Programming - Where do i start?

[CybertecOne]

Hey gang,

Firstly, im glad to see a number of familiar faces still active around here

Im an IT Consultant that administers server/networks, configs routers/firewalls, deals with EVERything a client throws at me, server migrations, new tech implimentations, everything - And its fine, i enjoy my work but throughout the years i wanted to aspire to software programming.

Problem being that with my work as it is, i never have the time to sit down and learn. In the wayback of highschool i self taught HTML which i still enjoy every now and then but scripting and the tiniest bit of VB which i dont remember any of and that is my exposure to software development.

I now have the time to learn to program and the dedication to want to pursue it seriously. So this is something im taking seriously and want to get into .... its not a newb question saying how do i write perl >?

So what would you all recommend on where to start and how hard to tackle the situation.

cheers all


CTO

[pi><boy]

get your hands dirty rightaway! There are a lot of FOSS projects which are always looking for new contributors. If you wanna start off with C, make it a point to get familiar with gcc too. I myself have never worked on VB or for that matter much of GUI programming on Windows but I guess you could do something about the Windows ports of various FOSS projects. If you are already familiar with C or C++, you could try your hand at python too. Python provides a high level of abstraction that would help you to write code that is more organized and more focussed on the solution of the problem on hand rather than how to go about solving it.

It would be a good idea to improve your programming skills with problems from Project Euler or various other online coding resources. It won't exactly help you write a piece of software but would make you a good programmer nonetheless.

All the best!

[CybertecOne]

Cheers - If anyone can help me out with advice on which languages to start with and links to your favourite compilers that would be awesome too

[Raion]

My programming professor would tell you to start with Perl, I started with PHP & Qbasic (roughly, didn't really get into too complicated stuff with PHP and Qbasic is...basic.) and now Java.

So personally, I'd say Java even though people complain about the objects (but I know no better so works for me )

I use Eclipse for a compiler, beautiful piece of work. It makes learning Java easier even though I found Java to be easy as is.

As for how to go about learning it, I found that the easiest way for me to learn is to think of a program I want to make (e.g. Hello World!"), then find out how to make it. Then improve that program until improvements can't be done anymore (Make Hello World appear in an applet [for Java] with balls randomly shooting at it and slowly deteriorating the words). It's a good baseline and always keeps me interested Hope this helps.