Decaflon

Self taught. Searching the web mainly for examples and learning from them. Bought a couple books, hardly ever found a single one useful. There's a handful of key concepts you need to understand, and logic, and then it's just a matter of learning syntax and having a reference for existing functions.

Just like you said, I've done most of my learning by self-teaching myself using books and online resources. I prefer having physical books on the desk with me, though. Just personal preference.

I'm completing a two-year web developer course right now and I find I learn faster when I sit down with the materials by myself or with a friend, rather than trying to learn in the classroom. So, you're probably not missing as much as you might think by not attending school for this stuff.

I learnt a lot before any formal training. I got to know and love objects at uni. Then I learnt how to really program on a short term job.

But I started my webdev life on ASP, hacking things together from asp101.com and just learning the ins and outs how how the web really works. I'd never dream of programming like that again though...

Industrial placement really does teach you so much more than you learn from any book or teacher, though. Faster too.

Watch this, I'm about to out-geek all of you...

My parents sent me to Computer Camp when I was like 13. I learned BASIC, then C++, then HTML, then JavaScript. I went for two years, then got a job at a graphic design training company when I was 15, where I learned CSS and PHP.

Not that good at coding anymore, mostly because all that was 9 and 10 years ago, and it's not much like riding a bicycle at all.

Now that I'm working in the field, it's all slowly coming back to me.

Most of my coding/language-specific knowledge is self-taught, either by books or by using online references and occasionally tutorials. For the majority of that though I just picked a language, started coding, and googled or used a reference site/book whenever there was something I didn't know how to do yet. Analyzing pre-existing code is also useful for learning.

All of my theory/software design/management knowledge I learned in college though. With the exception of possibly web development, that *might* not be something you get without going to school for it.

As far as Lua though, thats more of an extensibility language than one you're going to use to write an entire application. Its a great language to add custom scripting support to an application. Lua is also different based on the implementation, its sort of like creating your own language, its only as powerful as you make it. Example: All modifications for World of Warcraft use Lua for their scripting, you can do some pretty cool stuff.

Since it sounds like you're using Windows, I'd recommend playing with VB.NET and C# a bit (even though you said you didn't have a feel for it). They're at the easier end of the spectrum and are still very powerful (plus there's free versions of Visual Studio). If you wanted to, you could even embed Lua scripting support into your .NET app.

Like the majority here, I've learned scripting (HTML, CSS, Bash) on my own through online tuts and various books.

The best way that I've found to learn Bash is by installing a Linux distro and taking apart some of the scripts.

I also think that it's better to be an autodidact. In school I learned nothing about scripting etc. even the school was an It-College. The teachers and all the stuff you learn arn't up-to-date. It's more fun to start your own coding projects at home than to do all this stuff at school. In school you are forced to do what the teachers want you to do. At home in you freetime you have more space for own ideas and if you don't want to work anymore, just stop and go on the other day.

find something cool, copy, paste, figure out why/how works.

those are the 4 steps that I've always used. Eventually i knew enough to innovate and make cool things myself.

I love looking around for code samples, i also learn alot by doing. I think this is the best way to learn.

I like to learn by example. When I decided to learn HTML I picked a popular site to look at the code and learn. Unfortunately I picked a popular site with awful code so I ended up learning it wrong. To re-teach myself "right" I used Lynda.com videos.

I was taught by a master guru from Thailand.

He locked me up in a small room with a laptop for days on end until I could master whatever the task at hand was. I came out of it with badly calloused fingers, RSI, and carpal tunnel syndrome, but with master programming skills.

Studied Software Engineering after studying art, wirting and a few other things and ended up being a web designer... it's a crazy world. Worked stint in gaming, worked in app development, went via techie support (insert various design roles about the other development ones) and landed up working freelance where I think I have learnt the most out of anything by learning doing.

I have an account with lynda.com our company gave all of us designers an account to view videos, and stuff. It's great.

I'm completely self-taught, myself. I began back in the 7th grade with basic HTML, and moved on up from there. I'm 15 right now and am in the 10th grade. I have some books but I've never used them; ever. I guess I prefer trial and error, down and dirty, hands-on development. Right now, I know XHTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, SQL, and how to use AJAX. I was thinking about using Rails, but, eh.. To me it's just not as practical as PHP, and I'm doing fine with PHP right now. It doesn't feel like I'm wasting time anywhere with it.

When I played with Rails, though, it seemed really cool.

I started back when I was probably 14 or so (I'm now 17) with PHP. I was lucky enough to meet a PHP coder, Pilot-Doofy, who took me under his wing; he taught me a lot. A few months after I picked up PHP, we re-coded his site, mustywindows.com. The code sucked something awful, but it really pushed me forward. Between him, books, and online resources, I've really learned a lot about PHP.

I've also learned some C, C++, and Java, but not as much as I have PHP. C and C++ I picked up from books and online resources, and Java I'm "learning" in school right now (It's going so slow. I already knew more coming in then has been covered in the course to date).

