# How to even begin coding
**URL:** https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-even-begin-coding/5376
**Category:** The Toolbox
**Created:** [March 11, 2014, 7:56am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-even-begin-coding/5376 "2014-03-11T07:56:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@FrankyPlaysGames](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/FrankyPlaysGames)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2014, 7:56am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-even-begin-coding/5376/1 "2014-03-11T07:56:28Z")
Anybody have some quick links or advice on how to begin coding and helping develop Cataclysm?
I’m using Windows 7, and don’t even have the source code or JSON yet. Don’t even know where to get them.
Probably after I understand a bit I’ll just delete this thread to stop some clutter.
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### Author:  [@John\_Candlebury](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/John_Candlebury)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2014, 10:13am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-even-begin-coding/5376/2 "2014-03-11T10:13:39Z")
Forget about Cataclysm, buy a book on C, download codeblocks start doing what the book says.
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### Author:  [@CIB](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/CIB)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2014, 11:03am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-even-begin-coding/5376/3 "2014-03-11T11:03:00Z")
I suggest you start with a simpler language like python. C++ is one of the hardest languages to learn, so it’s not a great choice to start with.
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### Author:  [@i2amroy](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/i2amroy)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2014, 3:53pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-even-begin-coding/5376/4 "2014-03-11T15:53:17Z")
If you want to start helping right away the JSON few are fairly self explanatory and take virtually no actual coding knowledge. For learning to actually code the place I suggest starting is right [here](http://learnpythonthehardway.org). Python is a much easier language to learn than C++, and once you know one language it’s extremely easy to learn another. Once you have some of the basics down try looking around the Cata files and trying to figure out how people did various things, then just go from there.
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### Author:  [@FrankyPlaysGames](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/FrankyPlaysGames)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2014, 7:43pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/how-to-even-begin-coding/5376/5 "2014-03-11T19:43:33Z")
Thank you for your answers, everyone.
I’ve actually ‘coded’ in a silly Zombie Combat Medic, and was trying to figure out how to create it a healing special ability for it.
Gave up though, learning Python is the next step for me. After that, if I am interested enough I might buy a book on learning how to code C++, maybe.