Hello everyone!

I am here today to ask you guys a question.
For about 2 years I have always been interested in programming. Both my older brother and father are successful programmers, and therefore I have gotten a big interest in it.

Though, my English is not perfect. I can read it very well, and I can speak/write it quite acceptable. I am experiencing difficulties reading tutorials due to the hard words they are using in them.
I really want to learn programmign in Python, and after I have learned Python I want to keep going with Python or go over to Java/C#.

How did you guys learn programming in Python? I have been watching "thenewbostons" tutorials on youtube, but the things I learn don't really stick to my mind that good. It feels quite poorly explained, so to say.

First, I would like to learn general basics in Python, and then advance to game development as soon as possible, maybe 2D old school RPG games, or whatever.
I bet this thread has been made before, but I really want new fresh answers and some useful advices on the way :3 How should I learn Python?!

Thank you in advance!

I learned the basics here. This is my thread about doing so.

I found using 64-bit versions of Python 2.7 gave me and many others grief. I use 32-bit versions of everything Python 2.7 related.

I wish you luck!

Wow, thank you so much for that. Bless you! ;)

After following this guide, did you completely step into the game development?

No, like I say, I learned the basics from that tutorial (and a lot of help from the GameDev forums!). I've not progressed farther than that!

You could make a console ("text-only") game like me after learning the basics, but not one with graphics. For that, you need pygame.

If you check out my thread (linked in last post), you'll see about where I am in terms of game development and how long it took me to get there. I ask a lot of beginner questions, too.

Also, vharishanker is making his first video game in Python in his thread.

Alright, thanks! I am on the fifth tutorial now, and I kinda feel a little more sure already. The reason for that is because the tutorial asks me to write a little program with simple tasks, and it works out really great! Thank you very much kind sir, you might just have made my night

I just encountered a problem! The counter code thingy is not working in this tutorial: http://learn-to-program.net/loops.htm
Do you know the working code or will I have to skip that? What I mean with counter is the for loop.

They both work, but if you copy and paste the second one, you need to indent the print x.

For me, I learn a lot better if I type my own program, but follow along with the example doing something similar. Whatever you do, don't just copy and paste.

I am not copying and pasting completely. I am playing around with the code a bit and doing the tasks at the end of the tutorials.

I still suggest the standard Python tutorial first, then read a good book like "Programming Python" by Mark Lutz. That will cover all your fundamentals + some intermediate to advanced concepts.
http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596158118.do?sortby=publicationDate

You can not and will not learn to program from a book or a tutorial. You can learn syntax and you can learn techniques, but the logical thought processes that go into breaking down and developing a program require the sort of knowledge only learned through experience.

In short if you expect to learn to program, you must program... A lot...

I like to set small goals that are slightly outside my comfort zone (knowledge I already have). You should be finding yourself asking the question "how do I accomplish X task for my program?" and then you look it up and find tutorials on doing that, incorporate them into your program, and repeat... and then you have horrid bugs and spend days/weeks fixing them (and looking up what is causing them) until you have a working program... After you have done that hundreds of times you will start to feel more comfortable with programming!

I will tell you that many of your programs will look horrible when you look back at them years later... That is to be expected! If you look back and realize how horrible your previous programs were, it means you are making progress learning to program lol. Remember to comment your code... I know it seems like a waste of time, but "future you" looking back on your code years from now to steal parts of it for future projects will HATE current you if you don't comment what you did. I can guarantee you won't remember and what seemed like logical thoughts then will appear completely insane.

Start small... don't quit... and have fun.