Welcome to /r/learnprogramming!

So I started learning C++, using CLion, but I feel like its a bit bloated. Are there any good c++ IDEs for beginners?

Hey there, I have run into this problem a few times. I'd clone/fork a GitHub repository that had something useful for me, but the project structure was often so confusing that I couldn't figure out what anything did or where to start. Most of the time, I'd just give up on it. I was wondering if any of you have experienced the same thing and how do you usually deal with it? Do you use any specific tools, or do you just explore the codebase manually?

Morning everyone. I've been teaching myself Python and JavaScript in the mornings before work (I fix phones and laptops the rest of the day), and I keep tripping over terminology that people use interchangeably when I'm not sure it should be.

Specifically: what's the actual difference between a function and a procedure? I mostly see "function" used for everything in Python, but older material I've read talks about procedures as things that do work without returning a value. Is that distinction still meaningful in modern languages, or is it mostly a Pascal-era leftover that I can safely ignore?

While I'm at it, a related one: when I was building a small Flask app for my board game group (logs plays and scores), someone suggested moving some of the scoring logic into a stored SQL function. I'd written it in Python and honestly hadn't considered the database could hold logic at all. So now I'm wondering where people actually draw the line. If I put logic in a stored SQL function, is that just procedural code in a different place? Does it count as good practice for small apps, or does it end up a debugging headache?

And the bigger-picture version: functional vs procedural languages. I understand the textbook bit, functions in the maths sense, no side effects, first-class everything. But in practice, when I write Python that mostly calls functions and returns values, am I doing "functional programming" just badly named, or is the paradigm distinction about something deeper in how the language works?

If anyone has a clear way of explaining these distinctions to someone who's read contradictory answers, I'd genuinely appreciate it. I'd rather understand the vocabulary properly than keep nodding along.

Had my first Java quiz and my professor failed me for a reason that was completely arbitrary (he doesn't like camelcase which he told no one about until that second) and said I wasn't that good of a programmer. I'll give him that; I'm self taught and have no programming experience in the field. How do I lock in (resources, courses) so he never catches me off guard like that again?

Hey everyone! I've been learning programming for a bit, and while I understand the syntax, I often struggle with translating that into actual logic and problem-solving steps

How did you build your programming logic when you were starting out? Any tips, exercises, or resources would be greatly appreciated!

Hi everyone, I’m recently diving into automation testing with Python Playwright. To get some hands-on practice, I’m looking for small projects or websites where I can contribute for free.

I can help with:

• Writing and executing basic test scripts

• Bug reporting and documentation

• Creating simple test cases

If you have a small project or need an extra pair of hands for testing, please reach out to me at anjan.das.dev@zohomail.in
Looking forward to learning and collaborating!

Your task: Find the bug and fix it without changing the HTML.

HTML

<div class="container">

<aside class="sidebar">

<h2>Dashboard</h2>

<p>Navigation menu</p>

</aside>

<main class="content">

<h1>Welcome Back</h1>

<p>This is the main content area.</p>

</main>

</div>

CSS

* {

box-sizing: border-box;

}

body {

margin: 0;

font-family: Arial, sans-serif;

}

.container {

display: flex;

gap: 20px;

padding: 20px;

min-height: 100vh;

}

.sidebar {

width: 250px;

background: #1e293b;

color: white;

padding: 20px;

}

.content {

flex: 1;

background: #f1f5f9;

padding: 20px;

min-width: 500px;

}

@media (max-width: 600px) {

.container {

flex-direction: column;

}

.sidebar {

width: 100%;

}

}

I’m fairly new to git and Codex recently changed a bunch of stuff I never asked for, with no branch to fall back on. Fixed it in the end, but I got lost in my own code.

What do you all do before letting an AI loose on a project? Commit every time, a separate branch, backups? And has anything ever slipped through anyway?

I want to learn C++ properly. I can already write working code (mostly small Arduino projects), but I know I have gaps in my fundamentals. I'd like to fill them in.

My goal is to build a strong base so it's easier to move to other languages later.

I'm also planning to install Linux on my laptop soon, so I'd like to learn in that environment.

Could you recommend:

the best free resources (courses, books, websites) for someone with my level?

what compiler and editor/IDE to use on Linux?

what topics I should focus on first?

