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« on: November 11, 2023, 01:32:03 PM »
I'm here today writing this post because most of what I've been reading under the reversing board regarding "learning programming" has been utter garbage.
Programming is not at all a simple process, and when you're just beginning, the decisions you make will, in the end, determine whether or not you succeed or fail.
In my own experience, in order to begin anything "advanced," you need the bare minimum of intermediate-level math knowledge and a general understanding of how computers operate.
First things first, I definitely do not recommend starting with C++. A lot of what you'll be getting into is far too advanced for basic beginnings; as much as it's cringeworthy, Python is a genuinely good starting point.
There are many resources online for you to use, no matter what you choose to learn. There are plenty of YouTube videos explaining the fundamentals of computer programming; however, getting somewhere where you feel comfortable simply programming without worrying and constantly having to look up solutions can take years.
There's a reason why people go to school to learn programming-related topics. I personally am going to the university for computer science.
Some very crucial things you'll need to know during your adventures are:
Order of operations
Data Types
Flow control structures
Programming paradigms
Variables and syntax (the least fun part)
Another topic you need to have information on is how computer memory works, how everything is stored, how it is accessed, etc.
Somehow, even using Wikipedia can help you understand. (There is far too much for me to write here.)
A lot of websites you may find on the web are really bad for learning quality material.
The deeper you dive into developing cheats for any game, the more you need to learn. (This post is not about learning how to make game cheats, so I'll be skipping that.)
If you think you'll know how to write any sort of cheat or hack for a game just because you read a book on C++, that's ridiculous.
We all start somewhere. For me, I started writing batch scripts for my computer to automate my weekly drive cleaning. I started somewhere that simple, and it was actually valuable to me.
When your goal is to get comfortable writing your own programs, you need to practice, practice, practice. You will gradually learn as you go on, working on any projects you deem suitable. Now, honestly, learning from other people is also very useful. However, pasting is not. You may go and look at the source code for various pieces of software, but it's more beneficial to try and recreate it yourself than just copy each little bit of code. If you do that, you don't learn.
You will slowly but surely get to a point where you now have your own passion project that you designed all by yourself or with minimal help, and you've completed the introductory portion of learning how to program.
If you guys have any resources to share for future readers of the post, publish them below and I will eventually add a resources section.