I need to learn a programming language, which one is easiest out of this list ?

[T3X4S]

I have a really important job interview coming up in 10 days.
This company contacted me about a year ago, but I had just accepted an offer for a 1 year contract and couldn't back out.
So, I contacted them back, and they are interested still woohoo !

Only problem is, the position they want me for requires some coding - I dont know any.

Which would be easiest for me to submerge in a crash course for the next 10 days?  ( I once heard python is pretty easy)

Java
.NET
Node.js
PHP
Python
Ruby

And I need familiarity in 1 of these:

Git, Perforce, SVN, TFVC

Obviously this job is out of my comfort zone, and I am taking a slight risk, but I am wanting a change -

Thanks Everyone

[adrynalyne]

Don't know any and you want to know enough to be hired in 10 days?  Good luck, I'll say a prayer for you

I'd go PHP myself.

[Eric Veteran]

Do you know any other languages already? If not it's fairly unlikely you'll learn enough for an interview in 10 days.

If you really want to give it a try then stay away from any language that isn't type-safe.

[+virtorio MVC]

There's a difference between learning a programming language (such as C# or VB.NET), a framework (such as .Net), and the kind of program types you might be building (such as building desktop software or a web sites/services). So, what do you want to learn?

10 days isn't going to be long enough to get you very far.

[+Warwagon MVC]

 

I always heard Lisp is easy to learn.

 

[Andre S. Veteran]

Python and SVN would be the easiest. The resources online to learn these are abundant.

You can start coding right away and see immediate results without installing anything here: https://repl.it/languages/python3

That said, it's unlikely you can learn enough to gain even basic proficiency in programming in less than 2 weeks. There's much more to it than learning the grammar of any particular programming language.

[adrynalyne]

 

I always heard Lisp is easy to learn.

 

You are cruel....

[adrynalyne]

Do you know any other languages already? If not it's fairly unlikely you'll learn enough for an interview in 10 days.

If you really want to give it a try then stay away from any language that isn't type-safe.

Those are the most fun though!

[T3X4S]

Don't know any and you want to know enough to be hired in 10 days?  Good luck, I'll say a prayer for you

I'd go PHP myself.

Well, this is just 1 part of the job descrip.  I didnt have anything mention coding in my resume, they knew this - so I am thinking it isnt a dealbreaker - but I would like to be able to answer a couple cursory questions.

Do you know any other languages already? If not it's fairly unlikely you'll learn enough for an interview in 10 days.

If you really want to give it a try then stay away from any language that isn't type-safe.

Honestly Eric, it has been over 20 years since I wrote a program, and it was in Turbo Pascal and I was about 12 years old.  So  - nope!  
 

There's a difference between learning a programming language (such as C# or VB.NET), a framework (such as .Net), and the kind of program types you might be building (such as building desktop software or a web sites/services). So, what do you want to learn?

10 days isn't going to be long enough to get you very far.

My role would be to know enough of the language to be able to look at a part of the code, and possibly find the error as a root cause.
My position is a Cloud Support Engineer, so I would be working with Engineers of other large companies when there are problems - identifying problems, and solving them.  Part of a team 
 

Python and SVN would be the easiest. The resources online to learn these are abundant.

You can start coding right away and see immediate results without installing anything here: https://repl.it/languages/python3

That said, it's unlikely you can learn enough to gain even basic proficiency in programming in less than 2 weeks. There's much more to it than learning the grammar of any particular programming language.

Thanks - thats what I heard about Python.


You guys are totally right,  I wont be able to grasp anything but the most basic terms/concepts in 10 days.  I have a hard time learning things I am not interested in (my ADD becomes a real bitch)
But if I can at least immerse myself in it for a week or so, that way - when the 1 hour phone interview rolls around - I wont be stressed as much.  I need to stay positive, in the right frame of mind.



Thanks Guys, I really appreciate it.  I was worried someone was going to be an ass about it telling me there is no way, or "you're doing it wrong"  -or some crap.

Right now, I am just trying to get through to the next interview which is a face-to-face w/ 4 interviewers.  I always interview well, so even if I may not know as much as another candidate - I can BS with the best of them.  (plus I'll find out where the other candidates live and burn their house down) 

[adrynalyne]

Well, this is just 1 part of the job descrip.  I didnt have anything mention coding in my resume, they knew this - so I am thinking it isnt a dealbreaker - but I would like to be able to answer a couple cursory questions.

Honestly Eric, it has been over 20 years since I wrote a program, and it was in Turbo Pascal and I was about 12 years old.  So  - nope!  
 

My role would be to know enough of the language to be able to look at a part of the code, and possibly find the error as a root cause.
My position is a Cloud Support Engineer, so I would be working with Engineers of other large companies when there are problems - identifying problems, and solving them.  Part of a team 
 

Thanks - thats what I heard about Python.


