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

Programming Books/Webistes for Beginners

Options
  • 17-07-2009 3:12pm
    #1
    Jugs82
    Closed Accounts Posts: 627 ✭✭✭


    Hi Guys,

    My GF got accepted on a postgrad course in NUI Galway that begins in September - Higher Diploma in Software Design and Development.

    She's over the moon about it and really looking forward to it - there is a strong programming element in the course - from the website - three programming languages (C, C++ and Visual Basic) & in Internet programming concepts (like ASP, HTML, PHP)

    She has experience in HTML but thats it and wants to do a bit of study over the summer in C & C++ so she can hit the ground running, i want to get her a book to begin with, so any advice on good titles for beginners would be greatly appreciated. Also, any web based resources would be good too!!

    Also, i want to get her a laptop for her birthday which is coming up and was wondering what type of spec i should be looking at with the course in mind? - i.e. Big Hard Drive, Large Memory etc...

    Thanks in advance :)


Comments

  • Options
    #2
    Sparks
    Registered Users Posts: 40,038 ✭✭✭✭Sparks


    A diploma with three languages over such a wide spread of language types may not go into much depth on them...

    Still, check the list of books in the what skills? thread.

    Also, for C, these may be of use:

    http://www.lysator.liu.se/c/

    http://www.gator.net/%7Egaryg/C/cref.html

    http://reality.sgi.com/csp/ioccc/index.html

    http://www.splint.org/

    http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/index.html

    http://www.cs.umd.edu/users/cml/cstyle/

    http://book.ygm.itu.edu.tr/Book/nr/bookc.html


  • Options
    #3
    Procasinator
    Registered Users Posts: 1,311 ✭✭✭Procasinator


    If she has zilch programming experience I would recommend she looks at some scripting languages (like Python) or (*shudders*) maybe even Visual Basic.

    Reason being that approaching C/C++ when you have no programming experience can be intimidating and complex. Things like data types (of different standards accross different platforms), memory management and related concepts and even the verbose nature of the language (statically typed) can hinder a learner.

    IMHO, it better to focus on the problem solving side of programming before tackling understanding the underlying system indepth. While both are important, I think the latter is easier picked up after developing a bit of the former.

    Here are some Python (though not the only language) references suitable for non-programmers:
    http://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide/NonProgrammers


  • Options
    #4
    PixelPixie
    Closed Accounts Posts: 38 ✭PixelPixie


    http://www.w3schools.com is an excellent resource for all things web.
    Going from html (which is not a programming or even a scripting language, but a markup language) to C, or PHP or VB is a giant step indeed.
    I agree with the previous poster that doing so many languages will mean not going into any depth with any of them, and a high probability of confusion as each language has its own syntactical peculiarities.
    It's important that she get a firm understanding of the core programming concepts first. I can't recommend any book as, being self-taught, I've picked up the concepts as I've gone along, and am still learning 10 years on.
    Regarding what machine to get her, I'd say avoid Windows, and either go for Mac or Linux, as Mac is built on the BSD unix variety, and Linux (of whatever variety) comes with several programming languages inbuilt - C, PHP, Python, Perl etc., as well as a proper command line in Bash. Of course it doesn't, to the best of my knowledge, support V(ery)B(ad) which only runs on the Redmond monster. A machine that either runs Linux as the main OS and Windows as a VM under Wine or Zen, or a dual-boot (less desirable) is what she should have if she is serious about programming.


  • Options
    #5
    Sparks
    Registered Users Posts: 40,038 ✭✭✭✭Sparks


    Or you could just get a normal pc, install linux on it, then install virtualbox and use that to run windows as a guest OS and install VB on that. It won't be as fast as running natively, but it'll be fast enough and it'll be more convenient.


  • Options
    #6
    Jugs82
    Closed Accounts Posts: 627 ✭✭✭Jugs82


    Sparks wrote: »
    Or you could just get a normal pc, install linux on it, then install virtualbox and use that to run windows as a guest OS and install VB on that. It won't be as fast as running natively, but it'll be fast enough and it'll be more convenient.

    Sounds like a plan :)Thanks for all of the advice guys, greatly appreciated


  • Advertisement
Advertisement