Ok, so, I've made several attempts to learn to program in the past couple of years, and nothing much ever amounted from it.
I'm trying again, this time focusing on learning Java because I want to learn to mod Minecraft.
I do have the most GENERAL of programming ideas down, but little else. (Like I know what Object Oriented Programming is, I know what variables are, I know what If/else statements are, etc.)
The problem generally comes from the fact that whenever I get the drive to try to learn this stuff, it's because I wanna DO something specific with it. Like make a Minecraft mod, for example. I know I need to start much smaller, but I don't wanna MAKE anything smaller, and my disinterest in smaller, pointless-feeling "practice" coding kills my enthusiasm.
I know most coders start learning with a "hello world" type of program, but I don't care to greet the world digitally. The world can get lost until I'm done learning.
This is the core of my problem. How do I actually make the trek up the learning curve more interesting? If I can actually feel like I'm doing something useful, or at least interesting, I can keep pushing myself forward.
How do I keep myself engaged in the early stages?
(And I want to be clear, that I'm not asking for any specific, directly coding-related feedback, like "good coding practices," etc. It's more a question of motivation and philosophy than of variables and exceptions. But I'm also not looking for a pep-talk, or anything like that. I want something I can directly try to put into practice if possible. "This is what I did, when I learned to code..." will help me far more than "Keep trying, you can do it, outdated meme believes in you!")
Thanks. I think I even might have an idea for such a simple application.
I do a lot of tabletop roleplaying, we use a lot of custom homebrewed settings. A random generator, which can draw from custom lists of races/classes/locations/equipment/etc. would be a huge benefit. I imagine that it would basically be just a bunch of RNG-controlled access of dynamically generated lists/arrays/whatever. It wouldn't need much in terms of graphics, because it would just be a bunch of words.
Would something like that be a good place to start?
Also, thanks for the specific suggestion of learning about errors. Is there any particularly effective way to get that under my belt as fast as possible?
I also wanna ask, how much do I need to learn before I'm ready to dig into Minecraft? I've seen other people ask the same question before, and they always get different, and usually vague answers.
I want to do as much of the "learning" of Java as possible by fiddling around with Minecraft, so I want to get to the point of being just proficient enough with Java to start messing with it as soon as possible.
I've got a lot of mod ideas, and some of them are fairly ambitious, so I've settled on a "beginner" mod to get used to things before I try to go for the bigger stuff. It's just a mod that adds a bunch of custom mobs to the game and their associated item drops, spawn rates, AI, etc.
Once I've gotten past my tabletop generator, would that be a sufficiently low-skill mod to start with?
Ok, so, I've made several attempts to learn to program in the past couple of years, and nothing much ever amounted from it.
I'm trying again, this time focusing on learning Java because I want to learn to mod Minecraft.
I do have the most GENERAL of programming ideas down, but little else. (Like I know what Object Oriented Programming is, I know what variables are, I know what If/else statements are, etc.)
The problem generally comes from the fact that whenever I get the drive to try to learn this stuff, it's because I wanna DO something specific with it. Like make a Minecraft mod, for example. I know I need to start much smaller, but I don't wanna MAKE anything smaller, and my disinterest in smaller, pointless-feeling "practice" coding kills my enthusiasm.
I know most coders start learning with a "hello world" type of program, but I don't care to greet the world digitally. The world can get lost until I'm done learning.
This is the core of my problem. How do I actually make the trek up the learning curve more interesting? If I can actually feel like I'm doing something useful, or at least interesting, I can keep pushing myself forward.
How do I keep myself engaged in the early stages?
(And I want to be clear, that I'm not asking for any specific, directly coding-related feedback, like "good coding practices," etc. It's more a question of motivation and philosophy than of variables and exceptions. But I'm also not looking for a pep-talk, or anything like that. I want something I can directly try to put into practice if possible. "This is what I did, when I learned to code..." will help me far more than "Keep trying, you can do it, outdated meme believes in you!")
Thanks. I think I even might have an idea for such a simple application.
I do a lot of tabletop roleplaying, we use a lot of custom homebrewed settings. A random generator, which can draw from custom lists of races/classes/locations/equipment/etc. would be a huge benefit. I imagine that it would basically be just a bunch of RNG-controlled access of dynamically generated lists/arrays/whatever. It wouldn't need much in terms of graphics, because it would just be a bunch of words.
Would something like that be a good place to start?
Also, thanks for the specific suggestion of learning about errors. Is there any particularly effective way to get that under my belt as fast as possible?
I also wanna ask, how much do I need to learn before I'm ready to dig into Minecraft? I've seen other people ask the same question before, and they always get different, and usually vague answers.
I want to do as much of the "learning" of Java as possible by fiddling around with Minecraft, so I want to get to the point of being just proficient enough with Java to start messing with it as soon as possible.
I've got a lot of mod ideas, and some of them are fairly ambitious, so I've settled on a "beginner" mod to get used to things before I try to go for the bigger stuff. It's just a mod that adds a bunch of custom mobs to the game and their associated item drops, spawn rates, AI, etc.
Once I've gotten past my tabletop generator, would that be a sufficiently low-skill mod to start with?
Thanks in advance.