So there's rules like grammar in the way you put commands in and commands are like vocabulary?

yes

Glad I studied linguistics for once

one thing that frustrates many people starting out (including me) is that the computer will do *exactly what you tell it*

you might not understand what you're telling it at first, but it will always faithfully execute your commands as long as your code is valid 😃

don't think of programming as something exotic or big-brain. it's not

at the same time, don't try to learn by diving into the code of some large project. you'll be asking yourself way too many questions to make any progress

here's my recommendation. First, tell yourself you're going to learn. tell yourself you're not going to quit

there are going to be times you'll want to totally give up, because something you think should be simple just doesn't work.

but the effort you expend solving that problem will be valuable in the end because you will learn a lot of tricks and gain a deeper understanding in the process

there's a LOT to learn, but you don't have to know everything or even a lot to start writing useful things

so back to my recommendation. Steel yourself, and then dive in.

Take your time as you're learning. Do a little a day. Make sure you understand everything.

I recommend starting with "How to Think Like a Computer Scientist" or "Python the Hard Way"

either one will get you the same basic knowledge in the end

again, don't rush through it. do the exercises

if you do a chapter a day you'll have the fundamentals within a week

at that point, start thinking of simple problems to solve using code

one problem I tackled very early on is the Monty Hall problem

it's conceptually simple and a good conversation piece

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem

https://www.learnpythonthehardway.org/

http://openbookproject.net/thinkcs/python/english2e/

Once you get through one of those books, you'll have a much greater understanding of programming fundamentals. You'll have the foundation in place to tackle something more specific.

Get back to me once you've done that and we can talk some more. AMA along the way.

Gonna knock out an FtN article before bed 😃

Hmmm. "Learn Python the Hard Way" used to be free

I've *heard* that if you go to qwant.com and search for "learn python the hard way pdf" you'll find that free version still floating around out there.

Could I pick these up at a library?

possibly. but there are free PDFs as well

you can try this too ?: https://www.codecademy.com/

Anyone @here that familiar with Java?

@here anybody here good with video editing, specifically adobe premier pro? I am editing some go pro footage the quality is coming out less than desireable. I think i have all the settings right. • Format: H264
• Preset: HD 720 p 29.97 or 1080 for super high
• Width 1280
• Progressive square pixel
• Profile: high
• Level 5.2

@Brandon Ironside- ND sorry man i use sony vegas pro

i find youtube to actually be a really good resource on video editing techniques if you phrase your query directly

come to think of it - i am wondering what quality the raw go-pro footage is 720 at 60fps or 1080 at 30 fps, right?

Yea its a hero 3 so 1080p or 720p. When I play the raw footage it is really good quality then after editing and rendering i loose alot of quality but im exporting in 720p so i dont know why its doing that.

@Lukas - NC I'm fluent in C#, which has a lot in common with Java. If you're trying to figure out what's wrong with a particular bit of code, I might be able to help.

@Brandon Ironside- ND I haven't used Premiere in years, but I do work quite a bit in After Effects these days. Losing a lot of quality is interesting, something is happening there beyond just you saying "output dimensions = input dimensions" some interpolation or re-compression is happening. How "bad" does it look? post a before and after pic of a couple of the frames...

how do i rebase to a past commit? I keep trying to rebase -i t <past ssh> but it says there is a sytax error

i removed the last commit but it unstaged it how do delete the past stages to clean up my terminal?