If you want to just learn to make the uC DO something, then following the tutorials on this site is the way to go. Programming a uC by using webbotlib, for example, is much easier than doing it by hand, and if you're just learning I suggest you start there.
Later, once you've learned a lot and have a few robots under your belt, you can move into the advanced features of the uC, move away from the libraries, and have more control over your code. But don't do that until you've done a bit of easy coding!
MIKE