Got it! The temporal scope of ASAP has undoubtedly lapsed.
So my replies are for OTHERS who experience a similar-enough quandary.
So I took a programming class or two and am stuck.
What is there to program?
And how do you do it?
I could imagine someone in the early days of computing experiencing this problem, but not NOW.
There are so many other-created apps and programs that one routinely uses that one could opt to let a DIY ethos prevail.
Someone wanting to learn auto mechanics could refrain from merely USING a vehicle by CHECKING UNDER THE HOOD to discover HOW THINGS WORK.
There is a glut of Free Software out there with Source Code one can obtain, study, modify, and re-compile using one's computer as a laboratory.
One can download the `code' for an `engine', study it, modify it, compile it, test it, ... lather, rinse, repeat.
What's the easiest, fastest way to learn coding and getting involved in the community.
I never met `the community' ... what's she like?
Which `community' do you imagine?
There is no grand unified `community' of developers.
Yet all the languages have communities based on language.
Programming paradigms have communities.
Domains of application have their own communities.
As a newbie programmer I suppose one could join a community of other newbie programmers.
What kind of ideas can you have for coding?
How do you go about the fastest route to start working in A.I. and more complex coding projects, like say a game.
See below.
Is IT a good start? Not just for a job but programming experience.
As if AI, game programming and IT all worked and played well together?
A local college had a degree program preparing one for work in AI; it entailed Philosophy + Computers + Cognitive Science.
Computer Games as have evolved over decades are now so slick and so much a product of a development TEAM that I can't imagine a single person single-handedly creating a polished world-beating game.
I suspect that game creation would entail dealing with qualia similar to an adult trying to learn music from a standing start.
One has to have the ability to play `Mary had a little lamb' without experiencing process-quashing discouragement.
I suspect that it would be easier to start with a
game engine and learning how to tweak parameters to implement a game dependently based on said game engine.
As for IT ... it's antithetical to both AI and game design and development.
IT is about the nuts and bolts of would-be `information', it's storage and back up, limiting access to said information, implementing `security', and pandering to business weenies.
Think relational databases and SQL.
Do I need to take the beginner CS classes at school to get it?
I have a rough idea how it works but can't implement the desire.
How much programming experience do I need?
It seems you've got the cart before the horse;
Desire generally leads activity which leads to experience which leads to competence.
There are different languages - how many do I need to understand how the internet works?
Yes there are different languages.
No, you don't have to understand -- at first -- how the internet works IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND how
algorithms and data structures WORK.
With a gist understanding of basic algorithms and basic data structures one may apply these to various languages and add understanding of `how the internet works' gradually one project at a time.
I've been wrestling with this topic for a while now.
I'm thinking about taking more classes but it doesn't really tell you how to program.
Dude!
Classes don't reveal how to program; programming reveals how to program ... the DOING reveals how-to, not abstract classroom shit lacking in hands-on grounding in DOING programming.
Not that one can't learn a disconnected assortment of stuff the way an artist can learn `styles' and `techniques'.
The artist has to have a creative desire to put the styles and techniques to use.
There are a lot of CS graduates who've acquired a repertoire of know-how who don't have an ounce of creativity ... and they can get hired to work as team members on projects to which they are assigned some specialized part of the whole the way an automotive engineer may be assigned the the creation of, say, a door handle for the left, rear door.
There are too many different terms and ways of executing them, it's like learning a different language.
Yes, a language different from a so-called `natural' language.
The use of `natural' language often allows a lack of `symbol grounding'; the use of computer language entails something more like behaviorism to prevail.
One feeds stimuli into a compiler, translator, interpreter, REPL or such ... which responds to said stimuli with RESPONSES.
A program is a kind of kinetic, dynamic sculpture which BEHAVES.
While programming one is creating something which behaves, does, enacts, acts-as-if.
If one doesn't have the DESIRE to craft a machine or organism which DOES something dynamic one would have to have OTHERS specify one's programming assignments while hoping to experience a eureka moment to TRY SOMETHING other than what's assigned.
There are how-to books and courses which address your plight from a how-to perspective:
How to design programs, for example.
One may use an analytical approach such as in The
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs.
The tricky part is selecting an approach which resonates with one's personality.
And one generally can't quantum leap from Newbie to Entry-Level-Programmer; one has to use several layers of in-between steps which get one closer and closer until someone is willing to pay good money to have one perform `work for hire' performing `programming' tasks, duties, and responsibilities.
Some employers only hire those with CS degrees; others may require only a demonstrated ability to craft code of the sort they'll pay you to develop.
Now if one wants to Learn Programming, sans monetary gains, one may proceed as a hobbyist ... typically while gainfully employed via a `day job'.