You guys are totally right,  I wont be able to grasp anything but the most basic terms/concepts in 10 days.  I have a hard time learning things I am not interested in (my ADD becomes a real bitch)
But if I can at least immerse myself in it for a week or so, that way - when the 1 hour phone interview rolls around - I wont be stressed as much.  I need to stay positive, in the right frame of mind.



Thanks Guys, I really appreciate it.  I was worried someone was going to be an ass about it telling me there is no way, or "you're doing it wrong"  -or some crap.

Right now, I am just trying to get through to the next interview which is a face-to-face w/ 4 interviewers.  I always interview well, so even if I may not know as much as another candidate - I can BS with the best of them.  (plus I'll find out where the other candidates live and burn their house down) 

You might want to read up on the different types of errors as well (syntax, logic, runtime, etc).

Are you sure this job isn't language specific? It would help you to find out so that you can get a general idea of how errors look and how to determine their source.

[DevTech]

Programming is not a language

So given the time frame you should not select a language but instead select the best vehicle - i.e a non-joke Crash Course of some sort.

I guess a language used in Cloudy stuff BigData couldn't hurt such as "R"

 

[DevTech]

Start by reading this:

http://worrydream.com/LearnableProgramming/

But the instant feedback of the Khan editor might actually be good for some people:

https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming

Poking through Codepen is a useful trip because again it's live:

http://codepen.io/

Microsoft has an "Absolute Beginners" series:

https://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Beginner

And there is a lot of resources from "Hour of Code"

https://code.org/learn

 

[T3X4S]

You might want to read up on the different types of errors as well (syntax, logic, runtime, etc).

Are you sure this job isn't language specific? It would help you to find out so that you can get a general idea of how errors look and how to determine their source.

It isnt language specific - but I do remember the syntax, logic errors - so I can at least draw upon something

Programming is not a language

So given the time frame you should not select a language but instead select the best vehicle - i.e a non-joke Crash Course of some sort.

I guess a language used in Cloudy stuff BigData couldn't hurt such as "R"

 

I have a list of things to choose from.  I just need to learn a little of one of them.

I did find this great little video - seems pretty helpful.  Flies through stuff, doesnt drill down into too much detail, and covers a bunch of topics.  I think if I can memorize this whole video - I will feel a little more confident about it.

 

Start by reading this:

http://worrydream.com/LearnableProgramming/

But the instant feedback of the Khan editor might actually be good for some people:

https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming

Poking through Codepen is a useful trip because again it's live:

http://codepen.io/

Microsoft has an "Absolute Beginners" series:

https://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Beginner

And there is a lot of resources from "Hour of Code"

https://code.org/learn

 

Wow - thanks !
 

[DevTech]

And sadly (because I think it's BS), be prepared for FizzBuzz because it has captured the tiny little brains of HR people everywhere!

Jeff Attwood brought the FizzBizz solidly into the programming meme-set with this blog entry:

http://blog.codinghorror.com/why-cant-programmers-program/

And so, your chance of getting hit with it is quite high, even though it's trivial to memorize a solution...

This site has the trivial program done in a zillion languages!

http://rosettacode.org/wiki/FizzBuzz

And this guy evolves it through various modern programming styles:

http://www.tomdalling.com/blog/software-design/fizzbuzz-in-too-much-detail/

 

[Seabizkit]

find a friend*

who knows how to program, ask them to teach you.

Better find out what they use at your new place of work and start learning that.

I started in javscript/Jquery and then PHP, but for me, PHP really did NOT cerement what I was actually doing,

in other words i was just learning syntax and what works and what does not.

BUT PHP it did not teach me about, Classes, inheritance, instance, Enums, Encapsulation, Interfaces, Domain driven design.... Design patterns.

I learnt all of this from Dot net environment and the language c#.

Visual studio is free and possibly the best coding studio/platform/tool there is.

The language syntax of c# and java.... are so similar!!! if you can code in the one you should be able to in the other.

Again... learn the language and tools which they use...

[T3X4S]

And sadly (because I think it's BS), be prepared for FizzBuzz because it has captured the tiny little brains of HR people everywhere!

Jeff Attwood brought the FizzBizz solidly into the programming meme-set with this blog entry:

http://blog.codinghorror.com/why-cant-programmers-program/

And so, your chance of getting hit with it is quite high, even though it's trivial to memorize a solution...

This site has the trivial program done in a zillion languages!

http://rosettacode.org/wiki/FizzBuzz

And this guy evolves it through various modern programming styles:

http://www.tomdalling.com/blog/software-design/fizzbuzz-in-too-much-detail/

 

Thanks man, I really appreciate the tip

[T3X4S]

find a friend*

who knows how to program, ask them to teach you.

