#computer programming languages for beginners

Finished C++

Of course I have so much to learn, but I finished the basics of C++ and I am so happy!

C and C++ are done!

HTML, CSS and JavaScript I am coming for you!

I will update this list as I learn of any more useful ones. If you want general language learning resources check out this other post. This list is Mandarin specific. Find lists for other specific languages here.

For the purposes of this list "free" means something that is either totally free or has a useful free tier. "Cheap" is a subscription under $10USD a month, a software license or lifetime membership purchase under $100USD, or a book under $30USD. If you want to suggest a resource for this list please suggest ones in that price range that are of decent quality and not AI generated.

WEBSITES

Dong Chinese - A website with lessons, a pinyin guide, a dictionary, and various videos and practice tests. With a free account you're only allowed to do one lesson every 12 hours. To do as many lessons as quickly as you want it costs $10 a month or $80 a year.

Domino Chinese - A paid website with video based lessons from absolute beginner to college level. They claim they can get you ready to get a job in China. They offer a free trial and after that it's $5 a month or pay what you can if you want to support their company.

Chinese Education Center - This is an organization that gives information to students interested in studying abroad in China. They have free text based lessons for beginners on vocab, grammar, and handwriting.

Pleco Dictionary App - This is a very popular dictionary app on both iOS and Android. It has a basic dictionary available for free but other features can be purchased individually or in bundles. A full bundle that has what most people would want is about $30 but there are more expensive options with more features.

MIT OpenCourseWare Chinese 1 2 3 4 5 6 - These are actual archived online courses from MIT available for free. You will likely need to download them onto your computer.

Learn Chinese Web Application From Cambridge University - This is a free downloadable file with Mandarin lessons in a PC application. There's a different program for beginner and intermediate.

Learn Chinese Everyday - A free word a day website. Every day the website posts a different word with pronunciation, stroke order, and example sentences. There's also an archive of free downloadable worksheets related to previous words featured on the website.

Chinese Boost - A free website and blog with beginner lessons and articles about tips and various resources to try.

Chinese Forums - An old fashioned forum website for people learning Chinese to share resources and ask questions. It's still active as of when I'm making this list.

Du Chinese - A free website and an app with lessons and reading and listening practice with dual transcripts in both Chinese characters and pinyin. They also have an English language blog with tips, lessons, and information on Chinese culture.

YOUTUBE CHANNELS

Chinese For Us - A channel that provides free video lessons for beginners. The channel is mostly in English.

Herbin Mandarin - A channel with a variety of lessons for beginners. The channel hasn't uploaded in a while but there's a fairly large archive of lessons to watch. The channel is mainly in English.

Mandarin Blueprint - This channel is by a couple of guys who also run a paid website. However on their YouTube channel there's a lot of free videos with tips about how to go about learning Chinese, pronunciation and writing tips, and things of that nature. The channel is mainly in English.

Blabla Chinese - A comprehensible input channel with content about a variety of topics for beginner to intermediate. The video descriptions are in English but the videos themselves are all in Mandarin.

Lazy Chinese - A channel aimed at intermediate learners with videos on general topics, grammar, and culture. They also have a podcast. The channel has English descriptions but the videos are all in Mandarin.

Easy Mandarin - A channel associated with the easy languages network that interviews people on the street in Taiwan about everyday topics. The channel has on screen subtitles in traditional characters, pinyin, and English.

StickynoteChinese - A relatively new channel but it already has a decent amount of videos. Jun makes videos about culture and personal vlogs in Mandarin. The channel is aimed at learners from beginner to upper intermediate.

Story Learning Chinese With Annie - A comprehensible input channel almost entirely in Mandarin. The host teaches through stories and also makes videos about useful vocabulary words and cultural topics. It appears to be aimed at beginner to intermediate learners.

LinguaFlow Chinese - Another relatively new channel but they seem to be making new videos regularly. The channel is aimed at beginner to intermediate learners and teaches and provides listening practice with video games. The channel is mostly in Mandarin.

