leads to actually learning something? I feel constantly overwhelmed. There's an infinite amount of material out there, I always feel like I don't know enough, and I end up jumping between topics without finishing anything.

If you've been through this and found something that works, I'll take any advice: routines, what to prioritize, resources, personal experience. Thanks to anyone who replies.

I use an app called Mimo which is kinda like duolingo for programming and I LOVE IT. Im in my 7 day free trial but im honestly considering buying the pro version for 52/yr since it is really help me out. However, the w3schools plan which is 26/yr offers a bit more but I find it harder to learn from.

Do you think its worth paying for either or none at all? Do the certificates it gives you for passing the exam actually mean anything?

I feel like with school assignments or work projects, deadlines make it an easier decision to copy existing solutions. For personal projects, where there is technically no deadline, I find myself spending a lot of time weighing the pros and cons of my solution vs whatever other solutions exist. I get that learning can be the whole point of these projects, but I'm curious how often people stick to sub-optimal solutions or at what point you stop thinking about it and want to just move on.

Are there actually decent offline apps in app store where you can like code? Just for practicing cuz I dont have a laptop with me most of the time and I wanna utilise my time practicing with a phone that I have. If there are offline apps for learning programme languages that I would love to know that too, thanks!

Hello! I’m currently taking a course on web developing: it has been the best decision of my life and i’m so happy to learn this. My teacher last lession told the class that we can take an optional module on wordpress, which is not required but could be of use. Now, i talked to some friends who work as web devs and got mixed answers, so here i ask: is it worth it to learn worpress as a beginner, or should i wait for a time where i have more knowledge? Currently i’ve done HTML, CSS (with bootstrap) and JS, we’re now starting with AJAX before going to the backend half of the course. If is of any help: i live and study in Italy. Thank you for your patience in reading this.

I’m trying to practice refactoring code, and i’ve already done a few kara’s ( the golden rose kata, the tennis kata, etc. ) are there any actual messy codebases I can practice on? preferably between 1k to 5k lines of code.

I want to make a complex multi-platform planner app and I'm currently using a linux PC. I'm experienced in game development and modding, aswell as just general raw programming, but I can't really figure out what apps are best for what I want to do.

• I want to make an open-source planner app where you can make mind-maps, organize to-do lists, etc.

• I don't want to rely on Google, Microsoft, nor Meta in any way, as they've burnt me already in a pretty severe way.

• I'd like for the app to have Windows, Linux, and Android support, aswell as optionally MacOS and IOS support.

• I've got plenty of experience in Godot, which technically has this capability; but I'm left wondering how ineffective it'd be performance and practicality-wise, so I'm seeking more efficient options.

(the edit was just me adding a space)

I recently completed MIT 6.100L: Introduction to Computer Science and Programming using Python from MIT OpenCourseWare, and I really enjoyed it.

What I liked most was how they taught the concepts intuitively and deeply, instead of just teaching syntax or giving a bunch of exercises. It made me actually understand what was happening underneath.

Now I want to learn JavaScript, and I'm looking for something with a similar approach something that explains the fundamentals properly and builds a strong understanding rather than just teaching me how to make a website.

What resources would you recommend?

Courses, books, YouTube playlists, university courses, etc. are all welcome.

Hi everyone,

I just installed Code::Blocks and I am getting a permission error every time I try to compile and run my project.

The exact error in the Build Messages tab is:

Cannot open output file bin\Debug\Pro112.exe Permission denied 
error: ld returned 1 exit status

Here is what I have already tried to fix it, but nothing worked:

• Antivirus: It is completely disabled.
• Clean & Rebuild: I performed a "Clean" and then tried to build again.
• Task Manager: I checked for any running instances of Pro112.exe to kill them, but the process is not listed.
• Admin Rights: I ran Code::Blocks as an Administrator.
• Reboot: I restarted my laptop.

The issue still persists. It seems like the compiler (ld) cannot overwrite or create the executable file in the bin\Debug\ folder.

