- Joined
- Apr 26, 2010
- Posts
- 500
So I signed up for the free intro to computer science class that Harvard (and Yale) offer online called CS50x through edx.org. I took a few Turbo Pascal and C classes back in the 90's in highschool, and have done some PHP and VBA/Access stuff in my spare time or for work, but never really dug into it more than that.
Anyhow, MIT has this program called Scratch that they use which is like a "visual" programming language where you can only snap together compatible commands to do your coding. It works really well for teaching concepts, etc, and some of the homework you get requires you to create programs with it.
Most people end up making games since it's heavily sprite orientated. People can share their projects online and there are some really amazing games on there. Particularly the first two below:
Chase H.Q. - https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/73029398/
Cube (a 3D pen platformer) - https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/101991119/
1943 - https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/85010674/
Journey to Hope (Thomas Was Alone clone) - https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/92417161/
Flappy Mario - https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/18024798/
Cubed - https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/58008884/
Star Wars FPS - https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/103978498/
You can click "see inside" on the top right to view the source for the games to learn how the were made. Click the green flag to start the game.
Anyhow, I'm hoping to finish the whole CS50x course before the end of the year. You can pay like $90 or so once you're done and verified your identity and they'll send a certificate to you with a stamp/signature/whatever. There's also a subreddit if you get stuck on the homework at http://www.reddit.com/r/cs50
Anyhow, if any of you are interested in learning how to code, this is an excellent way to get started. It's a real "class" and requires a lot of time. The main page estimates the effort as: 9 problem sets (10 to 20 hours each), 1 final project. I get really into this stuff when I'm coding macros and scripts at work, so this is right down my alley.
Anyhow, MIT has this program called Scratch that they use which is like a "visual" programming language where you can only snap together compatible commands to do your coding. It works really well for teaching concepts, etc, and some of the homework you get requires you to create programs with it.
Most people end up making games since it's heavily sprite orientated. People can share their projects online and there are some really amazing games on there. Particularly the first two below:
Chase H.Q. - https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/73029398/
Cube (a 3D pen platformer) - https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/101991119/
1943 - https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/85010674/
Journey to Hope (Thomas Was Alone clone) - https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/92417161/
Flappy Mario - https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/18024798/
Cubed - https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/58008884/
Star Wars FPS - https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/103978498/
You can click "see inside" on the top right to view the source for the games to learn how the were made. Click the green flag to start the game.
Anyhow, I'm hoping to finish the whole CS50x course before the end of the year. You can pay like $90 or so once you're done and verified your identity and they'll send a certificate to you with a stamp/signature/whatever. There's also a subreddit if you get stuck on the homework at http://www.reddit.com/r/cs50
Anyhow, if any of you are interested in learning how to code, this is an excellent way to get started. It's a real "class" and requires a lot of time. The main page estimates the effort as: 9 problem sets (10 to 20 hours each), 1 final project. I get really into this stuff when I'm coding macros and scripts at work, so this is right down my alley.
