New to programming

I

ipam45

Gawd
Joined
Jul 14, 2006
Messages
566
Hi all

so many of my friend are getting into programming and i thought i would get into it too. looking at all the different language i'm just confused. can someone reccoment a language to a begginner taht is not to hard but would still be useful.

THX
 
You could start with one of the scripting languages like python or ruby if you want to get your feet wet.
 
I would go a different route than Python or Ruby. Those are fine languages, but they can be pretty confusing if you are new to programming. Much easier to learn would be PHP, but setting up PHP can be a pain in the butt, since you'll (usually) need IIS or Apache or something similar.

What I would do, if I were you, is go here and download Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition. It's free, and the Express editions no longer expire, so you'll be good to go as long as you want. Also, free with registration, they will give you a pdf eBook that will walk you through building a simple web browser.

Good luck!

-Mark.
 
Sadly I'd agree with visual basic being a good starting point. If you're serious I'd try java as it's pretty easy to set up, it's object-oriented but for the hello-world style applications you'll be writing you might not even realize it. There are also plenty of tutorials on getting started with java and there's a wide range of uses for the language, so it's quite probable that you'll never have to scrap a lot of the concepts or syntax that you learn in java if you end up moving to a different language. The downside to the novice programmer is that there's some considerable overhead in setting up a simple GUI in java vs. visual basic
 
Also, PHP is a real mess, but it is easy and if you go that route you can download something called xampp which packages apache (which is a web server, since PHP is used mostly for generating dynamic content through the web more than standalone programs) and php, with an extremely easy to use windows installer. If you use that you should be up and running in no time
 
The most important thing, in my opinion, when learning programming, is not learning a particular language or syntax. The most important thing is to get a solid understanding of the flow of logic, and the flow of data to, from, and between functions and objects.

There is a certain amount of syntactical common ground between various languages, such as function parameters and output, object construction, etc. Those similarities are worth knowing, but the really very most important thing to concentrate on is the flow of logic and data.

Once you have a good handle on that, the rest is dressing, and you'll be able to learn new languages fairly quickly. For that reason, I think visual basic is a great starter language. It flows very much like more sophisticated languages (such as C# or C++), and is light on syntax requirements.

That is my experience anyways, from a few years of doing this.
 
Read that essay, then I would start with C++...

You can learn procedural (for the most part) and OO programming ideas from it.
 
I learned Python back in 2000 (right after Python 2.0 came out) and I can't think of a single language that better forms the foundation of higher programming. Python will introduce you to most of the concepts required to move up to more complex languages while still being easy to use and extremely powerful. I strongly recommend giving it a look. If it's not for you, check out PHP (which is messy, but ridiculously easy to learn) or perhaps Visual Basic if you mainly plan to develop for Windows.
 
Wingy said:
Read that essay, then I would start with C++...

You can learn procedural (for the most part) and OO programming ideas from it.
Click to expand...
Procedural programming is not, at all, exclusive to OO programming. Any method you implement in OO is a chance to implement procedural code.
 
mikeblas said:
Procedural programming is not, at all, exclusive to OO programming. Any method you implement in OO is a chance to implement procedural code.
Click to expand...


I don't understand what your saying. Procedural is not exclusive to OO, obviously. My point is that with C++ you can do both, and I believe it's important to be able to do both.
 
Wingy said:
I don't understand what your saying. Procedural is not exclusive to OO, obviously. My point is that with C++ you can do both, and I believe it's important to be able to do both.
Click to expand...
Then you can completely learn procedural programming with C++, not only "for the most part".
 
I used that language because certain things used would be objects, like the input and output streams, strings (should you decide that route)... etc.

I should have specified though, however, because using these does not imply OOP. I used the term too loosely.
 
i do not intend this in a mean spirit whatsoever, just a constructive suggestion. you can not be sloppy about spelling and be a productive programmer, you will spend all your time in a debugger looking for stray semicolons, and wondering why the method you called wont work (because of a typo). computers will not interpret syntax mistakes for you, they are very unforgiving like that. they do exactly what you tell them with no discretion.

and, dont do it because your friends do it. peer pressure is bad haha! do it because it interests you. it can be very fun and rewarding. any language will do, i guess start with something free and easy to get. bloodshed DEVC++ comes to mind.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top