Welcome to /r/learnprogramming!

github.com/ddkbs/sketchy

When I was learning to code I'd paste a function into an AI and ask what it does. I always got a huge wall of text back and still couldn't picture how everything connects.

So I built Sketchy, a free open source tool which lets the AI draw the explanation directly in the chat. It's in a hand-drawn style with hover details and a step by step mode, so you can click through what the code does one step at a time.

Some things it can draw:
- your code as a diagram (functions, calls, data flow)
- architecture, like how frontend, backend and database talk to each other
- comparisons, like stack vs queue side by side
- Arduino/ESP32 wiring straight from your code

You can export every drawing as SVG or PNG for your notes.

It works in the normal Claude chat as a skill (upload a zip, done) and in Claude Desktop as an extension. Newer versions also work with other AIs.

Hope it helps someone who learns visually like me!

Feel free to try it out and leave your feedback!

I am a beginner programmer, coding for my own pleasure (meaning that, while I use LLMs for guidance, I write all my code by hand, and my only goal is enjoyment, not career). Safe for a brief journey into JavaScript and PHP as a child, now, in my adult years, all my experience has been with Godot. Recently, I started to have the desire to actually learn how to program and make simple CLI/TUI tools for my own use, and since GDScript can only exist within the game engine, I started looking for another programming language to learn.

I landed on two: Python and Go, and now, knowing that it's probably a bad idea for a beginner to learn two languages at once, I need help from people with more experience in order to decide which of the two I should commit to. I'm at this stage in both where I've written simple exercise command line programs, and I want to try and build something bigger and actually get to know the language under pressure.

Python greatly appeals to me because it is basically the same thing as GDScript (but with a ton of features that GDScript does not have due to being specifically tailored for Godot), it is famously easy and I could start building actual apps in no time, and it has a breadth of beginner resources probably unmatched by any other language. Besides all the books focusing on specific tasks (I've enjoyed Automate the Boring Stuff with Python quite a lot), Learning Python is absolutely brilliant, going through logic, syntax, design choices and the standard library in exhaustive detail.

But Python just doesn't get me excited exactly because it is too abstract, too simple, too close to what I know from GDScript, it feels more like a scripting language than something to use to build whole programs, it just doesn't scratch that itch of curiosity that is pushing me to learn programming in the first place.

On the other hand, Go does scratch that itch a lot more. It excites me, as someone whose only experience is with JavaScript/PHP and GDScript, to learn a serious language, compiled, fast; it excites me to learn about lower-level concepts like actual typed variables and pointers. Go's logic of composition also appeals to me, because programming in Godot, I would rack my brain trying to figure out the right inheritance hierarchy just to notice that I messed up and need to refactor the entire system. Go's structs, methods, embedding and interfaces strike me as a much more flexible way to achieve the same thing.

But there is a relative scarcity of resources for people in my situation. I've browsed through the available textbooks and they're either made for more advanced learners, are general overviews of the language (Learning Go, for instance, only explains the syntax and the logic, but does not go over the standard library, which means, if I understand correctly, that it was written for people who will read the fucking manual), or are infantile (Head First, Get Programming with Go, etc). Either way, I'm starting off half-blind, stumbling through the standard library documentation, having no idea what I can and cannot do, or how.

I'm also worried about another thing. Though I am not an absolute beginner, my experience being with GDScript means that I've never actually written a standalone program; I never learned to think about architecture, what my program does from start to end: I can only think in simple systems that are driven by event handlers from user input, while the engine handles all the rest for me.

Although, as you see, Go excites me a bit more, I'm worried that if my primary goal is to learn how to think through complex problems and build programs from start to finish, it would be better to choose the simpler language. Or is it the opposite? What do you think? Will building something bigger be easier in Python, or will the relative restrictiveness of Go help me think through building a bigger project?

What would you do in my situation? Should I learn to build a program without worrying about learning the language (the Python route), or would it be better in my situation to learn a stricter, less abstract language first, and learn how to read the documentation on my own (the Go route)?

Feel like a total fraud right now. Before someone replies "just read the docs," I literally have MDN open on my second monitor and I'm still staring at a blank editor. For the past five months I've been teaching myself web dev after work, building little to-do apps and weather widgets, and I genuinely thought things were clicking.

Basically, I noticed I've been leaning pretty hard on Copilot and chat assistants whenever I hit an error or forgot a method name. So this afternoon I decided to turn all of it off and build a tiny script from scratch that pulls JSON from a public API and filters a few items. turns out I couldnt even write a simple fetch request and a .filter() callback without panicking over where the parentheses and async keyword go.

It was honestly so embarrasing sitting there for forty minutes over twelve lines of code. When AI is on I feel like I understand every line it suggests, so why did my brain completely blank the second that grey autocomplete text disappeared? Am I supposed to just memorize syntax by brute force, or did I accidentally sabotage myself for five months?

I am trying to learn game dev programming and typing is such an awkward experience.

I tried to learn touch typing to help, but learning how awkward it is on standard keyboards. I ended up trying some split keyboards and while it's better ergonomically, there are of course quirks with going that route, and I just like the look of a lot of normal keyboards and wish I could use them.