Better find out what they use at your new place of work and start learning that.

I started in javscript/Jquery and then PHP, but for me, PHP really did NOT cerement what I was actually doing,

in other words i was just learning syntax and what works and what does not.

BUT PHP it did not teach me about, Classes, inheritance, instance, Enums, Encapsulation, Interfaces, Domain driven design.... Design patterns.

I learnt all of this from Dot net environment and the language c#.

Visual studio is free and possibly the best coding studio/platform/tool there is.

The language syntax of c# and java.... are so similar!!! if you can code in the one you should be able to in the other.

Again... learn the language and tools which they use...

I already have a list in the job description.  And unfortunately, I dont have any friends that code.

I am picking Python because it was in the job descrip.


What is strange, is a year ago when they contacted me, I told them that it was outside of my field of expertise,  that I didnt know any code, but they still wanted to fly me out for an interview.

 

[PGHammer]

Programming is not a language

So given the time frame you should not select a language but instead select the best vehicle - i.e a non-joke Crash Course of some sort.

I guess a language used in Cloudy stuff BigData couldn't hurt such as "R"

 

Ah - debugging.  What Fun.  When I got into it, I had to deal with business mainframe programs (COBOL and FORTRAN), then databases (dBase, then Interbase, then Access and SQL).  Git is not a programming language at all, but a code repository (and any number of programming languages - including those for databases - can use git-style repositories; I have no idea whether COBOL or FORTRAN are among them; however, consider that both started out as mainframe-targeted languages, and both have moved to the GUI - including Windows NT - it wouldn't surprise me one bit that the current iteration of either or both can).

[DevTech]

Oh I almost forgot.

One of the most irritating parts of learning to program is the complete lack of getting cool visual feedback in the typical text console.

A lot of the links on the code.org site are to languages with visuals "ready to go" just for that reason.

I wanted to make sure I included this note because you mentioned attention problems when learning.

Skipping a couple of C++ variations on this for obvious reasons, I know of these solutions for standard languages:

Java - https://processing.org/

Javascript - http://processingjs.org/

C# - https://channel9.msdn.com/coding4fun/blog/End-of-Summer-Fun-with-FunSharp

---------------------------

On version control the invasion of Git is pretty much complete and universal. It would be insane to look at anything else...

 

[Seabizkit]

I already have a list in the job description.  And unfortunately, I dont have any friends that code.

I am picking Python because it was in the job descrip.


What is strange, is a year ago when they contacted me, I told them that it was outside of my field of expertise,  that I didnt know any code, but they still wanted to fly me out for an interview.

 

 

well then its a no brainier, if Python is on the job spec then learn that.

If they listed all of those you mentioned in the original post, then i would skip this company.

jack of all, master of none. For me just leads to $hitty programming... or you were only required to write 10 lines which i that case it wouldn't matter.

Best of luck.

[DevTech]

I googled for some system similar to Processing but in Python and all the Python solutions (really quick search of course) looked very very surprisingly awkward.

Then I came across this article:

http://compscigail.blogspot.ca/2012/05/python-vs-processing-as-first-language.html

Very short read and then poke through the comments section with a lot of teachers posting.

It gives one pause for thought that the "easy" in Python might be from the perspective of experienced programmers and not actually for beginners.

Anyways done my best....

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to learn a programming language in 10 days. As always, should you fail in your mission we will disavow all records of having advised you. These posts will self-destruct in ....

 

[Shiranui]

Ruby

[T3X4S]

 

well then its a no brainier, if Python is on the job spec then learn that.

If they listed all of those you mentioned in the original post, then i would skip this company.

jack of all, master of none. For me just leads to $hitty programming... or you were only required to write 10 lines which i that case it wouldn't matter.

Best of luck.

Im not required per se to write any of it - just know enough so it isnt complete gibberish if I have to debug it.



The company is Amazon

[T3X4S]

I googled for some system similar to Processing but in Python and all the Python solutions (really quick search of course) looked very very surprisingly awkward.

Then I came across this article:

http://compscigail.blogspot.ca/2012/05/python-vs-processing-as-first-language.html

Very short read and then poke through the comments section with a lot of teachers posting.

It gives one pause for thought that the "easy" in Python might be from the perspective of experienced programmers and not actually for beginners.

Anyways done my best....

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to learn a programming language in 10 days. As always, should you fail in your mission we will disavow all records of having advised you. These posts will self-destruct in ....

 

Thank You, Sir.

You are a Gentleman and a Scholar  (and funny)

 

[Kelxin]

Eh, don't worry, I'm going to have him fly out, and not going to hire him anyway.   It will be a real hoot!

[Seabizkit]

Eh, don't worry, I'm going to have him fly out, and not going to hire him anyway.   It will be a real hoot!

troll level 8999, i see you there ;-)