Lala Chinese - A channel with tips on grammar and pronunciation with the occasional vlog for listening practice, aimed at upper beginner to upper intermediate learners. Some videos are all in Mandarin while others use a mix of English and Mandarin. Most videos have dual language subtitles onscreen.

Grace Mandarin Chinese - A channel with general information on the nitty gritty of grammar, pronunciation, common mistakes, slang, and useful phrases for different levels of learners. Most videos are in English but some videos are fully in Mandarin.

READING PRACTICE

HSK Reading - A free website with articles sorted into beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Every article has comprehension questions. You can also mouse over individual characters and see the pinyin and possible translations. The website is in a mix of English and Mandarin.

chinesegradedreader.com - A free website with free short readings up to HSK level 3 or upper intermediate. Each article has an explaination at the beginning of key vocabulary words in English and you can mouse over individual characters to get translations.

Mandarin Companion - This company sells books that are translated and simplified versions of classic novels as well as a few originals for absolute beginners. They are available in both traditional and simplified Chinese. Their levels don't appear to be aligned with any HSK curriculum but even their most advanced books don't have more than 500 individual characters according to them so they're likely mostly for beginners to advanced beginners. New paperbacks seem to usually be $14 but cheaper used copies, digital copies, and audiobooks are also available. The website is in English.

Graded Chinese Readers - Not to be confused with chinese graded reader, this is a website with information on different graded readers by different authors and different companies. The website tells you what the book is about, what level it's for, whether or not it uses traditional or simplified characters, and gives you a link to where you can buy it on amazon. They seem to have links to books all the way from HSK 1 or beginner to HSK 6 or college level. A lot of the books seem to be under $10 but as they're all from different companies your mileage and availability may vary. The website is in English.

Mandarin Bean - A website with free articles about Chinese culture and different short stories. Articles are sorted by HSK level from 1 to 6. The website also lets you switch between traditional or simplified characters and turn the pinyin on or off. It also lets you mouse over characters to get a translation. They have a relatively expensive paid tier that gives you access to video lessons and HSK practice tests and lesson notes but all articles and basic features on the site are available on the free tier without an account. The website is in a mix of Mandarin and English.

Mandarin Daily News - This is a daily newspaper from Taiwan made for children so the articles are simpler, have illustrations and pictures, and use easier characters. As it's for native speaker kids in Taiwan, the site is completely in traditional Chinese.

New Tong Wen Tang for Chrome or Firefox - This is a free browser extension that can convert traditional characters to simplified characters or vice versa without a need to copy and paste things into a separate website.

PODCASTS

Melnyks Chinese - A podcast for more traditional audio Mandarin Chinese lessons for English speakers. The link I gave is to their website but they're also available on most podcatcher apps.

Chinese Track - Another podcast aimed at learning Mandarin but this one goes a bit higher into lower intermediate levels.

Dimsum Mandarin - An older podcast archive of 30 episodes of dialogues aimed at beginner to upper beginner learners.

Dashu Mandarin - A podcast run by three Chinese teachers aimed at intermediate learners that discusses culture topics and gives tips for Mandarin learners. There are also male teachers on the podcast which I'm told is relatively rare for Mandarin material aimed at learners and could help if you're struggling to understand more masculine speaking patterns.

Learning Chinese Through Stories - A storytelling podcast mostly aimed at intermediate learners but they do have some episodes aimed at beginner or advanced learners. They have various paid tiers for extra episodes and learning material on their patreon but there's still a large amount of episodes available for free.

Haike Mandarin - A conversational podcast in Taiwanese Mandarin for intermediate learners. Every episode discusses a different everyday topic. The episode descriptions and titles are entirely in traditional Chinese characters. The hosts provide free transcripts and other materials related to the episodes on their blog.

Learn Chinese With Ju - A vocabulary building podcast aimed at intermediate learners. The podcast episodes are short at around 4-6 minutes and the host speaks about a variety of topics in a mix of English and Mandarin.

xiaoyuzhou fm - An iOS app for native speakers to listen to podcasts. I’m told it has a number of interactive features. If you have an android device you’ll likely have to do some finagling with third party apps to get this one working. As this app is for native speakers, the app is entirely in simplified Chinese.

