Good Tutorials in general

Question

Can someone tell me why there are so little good programming tutorials in general?

I know one site, and that's for flash, but I don't use that much flash: http://www.gotoandlearn.com/

I think it's a nice place. All tutorials are video, you see it happening on the screen as they explain it and most of them are pretty clear on what's happening.

I'm wondering(and asking): are there similar sites which are about different programming subjects? Like PHP or Java...

I generally find videos like this to be of better use to learn some coding techniques then others.

Also, what program(s) is used for making these screen-videos? I'd like to try and make some myself, but I haven't a clue how. I'll probably need a microphone, that's for sure, but what else?

Also, WTH? This IS a question: it's asking for a way to make good programming tutorials. Wheter or not you think it's of consequence to yourself, doesn't matter. I want to know, it's programming related and people are answering it. That's all that matters.

Answer 1

Here are some:

PHP Tutorial
Trail: Learning the Java Language

There are lots of excellent coding tutorials available online, not all are in flash but since code is text you don't need to see a video to get the idea. This is one of those cases where Google really is the best place to start as I found the two links I just posted with "learn php" and "learn java" queries.

Answer 2

Purchasing cookbooks have been useful in my experience: Learn by finding out where best to use a solution and then learn by mimicking it.

Answer 3

Kirupa.com

Answer 4

Camtasia lets you create screencasts/videos. I'm sure there are other programs too...

Answer 5

w3schools.com have some good short tutorials on web and xml related things. No videos though...

Answer 6

While the quality of the articles can vary wildly, Codeproject generally has some top quality articles that you can learn a lot from. These articles cover a wide variety of topics and technologies so there should be plenty for you to choose from.

Answer 7

Can someone tell me why there are so little good programming tutorials in general?

Because most people read a tutorial and if they don't understand it, they say the tutorial is not good instead of reading it one more time or looking for another one.

I'd say if you are looking for a tutorial, then you admit that you have almost no knowledge on the subject. So if you claim that a tutorial is not good after following it, do have guts to admit a PEBKAK.

If you want to learn programming, I strongly suggest you to avoid using video tutorials. When you see something new and you hear it explained, you often get a false sense of understanding it. In fact, you do not. When you read a simple document and you don't understand something, you are forced to use your brain to understand it.