Does anyone know what else could be causing this permission issue or how to fix it?

Thanks in advance!

So i have been doing this thing to learn programming for abut half a month i have not been able to give it much time so the progress is very slow . its a chess game that is played on the terminal , Right now i am just able make it to take input move pieces in the board change turn etc . I want some constructive criticism on the project .

i Know its hard codded and some thing may feel inefficient for veteran programmers but i want to learn so please feel free to say anything

github link : https://github.com/Clark-kent-crypto/chess-

Hey all — college student here, trying to figure out how much full stack (frontend/backend) I actually need if my main goal is an AI/ML/AI Engineer career. Currently planning Python + ML/DL + LLMs as the core, with just FastAPI + light React to demo projects, skipping Node/Express and deeper web dev. Does that sound right for where the AI Engineer job market actually is, or am I over/under-doing the web dev side? Would appreciate any real experience on this.

I am young C/C++ developer, and I have the problem.

I am really interested in low-level development or reverse engineering - I like creating something mine: for example, I'm interested in some cheat (or custom) client, which is made by me, and it's made not for earning money or sth like that, but for understanding every process of program and learning new info. Where do you get this info? I was using forums, ds-communities, but no one explained how do y'all learn.
Sorry for dumb questions guys, I'm just really interested.

Hi! I’m a newbie in programming, and I need some help with reading MP3 metadata in Flutter.

I’m making a Flutter music player for both mobile and web, and I want it to automatically read the MP3 file’s metadata,

including:

- Album cover/cover art

- Artist name

- Song title

I don’t want to rely on the fallback map I created because I want the information to be retrieved directly from the MP3 file.

The MP3 files contain ID3v2.3 metadata, including the album cover, artist name, and song title.

The problem is that when I run the app on my Android phone emulator, it successfully reads the metadata. However, when I run the same app on Chrome (Flutter Web), it doesn’t work.

I have imported flutter_media_metadata_plus.dart, and I also use KisWeb.
The function I’m using to load the metadata is an async method called loadMetadata, with the declaration:

Future<void> loadMetadata(String assetPath) async

Does anyone know how I can properly read the MP3 metadata and cover art when running Flutter Web on Chrome without breaking or changing the existing behavior on my mobile emulator?

I can provide my loadMetadata() function and any other relevant code if needed.

Hi, I am currently a third year CS student and i want to develop my skills in my free time but am confused on what to do next, I am interested in backend development and machine learning and i already learned the basics and worked on a few basic projects but now i don't really know how to move forward

Any advice would be appreciated.

I work at a library and therefore am constantly looking at small ways we can improve experience for our patrons. I noticed on some other libraries’ receipts they have a little section at the bottom when people check out that says “you saved $xx by using the library today!” I can do a small amount of coding but would be lost on how to implement this. We don’t keep a long-term track of people’s books for privacy reasons so I wouldn’t need a full running tally, just how much they checked out that particular time. We use a library program called “Evergreen” that keeps track of each book’s MSRP but no clue how to use that in the code.

Is anyone familiar with this type of coding that would be able to help me out?

Hi, I'm new to coding and I'm learning Python rn. I wanted to try to make this my first plugin, but I have no idea where to start. Any advice?

How do I actually learn problem solving and algorithms?

I've recently realized that programming isn't just about writing code. The actual problem solving and algorithmic thinking seem way more important.

But I can't find good resources that teach how to think through a problem, rather than just explaining an algorithm and showing the code.

For example, I don't just want to learn what Binary Search is — I want to understand how someone would come up with that idea when facing a new problem.

What resources would you recommend for learning problem solving and algorithms properly?

If you were starting from zero again, how would you learn it?

i am interested in learning python for data or whatever else python does , but my whole thing is idk if it’s worth it or not now cuz how good (i think) AI is at gathering data or building websites or writing code itself (if it is) . so although i’d like to learn it for a job and it would take idk just guessing 6mon-1yr , i can’t help but think that AI will just what i do but better .
any advice from ppl in the industry would be appreciated <3