Apple Podcast directories for Taiwan and China - Podcast pages directed towards users in those countries/regions.

SELF STUDY TEXTBOOKS AND DICTIONARIES

Learning Chinese Characters - This series is sorted by HSK levels and each volume in the series is around $11. Used and digital copies can also be found for cheaper.

HSK Standard Course Textbooks - These are textbooks designed around official Chinese government affiliated HSK tests including all of the simplified characters, grammar, vocab, and cultural knowledge necessary to pass each test. There are six books in total and the books prices range wildly depending on the level and the seller, going for as cheap as $14 to as expensive as $60 though as these are pretty common textbooks, used copies and cheaper online shops can be found with a little digging. The one I have linked to here is the HSK 1 textbook. Some textbook sellers will also bundle them with a workbook, some will not.

Chinese Made Easy for Kids - Although this series is aimed at children, I'm told that it's also very useful for adult beginners. There's a large number of textbooks and workbooks at various levels. The site I linked to is aimed at people placing orders in Hong Kong but the individual pages also have links to various other websites you can buy them from in other countries. The books range from $20-$35 but I include them because some of them are cheaper and they seem really easy to find used copies of.

Reading and Writing Chinese - This book contains guides on all 2300 characters in the HSK texts as of 2013. Although it is slightly outdated, it's still useful for self study and is usually less than $20 new. Used copies are also easy to find.

Basic Chinese by Mcgraw Hill - This book also fuctions as a workbook so good quality used copies can be difficult to find. The book is usually $20 but it also often goes on sale on Amazon and they also sell a cheaper digital copy.

Chinese Grammar: A beginner's guide to basic structures - This book goes over beginner level grammar concepts and can usually be found for less than $20 in print or as low as $2 for a digital copy.

Collins Mandarin Chinese Visual Dictionary - A bilingual English/Mandarin visual dictionary that comes with a link to online audio files. A new copy goes for about $14 but used and digital versions are available.

Merriam-Webster's Chinese to English Dictionary - In general Merriam Websters usually has the cheapest decent quality multilingual dictionaries out there, including for Mandarin Chinese. New editions usually go for around $8 each while older editions are usually even cheaper.

⌕ ⨳ 𝖼𝖺𝗇'𝗍 𝗋𝖾𝗌𝗂𝗌𝗍 𝗒𝗈𝗎, 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝗆𝖺𝗄𝖾 𝗆𝖾 𝗈𝗏𝖾𝗋𝖽𝗋𝗂𝗏𝖾 ♡ !

𝒮YN ╱ James doesn't know how else to explain this new feeling, it's a mix of everything that he's not used to. Whenever he sees you his heart goes boom, mind becomes a mess, and he stumbles over his feet. His response time slows down, almost as if he's come across a virus in his system—an error in his code. As the programmer of the robotics club, let's see if he can fix this one.

𝒫AIR programmer!james & crush-gn!reader ⸝⸝⸝

•ㄑ𝒞ONT ★ oneshot school au romcom hints at love at first sight

𓂅 you’re making my heart kungkung ugh i love this song its sooo cute. We love tws and cortis. i hate tech tho… enjoy this ig ╲ 1.1K+ ( 1165 words ) 

JAVA, A MULTIPLATFORM programming language that runs on multiple devices all across the world. It can help with powering applications, smartphone operating systems, and more. 

Python, easy to learn syntax emphasizes readability and therefore reduces the cost of program maintenance. 

Lua, supports several programming styles. It mixes simple procedural syntax with powerful data description. 

"She's just right through there," said your boss. "It's something to do with...I forgot what she said. Excel or or something." He gestured at a door that read "MARIE TRAVERS, DATA ENTRY, ACCOUNTING."

"Thank you sir." You looked over his shoulder, willing as much meaning as you could into the gesture. "What time did you say your meeting was?"

He pulled out his phone and looked, frowning, at the screen. "If I leave now, I'll make it. Let me know what the fix was." You could have sworn he said something else, but he was already facing away from you and walking off before he started his next sentence.

