3 Common Programming Questions Answered

/d/programming is typically flooded with some permutation of these basic questions:

- I have no coding experience - what language should I learn first?

- What's the best language for X? / Is language Y a good language for Z?

- What's the best way to learn to code? / What's the best way to learn to code for X?

Why do people keep asking them on tforum instead of just searching on the clearnet like a normal person? No clue, but here's my pretty baked attempt to answer them

1.I have no experience, what language should I start with?

Python. Python. Fucking Python. The syntax is easy to learn and it's extremely versatile as a language. There are downsides, but you shouldn't encounter them if you're new. Sometimes people will say Javascript, but those people are *almost* always fuckheads. Javascript makes sense if you want to do primarily web-based coding on clearnet sites, but then why are you asking on tforum, where basically all users have javascript disabled?

2. Is X a good/the best language for Y?

Given /d/programming's history, I'm going to assume the Y is either DNM- or malware-related.

- DNM: To avoid using JS, use a robust, active PHP framework like Laravel.

- Malware/Spyware: This stuff is usually written in buggy-as-fuck C or C++. Save yourself some misery and write it in buggy-as-fuck Go or Rust or Python or Lua instead. Pick whichever one you're more comfortable writing buggy-as-fuck malware in. They all inject shellcode just fine.

3. What's the best way to learn to code? / What's the best way to learn to code for X?

There are a ton of free "learn to code" courses out there. Try one. Get to a point where you can make something useful or interesting. And then keep coding. The best way to learn to code is to actually practice coding. Go out and create a bunch of brainfart projects on Gitlab that do useless or maybe even useful things. Try to contribute to an open source project, so you can understand what it's like to read and digest someone else's codebase before you make a small change. Also contributing to a project will give other people the chance to give you feedback on your code. This is the tryhard way if you actually want to get good at programming. If you just wanna write a bot for your telegram DD channel, man just look up a guide or ask ChatGPT.

For the tforum Writing Competition /post/e74e0d2fa9a165ec3b43

While I agree Python is a good place to start, I'm one of those fuck heads who'd recommend to start with Javascript for total beginners.

Why? Because you don't have to set up an environment and learn about virtual environments, package management and don't have to learn how to run the terminal which can be a bit scary at first.

Javascript is already installed in every computer and every phone and you never have to deal with version mismatches like you do in Python.

You get to have to power to build mobile apps, web apps, manipulate websites, talk to servers and also run servers (with Node.js)

To start just open any browser and pull up the console. From here you can run any javascript. You can manipulate what you see on any page you're visiting which can be encouraging for a total beginner who seeks instant gratification.

Want to learn hacking, backend stuff, science work or stuff that large businesses need? Go for python

I agree javascript is everywhere, even places it probably shouldn't be. Can it be a useful first language to learn? Sure. But javascript's behavior is idiosyncratic and it has programming conventions you see almost nowhere else (for instance commonly implementing client-side functions as callbacks). When learning javascript, you learn less about how to be a programmer and more about how to be a javascript programmer.

If that's what you want to do, then go for it. But why did you ask about it on tforum, where everyone had javascript disabled?

I would say learn python and learn how to make request with it. Also learn how to read data from files and mutate string.

Personally I like javascript a lot and it can be used for making onion sites its just the frontend can't have javascript. I just personally like the eco system node js has.

I agree with you there. Javascript is the programming language that behaves more like a woman than a programming language at times. There are many strange examples of how weird it can get, and it's very loose compared to python, not fixed indentation and it's not type-safe without using Typescript.

I get your question but everything people ask here isn't necessarily about tforum or things to do when using Tor. Someone might want to ask questions anonymously and then use those answers on the clearnet.

That's fair. I was trying to give a simple, punchy answer: partly cause these questions are asked so much and partly cause I submitted it to the competition. That led me to steamroll over a lot of the nuance, for better or worse.

Start with C++ once you master it you'll be able to code any language, Why? because C++ is the most advanced language to learn.

is there any way to contact u on TZ ? tx