Yeah, Joel is dead on for how to learn to program. Unfortunately, I think we need to question that question more.
What folks are often asking when they ask "how do I program?" is something entirely different.
How do I learn how to make a website? Use wordpress or yola or squarespace.
How do I learn how to make that website look better? Read design blogs, some starter tutorials on html and css and start diving into the CSS. It's not that hard a standalone thing to learn.
How do I learn how to make that website do something fancy like fade things out? Start diving into the javascript in the same way.
How do I learn how to make that website do something functional like send an email, or save a session? Pick a modern framework (Ruby on Rails, Node on Express), read/watch the starter tutorials on it, and dive in.
How do I learn how to make that website do something functional and NOT have it be a horrendous hack job? Time to start reading those programming books :D
Just sayin' it's not always step 1. Depends on what you need to get done, and what you really want to learn how to do. Yeah?
What folks are often asking when they ask "how do I program?" is something entirely different.
How do I learn how to make a website? Use wordpress or yola or squarespace.
How do I learn how to make that website look better? Read design blogs, some starter tutorials on html and css and start diving into the CSS. It's not that hard a standalone thing to learn.
How do I learn how to make that website do something fancy like fade things out? Start diving into the javascript in the same way.
How do I learn how to make that website do something functional like send an email, or save a session? Pick a modern framework (Ruby on Rails, Node on Express), read/watch the starter tutorials on it, and dive in.
How do I learn how to make that website do something functional and NOT have it be a horrendous hack job? Time to start reading those programming books :D
Just sayin' it's not always step 1. Depends on what you need to get done, and what you really want to learn how to do. Yeah?