I have seen many forum posts with people asking how to learn to code and where they should learn from. I'm here with some advice on how to start to learn.

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What to learn?

The thing I often see is people not sure what they want to learn, they just want to learn a language. This is great. If you are motivated you will do great. Hopefully the next few sections will help you to decide if you're unsure, or if you know what you want to learn, give you a kick start.

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Making mods

If you want to make mods for Minecraft, there are two routes to take (in my view).

1. Learn Python, or a little or it, just to give you the basic idea of how things work. I would suggest using Codecademy to learn the barebones of Python, then move onto sites such learnpython.org. Codecademy is a good tool to learn the basics, but it misses a lot of important content. Once you have a good grasp of Python, move onto Java.
   
2. You throw yourself in at the deep end and learn Java. Java is the language you will need to make mods for Minecraft. learnjavaonline.org and docs.oracle.com/ are both good websites to learn from. You won't learn everything from a website, you need to practice to become better. This goes for any language though.
   

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Web languages

Web languages are great fun, in my view. Over the past few years I have immersed myself in them, making a bit of money with it too. 

HTML and CSS are the two languages which you will see in every website you go on. HTML stands for Hyper-Text Markup Languages. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. Imagine a house is a website. HTML is what makes the house, the bricks, the roof, the floors etc. CSS is what gives the house and everything inside it, it's style; what it looks like, how big it is and how it appears. I would recommend Codecademy to start off your learning with HTML and CSS, it misses a lot so when you think you are done, move onto other sites such as w3schools for HTML and w3schools for CSS. Another good place to learn about HTML is w3c. I would highly advise the use of Mozilla Develop Network, especially this page

JavaScript is widely used on websites, it allows websites to interact with the browser. There is very little JavaScript cannot do on a webpage, you can use it to control what happens to the content, especially on different events. It's a relatively easy language to learn. Once again Codecademy, w3schools and LearnStreet are great places to learn it. 

jQuery is a great language which is responds to events on a webpage, it is useful for making the page come to life and interactive. jQuery is a JavaScrpt library, meaning it uses JavaScript to make stuff work. jQuery.com is probably the best place to learn jQuery, but w3schools has some great examples, but misses quite a lot. Once again, for a quick and easy start into jQuery, I would recommend Codecademy.

PHP is a server scripting language used to make dynamic websites, and to perform functions and tasks. PHP takes information from a database, does its magic and then sends the output to the user. When you clicked onto this page, PHP was used to pull all the content that is shown on this page from the database and put into it's right place. For PHP to work, it must be installed on the server you're using. You cannot write a PHP script and run it locally or on a server without PHP installed. Once again, Codecademy is a good place to start learning, but it misses a lot. w3schools and learn-php.org are good to fill in the gaps.

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Programming languages

Programming languages come in many shapes and sizes. From the C, to C++, to C# to Perl, to Python and Ruby and the many, many more languages available for use. 

These langauges, and the ones I have not named, are used to make the applications and software we use every day. I do not know enough about these languages to give suggestions on how to go about learning them. Codecademy and LearnStreet both have places to begin learning Ruby and Python, a good place to start would be there. From what I am told the following links are all good places to start learning Python, Java, C, C# and Shell. See the "Making mods" section for more on Java and Python.

If anyone has some spare time and would like to make this a proper section, they are more than welcome to write one and either put it in the comments, or PM me it. I will put it here and give you full credit for your work.

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Great places to learn:

• http://www.codecademy.com/learn/
  
• http://www.w3schools.com/
  
• http://jquery.com/
  
• http://www.learnjavaonline.org/
  
• https://www.learnstreet.com/
  
• http://www.learnpython.org/
  
• http://www.learncs.org/
  
• https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFE2CE09D83EE3E28 - Suggested by SpongyBacon
  
• http://php.net/ - Suggested by TNTRULES250
  
• http://www.pythonschool.net/ - Suggested by PragFang
  
• http://see.stanford.edu/see/lecturelist.aspx?coll=824a47e1-135f-4508-a5aa-866adcae1111 - Suggested by TenaciousEz
  

All the websites listed here, and throughout the blog are just what I like to use, they are not the only websites around, neither are they the best. Link your favourites in the comments and I will add them to the list.

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This is just my advice, it doesn't make it correct or the way to go about things. If you have any views or advice of your own, comment and I will add it into the blog.