new here

[Terry Reedy]

"Cheese Effect" <dmtapp at hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:8tv9kk$9sd$1 at coward.ks.cc.utah.edu...
> I'm new to programming basically.  Well I learned some stupid Basic stuff

Don't be too contemptuous.
In 1965, interactive terminal Basic was an amazing advance over keypunch
and submit.

> years ago as a young teenager, but don't remember much and I've heard
that
> not remembering is a good thing.

The four basic program ideas are sequence, choice, repetition, and bundling
(as in subroutine, function, method, module, etc.).  If you learned about
those and forgot, relearn.  On the other hand, spaghetti code gotos *are*
best forgotten (and not possible with Python).

> Does anyone have any good advice as to how to get into the right mindset
to
> start playing around with code.

Pick a processing 'task' that motivates you.

>  I've also read that Python is good code  because it is powerful, clean,
but simple.

Excellent summary!  It also has a nice newsgroup with friendly, helpful
people.

> I do know HTML and network stuff.

Does that mean that these turn you on?  If so, learn basics and play with
urllib, htmllib, and others to do some fun stuff.  On the other hand ... ,
pick something else.

Terry J. Reedy