IM NEW TO PROGRAMMING AND WOULD LIKE ADVICE ON A LANGUAGE TO START! THANX:drink:
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IM NEW TO PROGRAMMING AND WOULD LIKE ADVICE ON A LANGUAGE TO START! THANX:drink:
My son is taking an intro to programming course in college and they started the students on C++.
It's just about universal and there are plenty of free compilers and IDE programs (integrated development environments) available.
Good luck and remember to use remarks in that source code!
Might I suggest one that supports lower case alphabetic characters............. then you won't have to shout?Quote:
IM NEW TO PROGRAMMING AND WOULD LIKE ADVICE ON A LANGUAGE TO START! THANX
:)
^LoL^ I am not sure about jumping straight into C++ if your new to programming... If your really "new" I would try HTML just to get used to reading and writing in a specific fashion, then go with something like Visual Basics.
On the other hand if your wanting to jump into it and try a little more advanced I would recommend JavaScript.
Good Luck
HTML isn't a programming language, it's a formatting language.
You should take a look at what kind of development you want to do and narrow the field down from there. If you really want to learn a language it's easier if you pick an area that you can give yourself projects to work on and that will keep you interested. If you name the field, I (or any number of other people here) can offer you some appropriate suggestions and probably materials to check out.
C/C++, while having a greater learning curve, can be done by noobs as long as they pay attention to the resources they're using to learn the language and good programming/design practices.
Scripting languages can be nice to start out with (I'd go perl, python, or ruby) and can generally be done on windows or *nix.
C# and Java are useful for any number of project types and handle the majority of the memory management issues for you (which makes doing c/c++ a little harder). They also generally have more noob friendly (ish)threading, libraries, etc.
I wouldn't do Visual Basic nowadays unless it's absolutely necessary.
I was thrown straight into C++ as my first. After a couple of semesters I came to the conclusion programming wasn't the career for me. :eek:Quote:
I am not sure about jumping straight into C++ if your new to programming...
Lol...I started out teaching myself C with some old books on the subject and at points I felt the same way. Part of the problem is that most books are written more to teach you the language syntax than good programming. In my experience many of the people teaching code aren't much better.Quote:
Originally Posted by AngelicKnight
I started with Fortran, Cobol and Basic and quit programming for hardware.
I've been able to read C++ when kernal hacking. I've had to help my son on a couple of labs for his course. Actually writing C++ isn't that bad. The Sams teach yourself C++ and of course the "dummies" books are quite good.
One thing I've learned is to comment your code, it doesn't make the compiled program any larger but makes it a whole lot easier to collaborate or even read your own code then next day.
I've said this a dozen times but those are the most poorly written books I've read. Anyone who's actually read those "Teach Yourself C++ Within A Few Weeks" books will have a general idea of what im talking about. Teach yourself, indeed :rolleyes:.Quote:
The Sams teach yourself C++
If you're going to pick up a Sams book then atleast grab C++ Primer Plus instead. It truly picks up on where the other books failed.
That's what his professor spec'd as a textbook, job security?
I bought the "dummies" book.
The best book I've found for c++ is just stroustrups book "the c++ programming language".
I'd strongly recommend you do not pick up c first and then go to c++. The majority of the developers I know who tried that write that write terrible c++ code.
I'd also recommend that anyone picking up programming reads 'the practice of programming' by kernighan and pike
haha thats what i gots C++ for dummies, that and a few others
I wouldn't bother with C++
http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/susan/joke/cpp.htm
Regards,
Steve
I'm not sure why people are still bashing VB these days. It's grown up quite a bit, with the .NET framework and all (WPF, ADO.NET, LINQ, etc). It's very easy to learn and is just as powerful as C# (outside of syntax, there is no difference between C# and VB.NET).Quote:
Originally Posted by Juridian
I think people still have a bad taste in their mouth from VB6, which was admittedly shitty. Do yourself a favor and check out the newer versions.
I took Pascal as my first language at college. I don't think it is all that popular these days though :-)
Quote:
Originally Posted by delstar
You misunderstand, I'm not bashing VB. I'm certified in it and have used it to build e-commerce platforms that did a decent level of business. I wouldn't bother with it because I believe C# is a better option and you are more likely to find employment with it if you choose to look. I also believe that by doing the c style language you will have an easier time spreading out to other commonly used languages like c++, java, etc.
As for your argument about their differences, syntax is all they have to be compared with. Everything else is shared libraries that are a part of the .net framework, not the language itself.
Python might be worth considering. I'm not a programmer at heart and code very infrequently. I find pythons great for getting a program to do what I want with the least amount of code/time.
Few good points I like about python.
-Run-time errors instead of compile-time errors.
-You don't have to declare the types of variables.
-Syntax that usually leaves you with very readable code.
http://wiki.python.org/moin/Beginner...NonProgrammers
Good place to get started.
Its already been said but C/C++ as your first language might just teach you to hate coding. Keeping things interesting is also important. Think of some small projects and work you way backwards. If you plan on buying some books to help you out be careful. Most programming books suck. I know a lot of people hate the dummies books but they can make a good starting point.
I don't consider myself a programmer which would put me in a similar situation, but I do know of a few good ones for the small amount I have done:
I'd say first would be Perl. I bought "Learning Perl" and it's pretty good. Just remember it's an intro book and you're in no way shape or form going to master anything with it.
For C, which I'd like to learn if I had the actual time to do it anymore, there is a book that's been our for as long as I've been born and even longer by Ken Thompson....Whcih kind of gives it some street cred...
Anyway, umm, just yesterday I happened to be in a book store that has an actual decent computer section, which is where I spend 50% of my time in there (The other 50% being spent grabbing Horros Mags and in the built in star bucks) and they had the updated version of the C book I was talking about there for sale. Barns and Nobles is the place I'm speaking of so if you have one within your area go there as I haven't seen this book ANYWHERE else for sale. And I'm pretty sure Ken Thompson would be considered the one to write a book on C as, well, you know.
The O'reilly books seem to be popular too but they aren't exactly fun to read if you get bored easy like me. Your best bet is to take advice from here, try a few things out, and then read before buying a few books so you know what you are looking for.
Just be careful of publisher **** heads who think just because someone can code that it means they can write a book on how to do it without being sloppy as crap.