For the pseudogeek, where to start?

[madchad]

I've been planning for some time to dabble in programming but there are so many different things out there I didn't know which way to point myself. I now know that Puppy is that direction. I believe in this project. Linux is awesome. Ubuntu is where I got my start and I thought that'd be a good place to direct my energy - Free software for anybody who wants or needs it? That's my speed right there! Then I ran into Puppy. It is (to me) a more noble effort than that of Ubuntu in that it's geared toward older, even obsolete hardware. How amazing is that?

My first step into supporting Puppy and what it means to me is this: I have an old Compaq with a Pentium II clocked up to a whopping 600 and 192 megs of RAM. It was my oldest/slowest. I'll install Puppy and give this pc to someone who doesn't have a machine to surf on. The only stipulation is that if/when they get a newer machine I'd like this one back so I can do a fresh install and pass it on to the next guy (or gal).

My next step into this venture will be to learn how to make puplets.

Third step (tied to step 2) will be to learn programming language and commands. I'd love to make useful programs and give back to the Puppy community.

I have no background in progarmming but have been Frankensteining my computers to keep up with the software of today. The three desktops and one laptop in my house are all hand-me-downs and without Puppy, two of those would be running Ubuntu and barely doing that. I want to pass it on, so to speak.

Where do I start? I can build machines from spare parts that I have, but that's a far cry from making software. I need a "Programming Puppy For Dummies" type place to get the basics. I've already started down this path by "doing the Wiki", and years ago I was a wiz in DOS and Edlin so I'm not going into this totally blind. Can y'all recommend some sites where I can get the basics? Once I've got some commands and whatnot down I can move on to the "How To"s.





**I know my posts are kind of rambling and all over the place. I take large amounts of pain Rx and it affects me like that. Thank you for your patience.

[nooby]

There is something named Woofy which is a tool for making a lupu that one can decide what to include and what not. Starting with that one at least check if your computer has enough power to do developing and how long time it takes and so on. you get the first feel for it. Then others can tell you more but I would start with installing Woofy and see how it acts on my computer first.

Then I maybe use Woof and try to make my own version and only then go to more programming? Making changes like Iguleder do now with Next puppy linux.