Two Great Sites to Learn To Code Online

If you want to become a programmer, there are several online labs to help you get started for free.  Learn-to-code sites are getting popular with one start-up emerges after another.  Although I don't know how they intend to make money since they are all free, I'd say that's good for IT workers and people who want to jump in to IT.  It's surly true that IT is never short of resources.  Come and check out these labs and learn some code tricks.  You do need to sign up to create a free account though.

Codecademy - http://www.codecademy.com/

Codecademy is like an online lab where you can learn to programming.  This site says it is the easiest way to learn how to code. It's interactive, fun, and you can do it with your friends.  Codecademy's "Code Year" initiative attracted some 100,000 users sign up in just 48 hours of going live. This year, everyone wants to learn to code, it seems.  Codecademy Labs is a place for you to program in Ruby, Python, and JavaScript online without downloading a code editor or IDE. Share your programs with friends and use your knowledge from Codecademy lessons.

Programr - http://www.programr.com/

Programr is a new entry in the learn-to-code-online space, which has seen growing interest over the past several months.  Programr focuses on more higher-level languages.  Recently  the company has added support for new languages including console (C++, C#, Java, Objective-C), web (PHP, Javascript, JQuery, Java Server Pages, AJAX), rich media (Flex, Processing), desktop (Java Swing), and database (SQL, SQLite). Others on the site include Ruby, Python, VB, AJAX, Flex, Flash, and more.  Programr is also working with regional coding clubs to provide access to its online labs. It recently teamed up with CoderDojo, a club created by Xing co-founder Bill Liao and James Whelton to offer them a co-branded online lab. And Programr is making code widgets available to book publishers in order to make their code listings in their digital books interactive – these “live code listings” can then be run within the book with just a click.  Programr's latest move is to introduce Android coding support. With the added option, aspiring student developers can create Android apps right in the browser.