Good Way to Lean Practical Programming?

[cthulhuiscool]

So finished up at college, managed to take some cs classes (Data Structures, Computer Architecture, C programming, ect) despite it not being my major, but one thing I never was taught is really how to make something of my own. I'm looking for good resources to learn to make say personal utilities, apps, etc that I can execute on the side, not just a script that I use eclipse for. Any good sources?

 

[sao123]

So finished up at college, managed to take some cs classes (Data Structures, Computer Architecture, C programming, ect) despite it not being my major, but one thing I never was taught is really how to make something of my own. I'm looking for good resources to learn to make say personal utilities, apps, etc that I can execute on the side, not just a script that I use eclipse for. Any good sources?

Not sure I quite understand your question, and without understanding your background it doesn't get much easier.

However:

Step 1 is to pick a project - define what you want the app to do. Define its purpose, what are the requirements?
Step 2 is to design is - take the idea much further. Draw out the UI (how does it look?), make data & process models (what are the data/information and processes which happen on each function?)
Step 3 is to decide on an architecture. Is it a web app with a database? It is an executable on your computer? It is a mobile app for your phone? Choose the appropriate programming language(s), tools, and Development environments.
Step 4 is to build your app and test it.
Step 5 is to deploy, and use.
Step 6 is welcome to a lifetime of maintenance and bug fixes.

Choose next app and repeat.

Now how you choose what to build... that's up to you!

 

[Bulldog13]

http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/topic/78802-martyr2s-mega-project-ideas-list/

 

[RampantAndroid]

Pick up a book on the language you know. Many will have examples for things to do. Beyond that, if you have something in mind, just start looking at what functions to call to do it.

I remember early in college I wrote a media player because...well, I could. I had to look into how I wanted to play the songs - access the sound device and decode my stuff using an existing library? Or use the media functions built into Windows to play a song. How did I want to store the contents of my library? In an XML file I read at program start? Or maybe a database that's lightweight like SQLite. Etc.

Just do something small. Then expand it. And expand it again, and again and....

 

[Bardock]

Get the source code for something you want and try to compile it. Get a linux virtual machine to practice on. I first started getting into it learning assembly code trying to compile a custom version of MAME that ran better on my computer. It compiles with GCC and doesn't have many dependencies, plus the end result is really fun (arcade game emulator). Usually it doesn't compile right away, you need to get your environment and paths right, which will force you to read and learn a lot.