I prefer a good book to get a base in the language, and online resources after that. The problem being though, I always have too much going at any given time, that I don't have time to sit down and read.

Self Taught. I'm 32. The prog geek curricula when I was at university wouldn't have done a lot to help me online.

Mostly self-taught. I was picking up my dad's books on BASIC and COBOL as a kid and did BASIC programming all through grade and middle school. I learned HTML in high school just examining source code and trying stuff out in my computer electronics courses. When I went to college and thought I wanted to go into computer science, I took courses in Assembly and C++, and then when I switched to Math, I just started learning Javascript, PHP, CSS and XML from books.

Taught myself Rails in 4 days.

Geez, everyone sounds like they're bragging. Although I wish I could say I was completely self taught, I'm not. I earned a four year degree in computer science from a state university. Everything else I know Photoshop, Flash, Fireworks, Freehand, PHP, etc, etc. has been a long progression of using the tools and reading as much as I possibly can about the topics. It takes time, there's not too many people who lock their selves in a room for a week reading a book and come out with a firm grasp. I was just telling a friend the other day that I feel there are two ways to really learn a topic.

A. Take a course (quicker way, but more expensive)
B. Read books, articles, blogs and other resources about it (slower, but less expensive)

anyways, my two cents. Some of the things I went to school for I feel I am weaker in than some things I learned on my own. Just a perspective.

I taught myself CSS back my freshman year of college (2001) but before then I was writing little script programs in AppleScript and JavaScript in high school so I knew how to program. Took 3 quarters of Java programming that same freshman year which was great for fundamentals of OOP and other languages. I taught myself PHP in about a weekend that same year to write a guestbook application for my personal site, then 2 years later I took PHP classes in college which strengthened my skills. My Junior year of college I got into XML a bit, but then later that year I took an XML/XSLT class that taught me a lot more.

During that time period I used to sit down and read art, typography, graphic design, web design, math, and programming books cover to cover in my school's bookstore so I soaked up a lot of knowledge that way too. That's actually the main way I learned fundamentals of visual design since I never took design or art classes in college.

I never read any books or tutorials or anything, I just developed an interest and taught myself over time. Trial and error + Google + php.net/function_name = education.

In my earlier years I taught myself through sites on the internet, but more recently I've been picking up books.

Art School.

Self taught, trial and error... not very pretty >.<

Self taught, never read a book on PHP or such. The manual has been my main reference for eight years, #php channels are a great asset too.

Trial and error is the way to go!

Joining open source projects is an other great way to learn new things, since I've been participating in the Habari project, I learned alot of "strategies" and classes.

The only bad side I see of self-learning is making sure you learn the proper way of coding, the standards/RFC and security.

1) Pick up a copy of Code Complete 2 by Steve Mcconnell and a good highlighter ... read it and know it forwards, backwards and every which way.

2) Make sure you have a passion for the game. Programming is difficult and challenging at any level. Read 'Dreaming In Code' for a good tale on software development.

3) Develop good habits early, whether you are writing HTML/CSS or Java ... you should have no patience for spaghetti code.

All I know in CSS and HTML is self-taught through lots of tinkering, tweaking and googling and breaking.

Self taught, trial and error. Started with HtML, then PHP, and most recently started messing about with CSS (A bit late I know). I know enough of each of them to get by but not enough to be a professional coder (So I'm told anyway, though I think its more to do with the fact that I don't have an official looking bit of paper.) Looking at Javascript and maybe Ajax as my next project.
Learning in an academic setting doesn't really teach you much in my opinion, better to learn by doing. decide what you want your website/program to do, then figure out how to do it, learning the code as you go.

Damn Dook you learned Rails pretty quickly. I'm coming from a heavy Java/PHP-type syntax world so the new Rails syntax really throws me for a loop.

When I started learning PHP, I googled and used some more popular tutorial sites. I bought a couple books too, but there's only so much those can teach you, a lot of it is try and pry. I also love to download scripts and applications and look through them.

Learning about computers in general started when I was eight with fooling around with the registry and tinkering with computers.

A lot of learning things, especially with computers and related technologies comes from reading from the pros, coding on your own, and just learning through time. Find how you do it best and go from there, don't let others tell you that you have to learn this way, or that way, inspire yourself!

I'm self taught in basically all my programming knowledge. I started with Visual Basic back in the day when AOL punters were the best thing since sliced bread. From there I grew up and began working with HTML. The Internet is the perfect place to self teach yourself just about any programming language. Get involved in forums (like this), ask questions, create projects for yourself, and set goals. By the time you get to college (if you decide to go) you'll be way ahead of the game.

Started typing in BASIC programs.

Later learned JavaScript, HTML, CSS. And PHP.

Then Java.

Now jQuery makes JavaScript fun again.

I started with BASIC and LOGO (I'm not going to tell you my age, but let's just say I'm old).

Taught myself other languages as needed. Listened and asked for advice on several forums and e-mail communities.

Sounds to me like you're well on your way.