When I actually see videos of people coding, no one actually seems to touch type properly anyway.

When I type standard words, I use a combination of my first three fingers on my left hand, and my pointer on my right. I can actually type pretty fast like this and don't have to look down for maybe 70% of the words. However the consistency is lacking, and when it comes to symbols I have to look down over and over and over.

It's weirdly hard to find information on this topic because it's either "learn proper form and nothing else" which like I said I don't see in practical use on typical keyboards, or moving to split ergo keyboards.

Another factor is for game dev I want a typical keyboard since I need to test playing that game, and using a split for that is weird since I gravitated to combos and stuff. I could have both keyboards set up but I just wish I could find a damn way to be comfortable on a regular keyboard.

So basically the thing ive been trying to learn javascript by myself but i just cant seem to do it. i know that it is not the most difficult thing to learn but atp ive been getting dreams of async/await.Iam watching youtube videos and i understand the concept but when i try to code by myself i cant do sh#t. How can i continue this?

Ok so iam someone who is not that good at coding like I know html css but never tried js something and now iam finally decided to do a course and I am stuck between two choices like Data analytics and Full stack development course. Someone who is not that good in logic but good at learning like if someone guides I'll learn.

So like as I said iam planning to enroll in a course which one should I choose.

Hi everyone, sorry if this a very basic question… I’m a junior data scientist with no experience with networking, Linux or ssh. I have used ssh to connect vs code to my company’s remote server and my company’s GitHub repo. However, I’d like to be able to view the code files on both the remote server and the GitHub repo at the same time on vscode (currently I can only choose to display the code files on one of them on the left panel).

Is there any way I can efficiently connect to both at the same time in one window via ssh so I can do my pull requests and also access the files on my company’s remote server at the same time?

Hello everyone, i am a first year student studying information systems and cybersecurity. I know its a big mistake but i went into the program with no prior experience in coding and the first thing we started learning in the programming class was c++. c++ is my first language and the professor is going through it really quickly where i dont understand a single thing. i started to learn with a youtube tutorial but it all feels really slow and boring. Does anyone have any advice on how to actually start learning it in a way that it becomes interesting and not just a homework that i need to work on because i am genuenly interested in learning it and want to become good at it. Thank you in advance!!

I have watched Python tutorials on YouTube before, but i gave up at the beggining due to some problems. Now i decided to start over again from the freeCodeCamp. For beggining, it reccomended me the "Responsive Web Design Certification" course. Now i'm trying to learn HTML and CSS, basically Web Design. Since i had the first course, i can say it was pretty good and i'm excited to look forward.

Is there any advices you guys can give me?

Hello.

Do you know any accountability / learning groups where people together learn programming to keep themselves in check to not slack off their personal studying.

I struggle with leaning programming, I'm really slow, the only way for me to get somewhere - is to have any kind of pressure like deadline, but I can't create it out of the thin air by myself without any external factors like real employer. But I heard about "accountability buddies", who work together to do exactly that.

I thought about similar gropus in Discord, but I couldn't find any, can you help?

Hi . Im betch stud , currently in 2nd year. Im finding DSA in C++ a bit tricky. I get the theory concepts but lag at logical one. Can anyone suggest me YT channel/playlist for it. Cause I did try learning from "Apnacollege1' , Its easy but im not finding it efficitent. Like i saw few videos of "chai and code" they helped me but its in python. Yah ik lang shouldnt matter but rn I cant confuse myself with 2 diff lang. So please drop your suggestions.

I've been developing a project called Circuitera, which originally started as a browser-based Arduino IDE.

One interesting challenge has been figuring out how to compile code directly in a browser.

For Arduino, I use WebAssembly-based compilation, and for uploading to compatible boards, I use the browser's Web Serial API.

I've also been working on a multi-language coding workspace that supports languages such as Python, JavaScript, C++, and others.

It's taught me quite a bit about browser limitations, application architecture, code editors, and handling errors.

For anyone who has built a browser-based development tool, what was the most difficult part to get working reliably?

I'm particularly interested in performance, file management, and runtime isolation.

The link is circuitera.org

As a second year computer science student I find it difficult to decide what skills I need to focus on right now. I feel (more and more) like learning a new language or framework thoroughly is a literal waste of time because the coding is done almost exclusively by AI in companies nowadays - correct me if I'm wrong please.

I am really wondering what skills I should actually put my time into. Is problem solving still very relevant, is security becoming even more popular? I've been feeling very foggy about my short and long term career path.

I hope this hasn't been already answered like 5 times this week

So I just started my first semester. And I went through a lot of recommendations to start DSA.

So, how does this preparation for DSA start. Like what we learn, is there any definite syllabus. Where do we get the course material from? How do we test... etc.

Your response would be helpful.

Thankyou :)

Hi, I am new in this community and I am using Python 3.