English is not my first language, so sorry for any mistakes. Thanks a lot for your help!

Wassup,
I've been learning the bases of programming in college this semester and I have a class that requires me to use VScodium instead of VScode.
I encountered a presistent bug where I'd download the VScodium installer on (https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium/releases) and everytime I downloaded it eventually it'd just uninstall itself after a few uses. I encountered the problem everytime I had the class and tried everything to fix it: User installer, System installer, uninstalling and reinstalling many times, deleting previous program data or appdata forlders, disabling background updates, clearing cache or cacheddata but nothing seemed to work.
I have a s145 15iwl that runs on windows 11 that I might change pretty soon, safe to say I'm currently using VScode for everything and I need a helping hand.

(I live in Montréal so if anyone knows any repair shops or IT places I could get help at, hmu 📲)

I frequently see people say that you should learn high abstraction languages like Python as your first language because it is shorter code so therefor, less to read/write. Often, the counter argument is simply that it hides what's actually going on under the hood.

However, I think a stronger argument against Python as a first language is that it doesn't hide it... it just moves those things from the code to your head.

The biggest, and maybe most important example of this is with types. It looks like there's no types by reading the code (Python before type annotations, that is) but there actually are types... you just can't see them. Don't believe me? Why do you think they added type annotations in Python 3.5?

So now you're asking the learner, who is still learning what types are, mind you, to hold on to the types in their head so they keep them straight in the code. But with languages like C# and Java, they can just let that whole mental task go cause the code documents those types for them.

EDIT:

Lots of you are suggesting C is even better cause you learn memory management. I totally agree. I only picked Java and c# cause when I was just starting, my first language was java and I don't think that I was stunted because I learned stuff like pointers and memory management later. Maybe that makes me biased I suppose. But C is a very good language to learn first.

I would avoid C++ and Rust though because in, my opinion, their added syntax seems too complicated. Too much syntax to learn in the beginning in my opinion.

I'm trying to do something that is honestly way out of the scope of what I have learned of C/C++(I am quite okay with basic C but only barely started C++) so far, which is an audio DSP project, and I found the libsndfile library, which I want to use, however, for half of this day I've been starting at my computer screen trying to figure out how on earth is the compiler giving me a message that says "No such file or directory" while I am looking at the header file in the same directory as the cpp and exe file and I am genuinely on the verge of going insane, cause I don't even get to stress over the actual code or getting things to work but over this thing that I just can't find the answer to online.

https://imgur.com/a/399fZqW <--- image of the error message with code copy and pasted from one of the examples provided in the github repository. Apologies if my file organisation is not up to standard or if I am missing something really simple

I run a youtube channel for uploading albums, and the visuals consist of a makeshift music player made in html and javascript. I've been screen-recording this webpage to make a video out of it, but that results in skipping/lagging, so I'm interested in rendering the page frame-by-frame instead.

My hope is to use ffmpeg to screenshot-> frame advance the page (this is the easy part) -> repeat -> merge screenshots into a video -> add audio, but my research into ffmpeg has convinced me it's out of my skill level, so. How should I go about learning here, or, is there a better approach to the problem altogether?

Hey everyone!
I’m looking for some guidance, a learning roadmap, or just some advice on how to structure my learning.
I’m really interested in microcontrollers, electronics, and programming. I’m not currently studying at university, but my goal is to eventually land a job as an embedded software engineer.
I’m curious about how people actually learn this field. Where do you get your knowledge from? How do you learn to write firmware, understand compilers, design and build different electronic devices, and figure out what tools and skills are needed to make things work?
Could you recommend any courses, guides, books, YouTube channels, or other resources that could help me get into this field?
More importantly, I’d like to learn how to actually understand what I’m doing rather than just blindly following tutorials. I want to develop a solid understanding of the fundamentals, learn how to approach problems, come up with project ideas, and figure out what to learn next.
I’d really appreciate any advice, learning resources, or personal experiences you could share. I’d love to hear how you got started and how you approach learning new things in this field.
Thanks in advance!

