I have been on scratch for around 4 years, and I have been trying to expand my horizons beyond scratch. But I have been struggling to learn new languages. I know all the basics and such, but trying to learn how to use all the new lines of code that come when moving on from scratch is very difficult. All these tutorials are teaching me the basics of coding, I already know all of these things, and I just can't seem to get the hang of programming normally. Does anyone have any tutorials or suggestions on how to move on to different coding languages?

I've started using Godot, and I find GDQuests tutorials to be good and well explained. Then from there your knowledge could greatly grow through tutorials.

Ok thanks. I'll get back to you with how it goes.

Look at build-your-own-x. It's a giant list of cool programming project tutorials. Maybe find one, and implement it in a different programming language, or extend the project.

Try W3schools. It's a very good website.
You should probably try html and css. Very essential for web development.
And python for backend.

Minecraftdabestgamer wrote:

(#5)
Try W3schools. It's a very good website.
You should probably try html and css. Very essential for web development.
And python for backend.

nuh uh. w3schools is good for getting short examples. it doesn't teach you why things work, and best practices.

please use mdn instead, it's much better and can be considered the official documentation of html css and js

wh533982 wrote:

I have been on scratch for around 4 years, and I have been trying to expand my horizons beyond scratch. But I have been struggling to learn new languages. I know all the basics and such, but trying to learn how to use all the new lines of code that come when moving on from scratch is very difficult. All these tutorials are teaching me the basics of coding, I already know all of these things, and I just can't seem to get the hang of programming normally. Does anyone have any tutorials or suggestions on how to move on to different coding languages?

Maybe you should try JavaScript?

https://www.learn-js.org/

also has several other launguages

Learn JavaScript. Or Smalltalk. Or ActionScript. Or C#.

The hardest part of moving on from Scratch (or anything really) is that for a long time the new thing will feel much more difficult for you than Scratch.

There isn't an easy way around, you just have to push through it. It took me years of additional learning before I could recreate the kinds of projects I was already doing in Scratch elsewhere - I think this is normal. But once you get to that point, it opens up so many more possibilities - it's totally worth it!

Scratch is “easy” because it hides a lot of things from you. Not-scratch is hard because you have to learn and care about all these previously-hidden things.

There's also the unfortunate fact that Scratch teaches you some bad habits that you'll need to unlearn, particularly in terms of how you structure your code.

I think learning to program with Scratch is a bit like learning to ride a bike with training wheels on. Sure, the wheels stop you from tipping over, and you get to your destination, but they prevent you from learning how to balance. When you take the training wheels off you'll probably fall over a few times, but it's worth it in the long run.

I'm not going to link any resources because a) I don't know what the good ones are these days b) It doesn't actually matter what route you take - what does matter is that you find something you like and stick to it!!!

novice27b wrote:

The hardest part of moving on from Scratch (or anything really) is that for a long time the new thing will feel much more difficult for you than Scratch.

There isn't an easy way around, you just have to push through it. It took me years of additional learning before I could recreate the kinds of projects I was already doing in Scratch elsewhere - I think this is normal. But once you get to that point, it opens up so many more possibilities - it's totally worth it!

Scratch is “easy” because it hides a lot of things from you. Not-scratch is hard because you have to learn and care about all these previously-hidden things.

There's also the unfortunate fact that Scratch teaches you some bad habits that you'll need to unlearn, particularly in terms of how you structure your code.

I think learning to program with Scratch is a bit like learning to ride a bike with training wheels on. Sure, the wheels stop you from tipping over, and you get to your destination, but they prevent you from learning how to balance. When you take the training wheels off you'll probably fall over a few times, but it's worth it in the long run.

I'm not going to link any resources because a) I don't know what the good ones are these days b) It doesn't actually matter what route you take - what does matter is that you find something you like and stick to it!!!

Yeah that's pretty much how I have been feeling. I am now trying GoDot and learning all these new things feels difficult. Scratch makes it very simple with its blocks, and I just thought that other coding languages would be like that. Also I could tell scratch teaches some bad habits, like there are no classes so I just have to use a bunch of “if then” statements and it kinda sucks.
While I am sad about moving on from scratch (and it's quite difficult), I am still glad that I am actually learning how to code outside of scratch.

don't learn complicated text-based languages. try ampmod! or snap! if you want more complicated stuff

AmpElectrecuted wrote:

don't learn complicated text-based languages. try ampmod! or snap! if you want more complicated stuff

when i'm in a “someone says they're moving on from scratch so I plug my own scratch mod to them” competition and my opponent is AmpElectrocuted:

Moving on from programming in Scratch can be difficult at first but is definitely rewarding.

I felt the same way about 2 years ago. What really got me onto more advanced programming was taking a Java class. I personally don't like Java very much but it taught me so much about the fundamentals of more advanced programming. Of course there are many different types of programming in different situations and for different purposes, so learning one language doesn't teach you everything in all languages, and I still have a lot to learn.

Once I had learned the basics of Java from my class, I decided to try Python and was amazed at everything I could do in Python despite having only used the language about once or twice before. If there's anything I need to learn I can do a quick Google search and some guy on stackoverflow 10 years ago has the answer.

Scratch does a great job at combining graphic elements with programming which is one of the reasons why it can be difficult to move away from it at first. When I started Java I used Jeroo which is an online application for giving kangaroos commands in Java and a couple other languages.Then I did lots of text-based stuff, and eventually learned how to create basic GUI applications.

Something to help you would be to try to create something that seems appealing to you in a language you're interested in by using online tutorials and resources as guidance, and see what you're able to create and learn from it.

ninjaMAR wrote:

Minecraftdabestgamer wrote:

(#5)
Try W3schools. It's a very good website.
You should probably try html and css. Very essential for web development.
And python for backend.

nuh uh. w3schools is good for getting short examples. it doesn't teach you why things work, and best practices.

please use mdn instead, it's much better and can be considered the official documentation of html css and js

I actually recommend W3Schools for languages other than JavaScript. I used it for C# and it was fine. W3Schools would also be great
But MDN is definitely the way to go for JavaScript.
From my experience you just need to know the basics of JavaScript and other languages have similar syntax.
HTML/CSS is also pretty cool.
But yes for game engines I would do GoDot. It's awesome.

AmpElectrecuted wrote:

or snap! if you want more complicated stuff

Learning Snap! isn't a bad idea – not as a replacement for text-based languages, but as an intermediate step. It's block-based, but it also has more advanced features such as first-class functions and object-oriented programming. The manual is easy to understand explains these concepts very well. It also has a website where you can share projects, just like Scratch.

There are also many text-based languages that compile to Scratch (for example: goboscript, Katnip, TB3). These are kind of the opposite of Snap! – they're text-based but otherwise very similar to Scratch, so I don't think they're as useful if you've already learned the basics of another text-based language.

With TheDevKing's tutorials, learn Lua.