Reddit mentions of Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists

I mostly agree with /u/RitzBitzN, but if you dive right in with data structures and algorithms, you're probably going to get bored pretty quickly. Theory should be matched with practice.

I think it's best to learn programming in some environment where you can experiment and quickly see results. I don't know if this is good advice, but I suggest Processing as a decent place to get started. There's a nice book on the subject, and there's even a port to Javascript .

I got my start on a Commodore 64, taking the sample code that came in the manual (to draw simple graphics and animations) and tweaking them. Processing reminds me a lot of that. Sure, the particulars are different, but I think it encourages the same sort of "play" that is so important when learning to program.

Agreed.

Also buy this book.

If you're going to be spending any significant amount of time programming / modifying code (which is also programming) you'd do well to invest some time in taking some intro to programming tutorials, or at least glancing over them to get the basic syntax down. Even if you don't want to properly learn how to programming / learn the fundamentals of compsci you need to overview the syntax or else you're flying blind.

There's also resources for artists specifically to learn programming (especially Processing!). Check out, for example:

http://www.amazon.com/Processing-Programming-Handbook-Designers-Artists/dp/0262182629

Either way, yea, definitely use a different guide :). If you do need something from this guide, look at the web page source code; the code snippets might be correct in there.

Nobody suggested processing yet? www.processing.org
http://www.amazon.com/Processing-Programming-Handbook-Designers-Artists/dp/0262182629 if you really mean small, simple, and 2D, processing is the right choice. Except for flash, but fuck flash anyway :D

I actually decided to focus on Processing and bought this http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0262182629/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

It was suggested in another thread that learning Python or Processing would be a good idea. Do you use javascript?

I'm a graphic design student who wanted to learn programming and Processing was perfect for me! Particularly this book. It's written for designers/visual artists who want to incorporate coding in their art. I found it easy and fun to learn, and once you get through the basics, you can apply that knowledge to tons of other languages.

read this book. It's one of the best introductory programming books I've read in any language.