I have a question about Error Detection. Why are we not using a format like "0xxxxxxx" for 128-255 "10xxxxxx" for 64-127 "110xxxxx" for 32-63 "1110xxxx" for 16-31 "11110xxx" for 8-15 "111110xx" for 4-7 "1111110x" for 2-3 and "1111111x" for 0-1?

This is how it would look from 0 to 255:

def bin_to_int_(s):

return int(s, 2)

def int_to_bin_(s):

return bin(s)[2:]

v_256 = (

[bin_to_int_("0"+int_to_bin_(v)[1:]) for v in range(128, 256)][::-1]+

[bin_to_int_("10"+int_to_bin_(v)[1:]) for v in range(64, 128)][::-1]+

[bin_to_int_("110"+int_to_bin_(v)[1:]) for v in range(32, 64)][::-1]+

[bin_to_int_("1110"+int_to_bin_(v)[1:]) for v in range(16, 32)][::-1]+

[bin_to_int_("11110"+int_to_bin_(v)[1:]) for v in range(8, 16)][::-1]+

[bin_to_int_("111110"+int_to_bin_(v)[1:]) for v in range(4, 8)][::-1]+

[bin_to_int_("1111110"+int_to_bin_(v)[1:]) for v in range(2, 4)][::-1]+

[bin_to_int_("1111111"+int_to_bin_(v)[0:]) for v in range(0, 2)][::-1]

)[::-1]

print(v_256)

If you have an answer please give it a try and publish it, thank you.

I've completely lost any motivation to write code or learn new languages ever since I've seen the insane stuff people with zero tech knowledge are making with claude. I was laughing at them when they were making websites that were just some css and sending localhost to everyone thinking that link would work. Now they're doing stuff previously thought impossible, I can't even say its buggy code because I've tried it myself and it works great, better than whatever slop I make everyday.

Hey everyone, I Hope You Are Doing Well!

So I'm looking for a team that will participate in hackathons with me and other challenges. Now, you do not need heavy coding experience or any at all, since I myself am still learning the ropes! So please, if you want to join let me know!

Currently in btech 1 st yr cse,doing c programming form apna college one shot of 20 hr almost done what should I do more with it bcz I didn't think I that is enough for me from where I can perform questions and any advice to strong c language

Should I still use this book as an begginer? Edit: one of the reddit comments I saw

Anyone Here Tried Apna College's Sigma X 2.0? Need Honest Reviews.

I'm a 2nd-year CSE student looking to improve my DSA and full-stack development skills.

I've been considering purchasing Apna College's Sigma X 2.0, but before spending money, I'd like to hear from people who have actually taken the course.

Course details:

https://www.apnacollege.in/sigmax

YouTube video explaining the course:

https://youtu.be/6euYV6q3I5U

A few things I'd like to know:

1. Is the teaching quality genuinely good?

2. Is the DSA content sufficient for coding interviews?

3. Does the full-stack section teach practical development skills?

4. Is the AI/GenAI content useful or mostly introductory?

5. Is it worth the price, or can I achieve similar results through free resources?

I'd appreciate honest opinions, including criticisms. I'm looking for genuine experiences from students or developers, not promotional reviews.

Normally I’d just look into YouTube tutorials, websites and books for information on that. But now I need serious scientific sources. And those are hard to find for me and don’t really contain tutorials on how to build stuff.

Also, usually I’d just build something that works. But now I need to find the major possibilities and compare them against each other.

Are there any recommendations? Or good sources to read up on methodology?

I want to be able to track certain words/phrases/paragraphs in my manuscript and I'm not sure how to do this. I've written my first novel and using the basic find function in MS Word still doesn't serve my editing and rewriting needs. Some of the things I want to be able to do are the following:

1. Assign IDs to all my characters - "Jonathan", "Jona", and "J" are all variations of the same person so I want to assign "CHAR001" to all of those names so if I search for "CHAR001", it will bring me to those places in my manuscript.

2. Assign IDs to certain words/phrases - I'd like to be able to create different buckets and categories for my rewriting later on. If I create a "THEME001" ID, I want to be able to assign certain phrases and words to that and be able to easily search for them later on.

3. Assign IDs to entire paragraphs or sections of the book - same concept here but extended to larger chunks of text.

To illustrate:

"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit ullamco amet at eos dolore quas dignissimos et et ut est aliqua est repellendus dolores tempore dolore iusto proident aliqua nisi et culpa et sunt dolor excepturi laborum fugiat incididunt deleniti eiusmod non non eiusmod id cum similique cillum possimus quis ducimus."

CHAR001 = "Lorem ipsum";

SCENE001 = "amet consectetur adipiscing elit"

THEME001 = "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit ullamco amet at eos dolore quas dignissimos et et ut est aliqua est repellendus dolores tempore dolore iusto proident"

REWRITE001 = [the entire paragraph]

If I can create add-ons to Word, that would be my preferred solution. But if I have to develop my own program/app for this, then so be it. I know that there are other word processing software out there that probably does this particularly thing that I want, but I am not willing to go that route. I am very comfortable with Word that if I can't do it there, then I'd rather build my own and throw in a bunch more other functionalities that I want.