Open thread, September 22-28, 2014

Gunnar_Zarncke

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If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.

Notes for future OT posters:

1. Please add the 'open_thread' tag.

2. Check if there is an active Open Thread before posting a new one. (Immediately before; refresh the list-of-threads page before posting.)

3. Open Threads should be posted in Discussion, and not Main.

4. Open Threads should start on Monday, and end on Sunday.

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?

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.

4Lumifer12y

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...