Reddit reviews Introduction to Programming in Java: An Interdisciplinary Approach

The first thing you should ask yourself is do you want to learn to code for personal reasons? Or are you looking to change careers? If you are looking to change careers then the bootcamps are useful as you can point to the experience on your resume in order to show employers your skills. However, I think you will find it difficult to identify a bootcamp that fits your schedule, as the "bootcamp" aspect of these programs means they are a few months of intense learning with the intent of turning a student into a developer in a short period of time.

If instead you just want to learn on your own time, I think the best option would be to either A) buy a textbook and learn from that, reading all of it and doing the exercises until you master your understanding. If you are looking for more structure and/or a mentor with whom you can ask questions, you could enroll in a non-degree program at UAB and take an introductory programming class. It will probably fall within your job schedule but it would only be 3 hours per week.

Lastly, I am assuming that you have little to no background in software development, so if I am mistaken in this assumption don't worry about this point too much. For your first language, you are going to want to learn a robust language that is going to be able to expose you to a great deal of computer science topics. Because of this, I would recommend either Python or Java as a first language. If you are feeling very brave then consider C++. These languages are abstracted enough that you won't be bogged down by syntax and more internal computer operations when trying to learn the basics. Your first language will be the hardest to learn, then they all become pretty easy. If you want a textbook recommendation I would say this one.

If you want to learn to be a programmer, I think this is one of the best ways to do it. I learned by taking a non-degree course at UAB while waiting to begin business school, and with a little extra work I was able to become a competent coder in about 5 months.

For Java you should start with Introduction to Programming in Java: An Interdisciplinary Approach and then move to Algorithms. Sedgewick also runs a two-part Algorithms course on Coursera that you should be able to find videos for somewhere.

Good Luck!

C# has excellent tutorials on the official Help site for Visual Studio 2013. You can download Visual Studio Community for free here. It is fully-featured and allowed for personal use (both non-commercial and commercial); you just are not allowed to use it on a development team of more than 5 people. After you become experienced with C#, learning Java is as easy as going through a textbook (also available in a physical version) and/or study guide (the latter might be a little too toy-ish for you if you're looking for job skills). If you are opposed to C# due to not liking Microsoft etc, then I'd use the previously linked Sedgewick and Wayne book and download Eclipse. Fair warning, C#'s tutorials are excellent and I've never found a better way to learn to code using a language with significant real-world use... if you choose the Java route to begin with it may be hard if you're not using a formal class. Once you know how to program, I'd say going through the MIT OpenCourseWare Intro to CS class would be a good idea to learn a different kind of language (Python, which has more scripting elements to it). C++ would make a good language to learn third, the best resources I've found so far for that are here, the book can be found as a PDF here or as a physical version here... warning, not all the material is available at all times due to the fact that it's an actively running class. A class on algorithms (book here, you may need to learn more math... probability, calculus, set theory, and the like... first, not sure what your background is on that) would be a logical step to take somewhere down the line. After that you will pretty much have most of the skills that someone with a minor in CS would get, learning the HTML/CSS/PHP chain and building a website would be a good way to round out your skill set. You should be able to get through quite a bit of this in the next 18 months. Good luck! Also, as others have said, try not to spend too much money... most of what you need can be found on the Internet, and the rest should only be a hundred dollars or so for a textbook. If another topic in CS that I haven't mentioned interests you as well, there's probably an OCW course for it, the sky is the limit once you have a firm foundation (I'd say the bare minimum for that is knowing Java and C++ and thoroughly understanding the material in the Algorithms class I linked above... still I've found C# is far easier as a first language though so if you try to shortcut it you might struggle... once you know one language the rest come pretty easily, especially if they are as similar to your first as C# and Java are, so your first goal is to learn C# [or Java if you are still that adamant]).

If your not afraid of math then I would recommend the books by Robert Sedgewick. His java book really shows off Java. His Algorithms book is a religious experience. And if your feeling masochistic, the Sipser book is well suited.

Bump

www.codeacademy.com is a good resource for intro javascript, jquery, html, python, and ruby (though I can only vouch for the javascript segments). The material varies, but it is all code-as-you-go, which is my preferred way of learning programming (vs. a lecture style). I think that's actually why Coursera is limited on the intro programming front: it's very difficult to teach an intro lecture without a significant amount of hand-holding, which coursera simply isn't set up for.

Also, my intro computer science (java) class used this book: Introduction to Computer Programming, which I REALLY liked. Their recommended compiler is Dr. Java, which is very simple - good for the very beginning, but eventually you'll want to switch to Eclipse.