In my opinion, by learning something else first you're just going to take longer. Sure, having some prior programming experience would help, but I don't think it's worth it to start there if you want to get into TS now.
I started TS with only basic knowledge of a few procedural languages and no object-oriented knowledge, and it worked just fine for me.
Anyways, what most people do is what everyone says - look at preexisting stuff and modify it, then slowly work up to more complex things. If what you make doesn't work , you can always post it here.
I use Notepad++