You opened the door to Marie's office. "Miss Travers? I'm from IT."

Under normal circumstances, you would have been polite enough to knock. Then again, under normal circumstances, somebody in data entry wouldn't have her own office, and she certainly wouldn't have looked like "Massive" Marie Travers.

Hi, I talk more about what coding resources and languages I learned for the Twine version of the game here! I really recommend reading that post if you haven't read it already!

To make the Shepherds Twine version, I used Twine SugarCube, which is the most expansive and flexible but arguably the most 'advanced' version of Twine. (Other Twine formats include Harlowe, Snowman, and Chapbook.) If you have a long-term vision for your game and think it will require advanced features, as Shepherds did, starting with SugarCube is the most "efficient" way of doing things: it's a steeper learning curve, but it ensures that you won't have to switch to a different format down the road in order to add more complex features. If you're just starting out and want to learn how to code interactive fiction, period, starting with Harlowe is probably less intimidating and may help you get a grasp of the basics of IF better!

Likewise, if you just want to learn how to code, starting out with the visual Twine 2 native app (where you code in little boxes as part of a branching tree) is probably best!

If you want to make a Shepherds-like game right out of the gate, I used TweeGo, which is more similar to ChoiceScript's CSIDE: it's a compiler that allows you to write all of your code in a text editor like NotePad or Sublime Text, and then just run the game from those text files, "compiling" them all into a single playable game file. If you're asking me, TweeGo is absolutely necessary if you're making a huge text RPG like Shepherds. After a certain point, all of the little text boxes and choice boxes in the Twine app won't be able to handle--I don't know--over 100,000 words? That's an arbitrary number, I haven't tested it myself, but I know that after a certain point, trying to open so many choices and passages will just turn your computer into an oven, if not crash the program altogether, so writing in plain text files through TweeGo becomes absolutely necessary if you have ambitions to make a large Twine game. Otherwise, the Twine 2 app works very well for beginners, game jams, or more typically-sized Twine games!

If you want the technical details, I use TweeGo in a version of this workflow (beware, this will look very confusing and intimidating if you're new to programming and development), and I use VS Code as my text editor to write in. It even has a handy syntax highlighting for Twine that you can install!

If you want a very simple tutorial on how to set up and install Tweego rather than doing it my way (which I don't think is necessary for a beginner), @manonamora-if made a wonderful, easy-to-use tutorial and installation guide here!

As for the cards, those were made with a mix of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, all of which becomes necessary to know when making a Shepherds-like game in Twine! If you're cool with starting out with something simpler, I wouldn't worry too much about all that and just focus on getting the basics of IF coding and writing down, first!

My fan made Animation vs Coding part 2

Do you think stick figure AI would "assume" data type of all number to be float, double, or decimal?

...What? This is not a well-known fun fact outside STEM community?

So many people have this problem, someone made a whole webpage explaining it.

🎄💾🗓️ Day 2: Retrocomputing Advent Calendar brings us the TRS-80! 🎄💾🗓️

Released in 1977, the TRS-80 (also lovingly called the "Trash-80") was a popular personal computer by Radio Shack and Tandy Corporation. Designed for affordability and approachability, it was one of the first mass-market computers, bringing computers into homes, schools, and small businesses.

Powered by a Zilog Z80 processor running at 1.77 MHz, the TRS-80 Model I came with 4KB of RAM (expandable to 16KB) and an 8KB ROM, preloaded with the Microsoft BASIC programming language. Its black-and-white display supported a resolution of 64x16 characters. It used external cassette tapes for storage, which offered a low-cost solution before floppy drives became more available.

The TRS-80's also had an ecosystem. Radio Shack offered complete setups, monitors, printers, and software - making it easy for beginners. The machine became a favorite for hobbyists and programmers, popularizing early text-based adventure games, educational software, and business applications.

Eventually overtaken by the IBM PC and Apple systems, the TRS-80's legacy lives on!

I had some so-so photos, but these from the Smithsonian are the best I've seen, along with their section on their site -