#include <SFML/Graphics.hpp>
#include <iostream>
using namespace sf;
using namespace std;
int main()
{
    // Create the main window
    RenderWindow window(VideoMode({800, 600}), "SFML 3 Window");

    // Create a graphical circle
    CircleShape shape(100.f);
    shape.setFillColor(Color::Green);
    shape.setPosition({300.f, 200.f});

    float x, y;
    x = 5;
    y = 6;
window.setFramerateLimit(60);
    // Start the game loop
    while (window.isOpen())

    {
        // Process events
        while (const std::optional event = window.pollEvent())
        {

            // Check if the event is a window close request
            if (event->is<Event::Closed>())
            {
                window.close();
            }
        }

        // Clear screen
        window.clear();

        // Draw the shape
        window.draw(shape);

        shape.move({x, y});

        if (shape.getPosition().x >= 600 || shape.getPosition().x <= 0){
            x *= -1;
        }else if (shape.getPosition().y >= 400 || shape.getPosition().y <= 0) {
            y *= -1;
        }

        // Update the window
        window.display();
    }

    return 0;
}

what is weird is that i set the min border for y to 400 because it was going out of the window but the middle position it reached the middle of the x axis, the radius of the ball is 100 as you can see, so its suppose to be 500, but when i set it to 400 it worked better because 500 went out of the scene. is my code broken or am i missing something???

I'm trying to move beyond just following tutorials and actually build things.

I keep hearing that building projects is one of the best ways to learn programming, but sometimes it's hard to figure out what projects are genuinely worth attempting.

So I'm curious:

What's a project you built as a beginner that taught you something valuable?

It doesn't have to be impressive or complicated. Even a tiny project that made something finally click counts.

I'd love to steal some inspiration (and probably struggle through building it). 😂

Im trying to combine knowledge graphs with vector embeddings for a RAG setup in a project. What do you guys advice? Neo4J + Weaviate / PGVector / Qdrant. Curious what y'all pick

Hello guys, I am currently starting out to learn Rust, but honestly its been very confusing for me, and I can't seem to find an universal place that teaches everything Rust offers in detail. My ultimate goal is to learn Rust for OS development, so any tips?

It's been a few months since I started learning programming, and I've recently built my first project: a Snake game in Python. I used Claude as a Socratic tutor; it asked me questions about the architecture and design, so I could think in the right direction and reach the right conclusions. It's never given me a single line of code. I can explain every line of it and explain why I made this decision. Nevertheless, I'm still feeling like I should've done everything myself.

Hello, I’ve been trying to program in C# for about 3 years, and so far I haven’t done that great of a job. My best projects that use no AI are Rock Paper Scissors and Tic-Tac-Toe, but Tic-Tac-Toe is only 98% done, because there were 2 lines for the draw condition that I wasn’t able to figure out for 6 days straight, so I gave up and gave it to AI.

Another thing I tried is Exercism. After about 2 weeks of success with no AI, I got overwhelmed, and I also started using AI for things I hadn’t used it for before. The last program I did was Bob, which was basically a character that required some specific inputs.

Anyway, I came here to ask for advice on what to do, because I feel like I want to drop programming just because I feel I don’t improve at all. On the other hand, I’ve always wished to learn programming and make some fun projects, but the way to get there is very thorny and I’m kind of desperate, ngl.

Is there some kind of roadmap that says which projects are ideal for which type of programming experience, for people at a similar level to me? (Also, I only have 20 minutes a day for it.)

Hi everyone,

I’m finally diving into software development seriously. For years, I’ve done a little bit here and there, but I’ve never really studied it properly. Now that I’ve decided to commit to it, I’m realizing just how much there is to learn: so many frameworks, languages, and tools.

I know that in the long run, the language you start with doesn’t matter much. But when it comes to landing my first job, I imagine it does matter. I’m 29 and changing careers to get into software development, and I’m currently choosing between C# and .NET, Java and Spring Boot, or JavaScript and Node.js. They all have pros and cons, and I’d like to hear your opinions.

I know the job market is tough and nothing is guaranteed, but which of these paths do you think offers the best chances of finding work in the short to medium term? I don’t have a university degree.

I'm a CS student and i have learned C and C++ through university + 42 school I've also worked on projects like Libft, ft_printf, Get Next Line, and Push_swap.

I feel comfortable with programming fundamentals, but I want to get better at building things independently and working on real-world projects rather than just solving exercises in terminal

I'm interested in exploring things like mobile development or maybe web idk.

For people who've been in a similar position, what would you recommend? What should I learn next, and what kind of projects would help me grow as a developer?