Programs which don’t talk to complex services are vastly simpler to write than programs which do. Typically, CS classes will build up with an escalating series of toy problems; there are good reasons for this. Additionally, Project Euler problems are more dependent on mathematical problem solving than high-level understanding of programming.
If impatient… well, you might be able to find cheat sheets on Stack Overflow, but quite frankly I’d give you a <20% chance of success until you can understand FB’s developer page.
I’ve done some toy problems (it’s harder to be motivated when they’re not leading up to something I want), but I don’t know the sequence of toy problems that would help me get up to understanding FB’s dev page. I know my current set (Project Euler) isn’t moving me closer.
Where would you recommend looking for better toy problems to build the relevant skills?
The thing is, it’s not like you need to learn a programming language better, what you need to learn is Facebook’s API and the libraries involved. That’s a separate narrow domain of knowledge—improving your Python skills will not advance you here.
Maybe start with a “Hello, world!” program inside Facebook, then incrementally add things to it? I am sure there is example code available—take the simplest/smallest program, understand how and why it works, try modifying it...
At a first glance, it seems reasonably well-factored, and I have little doubt that I could learn to use it in a matter of days, with “hello, world” in hours. There isn’t anything terribly unusual there.
That’s the starting point from which I’d give good odds at writing a facebook app. Unfortunately, it isn’t palladias’ starting point; unless I’m completely mistaken, he’s several levels of inference away from understanding their API docs.
Attempting to spike, by learning just what is needed to understand Facebook’s APIs, is likely to produce a fragile understanding that breaks the moment they change anything. Ideally, you’d want a broad enough base of understanding that you can predict where to look for bits of API because it’s where you would put them yourself.
Hmm. Well, I don’t have much of a gender identity, so I don’t know how annoying being addressed like that would be. On the other hand, English doesn’t have any gender-neutral pronouns that don’t make me feel silly, and I refuse to make one up when I’m not writing fiction.
Well, obviously it’s up to you. My own preference is to do one of
determine the gender of the person you’re referring to
use a gender-neutral pronoun
restructure the sentence so as not to need a gendered pronoun
use a construction like “he or she”
in preference to possibly misgendering someone, since I know some people find that very unpleasant. But if those are all too much trouble, fair enough.
Universities. There are a large variety of BSc/MSc-grade courses online, some of which are actually good, and of course ‘offline’ is also an option. Unfortunately I don’t know what the best ones would be now, but MIT is probably a good starting point.
It won’t get you everything you need, though. See my response to Lumifer.
What is your programming background?
I know some python (took Udacity classes—Building a Search Engine, Into AI, etc). Can solve some project Euler problems.
If patient, start by doing something easier.
Programs which don’t talk to complex services are vastly simpler to write than programs which do. Typically, CS classes will build up with an escalating series of toy problems; there are good reasons for this. Additionally, Project Euler problems are more dependent on mathematical problem solving than high-level understanding of programming.
If impatient… well, you might be able to find cheat sheets on Stack Overflow, but quite frankly I’d give you a <20% chance of success until you can understand FB’s developer page.
I’ve done some toy problems (it’s harder to be motivated when they’re not leading up to something I want), but I don’t know the sequence of toy problems that would help me get up to understanding FB’s dev page. I know my current set (Project Euler) isn’t moving me closer.
Where would you recommend looking for better toy problems to build the relevant skills?
The thing is, it’s not like you need to learn a programming language better, what you need to learn is Facebook’s API and the libraries involved. That’s a separate narrow domain of knowledge—improving your Python skills will not advance you here.
Maybe start with a “Hello, world!” program inside Facebook, then incrementally add things to it? I am sure there is example code available—take the simplest/smallest program, understand how and why it works, try modifying it...
I just had a glance at their API docs.
At a first glance, it seems reasonably well-factored, and I have little doubt that I could learn to use it in a matter of days, with “hello, world” in hours. There isn’t anything terribly unusual there.
That’s the starting point from which I’d give good odds at writing a facebook app. Unfortunately, it isn’t palladias’ starting point; unless I’m completely mistaken, he’s several levels of inference away from understanding their API docs.
Attempting to spike, by learning just what is needed to understand Facebook’s APIs, is likely to produce a fragile understanding that breaks the moment they change anything. Ideally, you’d want a broad enough base of understanding that you can predict where to look for bits of API because it’s where you would put them yourself.
As it happens, palladias is female.
So noted, though I don’t see the relevance.
Just that you said “he”.
Hmm. Well, I don’t have much of a gender identity, so I don’t know how annoying being addressed like that would be. On the other hand, English doesn’t have any gender-neutral pronouns that don’t make me feel silly, and I refuse to make one up when I’m not writing fiction.
Well, obviously it’s up to you. My own preference is to do one of
determine the gender of the person you’re referring to
use a gender-neutral pronoun
restructure the sentence so as not to need a gendered pronoun
use a construction like “he or she”
in preference to possibly misgendering someone, since I know some people find that very unpleasant. But if those are all too much trouble, fair enough.
Yes, it does: “he”.
Unfortunately, the mental image of maleness overrides any hope of that working consistently in people’s imagination.
Example: “Man is the animal that suckles his young”.
Universities. There are a large variety of BSc/MSc-grade courses online, some of which are actually good, and of course ‘offline’ is also an option. Unfortunately I don’t know what the best ones would be now, but MIT is probably a good starting point.
It won’t get you everything you need, though. See my response to Lumifer.