Total NooB...

I am wanting to learn new things. I am also pretty bored with playing games and watching TV. My job is not interesting, and I am starting to stagnate. So... I thought I might jump head first into programming.

What advice can you offer? I have heard that Python is a good place to start. I just went to the Python website and looked around. It looks like it might be OK.

When thinking of programming, the first thing that I think is that I would be writing a program that would benefit me. Something that I would use. When I start thinking of that though, I think of download.com where I can get just about anything that my little heart desires.

So... I don't really know what I am wanting to do. I just want to learn something new. Something that I might be able to use at a later date. Something that might prove valuable when looking for a different job.

That being said... Something that seems like it might be fairly simple (and most likely a long way off from a NooB starting point) would be a timer. Something like a stopwatch that counts down (no... I'm not building a bomb). I would want it to be graphical showing the numbers going backward and then play a predefined (or user selectable) wav file upon reaching zero. Where do I start (and with what language) if I wanted to accomplish such a task?

Thanks for taking the time.

I'd think Python is fine for a starting point as languages go.

As for an initial project, you'll need to spend most of your initial time learning programming basics. Do not go for a full-fledged download.com-style program as a first attempt.

Let's take the timer example as a starting point (it's not a bad idea), but we'll need to break it down:

• programming basics: "Hello, world" and text output (great for basic debugging and analysis!)
• Text input: read in a number, print that number back out
• Control structures: if a number is this, while a number is that
• Basic operators: while this number is more than that, subtract from this. See how a timer of sorts can emerge?
• Libraries: how do you get the current time from the system?
• Data manipulation: given the current time from above, what format is it? How can you make its format match your input (or, make your input match the internal time format)?
• Data output: given the now time and the when time, find the difference and output it! That's a timer.

More or less, that's a concept-by-concept approach to a command-line timer. Become familiar with that sort of thing, then worry about exploring GUI elements and the like.

^^^ Lots of good advice there.

After you get comfortable with one language, start branching out more with other languages. Pick a database and try communicating with it. Some high demand technologies that I see companies looking for include (in no particular order):

- Java
- Javascript
- ASP.Net (especially C#)
- Oracle
- Sql Server 2000
- Access (to a much, much lesser degree than Oracle or Sql Server)
- Web Services

Follow-through with the previous poster's comments. When you feel 100% comfortable, then start branching out with other languages. The syntax, keywords, commands, etc. may be different, but much of the logic and concepts you develop will transfer. Additionally, you will evolve your habits more when you learn other languages/technologies.

I am a computer graduate student. I suggest you learning Java and javascript. Or learning Asp.net and access. That will be a easy start for u.

PTNL said:

When you feel 100% comfortable, then start branching out with other languages. The syntax, keywords, commands, etc. may be different, but much of the logic and concepts you develop will transfer. Additionally, you will evolve your habits more when you learn other languages/technologies.

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Very true. I like Python as a starter language because it's very forgiving (as opposed to anal-retentive languages like C, Java, or Ada). Stuff like VB and Perl also fall into the category, and they'll let you focus more on the procedural, rather than syntactic, elements of programming. While you have to learn both eventually, it's far more interesting to learn how to make a program do something definite (procedural) than learn how to typecheck and convert text and integers (syntactic).

lomn75 said:

While you have to learn both eventually, it's far more interesting to learn how to make a program do something definite (procedural) than learn how to typecheck and convert text and integers (syntactic).

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I think you mean "semantic".