# Before you start learning to program



## sygeek (Dec 18, 2011)

Before you go start learning to program and brag about your 1337 skills to your friends, here is what you do first:


Learn about the basics of your computer. Seriously, you can never become a good programmer without proper knowledge of what you're practicing it on. No, you don't need to be a computer professional or even an average computer guy, you just have to learn about the *basics* (one liner definition, uses, and usage) of everyday things, such as, folders, files, desktop, icons, command line, GUI, toolbars browsers, programming languages, etc. They are plenty of guides online and I'm not going to link it to you. If you've paid attention to your computer classes at school, you can skip this.


This is something not only for newbies but also for some "computer professionals". Learn the basics of the command line interface, so, at least you can use your computer like a real programmer does or it will get in the way of your learning (to program). It isn't hard but rather super easy. You probably won't be needing to learn the core details (and at this stage I wouldn't recommend it as well) but basic information is definitely needed.

Since there aren't any good guides for this, here's a free online guide, "Learn Code The Hard Way". At most, this will take a week of learning and if you're good enough, you'll be done with it in a day.

Now that you have done the above, you can start learning programming.



Spoiler



*Why did I write this?*
I don't want you to be just another robot like the 99% of CS students.


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## arpanmukherjee1 (Dec 22, 2011)

forget students, in offices if they dont know something, they say leave it and focus on the work in hand...


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## arnab.d287 (Dec 22, 2011)

Good one..


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