Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

what language to learn

Options
2»

Comments

  • Options
    #32
    stephenlane80
    Registered Users Posts: 163 ✭✭stephenlane80


    If you are looking for a good place to start www.bruceeckel.com has free ebooks on c, c++ and java, the c course is designed logically so it is easy to transfer from c to c++ or java

    the java stuff is a bit dated but the c / c++ stuff is the best resoure i have seen to date, cplusplus.com is good but leaves out a lot of the essential background required to understand why things work like they do


  • Options
    #33
    run_Forrest_run
    Registered Users Posts: 6,430 ✭✭✭run_Forrest_run


    stevenmu wrote: »
    How is OOP distracting from learning the actual language? OOP is an integral part of programming. To compare it to a spoken language, you don't spend one year learning all of the french words, and then spend the next year learning how to put them together into sentences, you do both at the same time.

    Unless you do start with C, because it doesn't include OOP then OOP would just be a distraction. But the only reason people seem to be recommending C is as a starter point to work up to an OOP language. Why bother with that step when it's easier to just start with an OOP language in the first place?

    because I've seen many students struggle with the basics of programming because they get too hung up on the OO aspects. Strip away the OO part and teach the fundamentals of programming and then tie in OOP.


  • Options
    #34
    Webmonkey
    Registered Users Posts: 9,579 ✭✭✭Webmonkey


    run_Forrest_run wrote: »
    because I've seen many students struggle with the basics of programming because they get too hung up on the OO aspects. Strip away the OO part and teach the fundamentals of programming and then tie in OOP.
    I agree, especially when a lot of lecturers can't even teach it.

    Programming is about problem solving, students should be introduced to solving algorithmic problems first at a procedural level and then move onto OOP.


  • Options
    #35
    Donald-Duck
    Registered Users Posts: 1,119 ✭✭✭Donald-Duck


    So I'm the only one who found OOP much easier to grasp than structural?


  • Options
    #36
    Red Alert
    Hosted Moderators Posts: 7,486 ✭✭✭Red Alert


    I'd definitely vote with going procedural first - C is probably your best bet. Pick up a good simple book on it, there's one called "A Book on C" that I remember being quite good. The dev tools for it are available free as well - you just need notepad and the GNU C compiler to get started.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #37
    dvpower
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,183 ✭✭✭dvpower


    Start with VB.NET or C#. You can get the free Express Edition of Visual Studio from Microsoft and there are lots of tutorials and samples available. Microsoft have a package of 101 sample applications that demonstrate many aspects of the .NET framework.

    Do a night course. You can learn by yourself but you will be a much better programmer if you get some structured learning.

    If ever you bump into a group of programmers discussing the relative merits of VB.NET vs C#, leave the room immediatly; these people will suck the life out of you.


  • Options
    #38
    dvpower
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,183 ✭✭✭dvpower


    Webmonkey wrote: »
    I wouldn't recommend VB as a starting language. It isn't really proper programming. It does the programming for you, you don't have to solve any problems that make you a good programmer unlike what C/C++ would force you to do normally.

    If you want to produce something quick and not bother learning to program proper or if it just once off, start with VB. Otherwise you better off getting to understand how to really program properly by understanding low level data structures etc in C then go onto C++ or something. Just my opinion.

    Don't go near VB (classic). It is a deprecated language. Microsoft no longer activly support it.


Advertisement