MIT puts free programming course online

If you've never written or debugged a program, here's an opportunity - MIT has a free introduction to programming on its web site.

There's a lot of these free courses floating around online - we recently pointed out that MIT has more than 2,000 online. You don't get an MIT degree, but they might fit the bill if you're the type that values having some knowledge under your belt.

Fortunately there's "little or no" programming experience required for this one. The goal: write "small programs". Python is the weapon of choice.

According to the MIT syllabus, the course includes:

• the process of writing and debugging a program
• learning a basic set of "recipes"—algorithms
• straight line, branching, and looping programs
• algorithmic techniques
• how to structure programs using decomposition and abstraction

More than a few weekends in there.

Also read: Learn electronics online for free