Thanks, guys. This is really helpful.
And, no, I'm not looking to do this professionally...:.) Just curious and want to give it a try...

Once you're done with CodeAcademy, you could also look into CodeSchool (it's $25/mo, some deals for students)

The thing about programming is that there are so many areas to explore. Desktop apps, mobile apps, websites, web apps, server side. You kind of have to decide which one you wanna do if you wanna dive deeper.

You can learn a language but you really dive deeper when you apply it.

Say you learn Java, make something like an Android app or a web API after you're done with the basics.

With C++, you can go further by using an established framework like Qt to make quality desktop apps.

With Python, you can do a lot of server-side stuff (like Django), same with php. Python is not that widely used at the moment but it's getting there.

With JavaScript (different from Java), you can do web apps using frameworks like Angular JS.

With C# (I've heard it's like Java), you can make nice Windows apps as well as server-side stuff (but then you need a Windows Server instead of a Linux server).

Point is, to learn further, you have to think of an idea you want to implement no matter how difficult the idea seems. Then pursue it, break it down into parts and approach it structurally.


Also, if you need a really nice text editor, consider Sublime Text, it's available for free with a nag screen that's well worth the compromise.

MIT open-courseware:

ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-096-introduction-to-c-january-iap-2011/