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Beginning programming - Hopefully!

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    #32
    MaceFace
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,697 ✭✭✭MaceFace


    Op - as you can see, there are a tonne of different languages you can choose and then there is a tonne of things you want to achieve by programming.
    You are best to set yourself a goal for what you want to do. Do you want to design websites (maybe rewrite twitter)? Want to go into IT as a career? Want to just mess around and see what all the fuss is about? Want to make money out of it or just do something?
    How technical are you? What OS do you use and why (the answer should give everyone an idea of your capabilities?

    I have general recommedations and like everyone else it is based on my experiences. That doesn't mean it is right.
    Whatever way you look at it though, your not going to get away from Java. You may start somewhere else (Basic, C, Pascal, Fortran) and end up somewhere else (C++, Erlang, ASP), and then what about things like the scripting languages (Perl, Python, Ruby).

    How many times have we all thought we could learn something and then once we start give up as it was too hard and we didn't have a proper goal.


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    #33
    AARRRGH
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,382 ✭✭✭✭AARRRGH


    A nice, flexible language for instant results is PHP. It's probably my favorite languge... after C, of course! :)


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    #34
    MaceFace
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,697 ✭✭✭MaceFace


    01101110 01100101 01110010 01100100
    or
    6E 65 72 64

    LOL!


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    #35
    Jay P
    Registered Users Posts: 4,944 ✭✭✭Jay P


    MaceFace wrote: »
    Op - as you can see, there are a tonne of different languages you can choose and then there is a tonne of things you want to achieve by programming.
    You are best to set yourself a goal for what you want to do. Do you want to design websites (maybe rewrite twitter)? Want to go into IT as a career? Want to just mess around and see what all the fuss is about? Want to make money out of it or just do something?
    How technical are you? What OS do you use and why (the answer should give everyone an idea of your capabilities?


    I have no real goals yet, because I don't really know what to expect from this. It's mainly just to mess around with it. I'm only 18 so I'm not looking at a career just yet! I've had a vague interest in this for a while, and since I've loads of time on my hands, I thought it'd be something cool and interesting to try. What do you mean by technical? I'm able to use a computer and stuff like that, obviously enough. I'm not sure what you mean exactly by that, it's quite a broad quesstion. And I use either XP or Vista, depending on what compputer I'm on. It's usually Vista though. The reason is that's what we have. Macs are kinda dear, though I'd love to have one.
    How many times have we all thought we could learn something and then once we start give up as it was too hard and we didn't have a proper goal.

    This is true...though as I said, I don't have goals because I don't know what to expect from this yet, and I don't know what I'd like.... I do like the idea of creating programs for Windows maybe or something along those lines.


    knoxor wrote: »
    You have to ask yourself what do you want to program for?

    Is it for fun or is it to get a job?

    If its for fun then go ahead and pick any of the mentioned languages. If its for work, I'd recommend searching roundn the various recruitment websites and see which is the most popular language, what one has the most jobs ?

    If its for starting your own business doing websites, then probably php would be a good bet, or you could also look at Ruby on Rails.

    Usually programmers start with the HelloWorld application no matter what language. Its basically the simplest program that you can have in the chosen language. Do a search on that and try it.

    There are so many resources on the web these days, there are also certification courses you can do in the various languages.

    Sometimes the best way is to just get stuck in and try it. Its a good buzz when you get things working for the first time. I can still remember the buzz you get from typing in a few commands and making the computer do the things you told it to do.

    good luck !!

    Like I said, this is only for fun for the moment. I'm only just finished the Leving so I'm not looking for a job out of anything just yet.
    croo wrote: »
    There is no real answer to "what language?" question as it is typically dependent on the "what task?" question! :) - the right tool for the right job and all that.

    If however the OP is interested in programming in general, as opposed to programming in Java or C or whatever... then UC Berkeley has some great lectures available on youtube... search for ucberkely & CS 61A & CS 61B. There might be more but these are two courses I happened upon and thought were excellent. These do a great job of teaching the basic theories of programming. Of course you don't get the homework, labwork or to ask questions from those but while most books on a programming language will teach you the syntax of the language, these videos will help you come to grips with what it is you want & need to do. Highly recommended. Start with CS 61A; if you were at berkeley CS 61A would be a prerequisite of CS 61B (which is mostly data structures and the examples are in java).

    enjoy!

    That sounds great, thanks a million for that :)


    I remember ages ago I read that all you need for programming is Notepad, but I've downloaded programs for both Small Basic and C#. Is there any reason for this? Do you generally use programs for programming?


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    #36
    AARRRGH
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,382 ✭✭✭✭AARRRGH


    You have to use a compiler or interpreter to convert your program into something a computer will understand.

    For example, you can write a C program in notepad, but then you have to use a seperate program to compile it.

    Software like Visual Studio are just a fancy version of notepad with a fancy compiler built in.


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    #37
    Anima
    Registered Users Posts: 3,945 ✭✭✭Anima


    If I were you Jay, I'd start learning Java. Just download Netbeans (or Eclipse, Netbeans is easier to use though) and start looking at tutorials.

    The Java site itself has lots of tutorials and articles about everything really. http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/java/nutsandbolts/index.html

    You could set yourself the goal of making a small 2D game. That way you'll learn the basics (variables, operators, conditions and loops), about classes and inheritance etc and some GUI stuff using Swing.


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    #38
    the-island-man
    Registered Users Posts: 497 ✭✭the-island-man


    I personally would advise you to learn C programming first, it is one of the most widely used language so there is an enormous amount of documentation and tutorials on the web for it and any library you go to are more lightly to have a lot more books on C programming rather than any other languages.
    Another advantage in my opinion is it allows you to learn the basics needed for programming without allowing you to get bogged down in understanding the concept of object oriented programming like you would have in languages such as C++, Java and Python.
    Objected orientated is an important concept in programming and one which you will have to learn but in my opinion you have to crawl before you walk!


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    #39
    JC 2K3
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,794 ✭✭✭JC 2K3


    You don't need to know OO to learn Java though, you just don't create any classes....

    And NullPointerException, ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException etc. are much easier to deal with than "Segmentation Fault".


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    #40
    Naikon
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,564 ✭✭✭Naikon


    Personally, I would learn the very basics of Algorithmic procedures before any
    real programming. A programming language is just a tool to solve a problem.

    By starting off with something like C, you don't get bogged down with fancy
    features and terminology used in the fancy web based/OO languages.

    You can 'shoot yourself in the foot' with C so to speak, because the language
    is fairly spartan. Most features depend on external libraries, even for simple
    stuff like string manipulation. A string is a variable that stores text.

    I would stay the hell away from anything related to GUI programming for
    quite some time. The Windows world tends to have a nasty habit of mixing
    core functionality of a program with the gui elements.

    This is why you should stay away from anything .NET related, and focus
    on simple, clean languages.

    The best thing to do, is to separate core code from user interface
    stuff, because you can always slap on a fancy gui at a later date.

    C is hard to learn at first, no doubt. But it will serve you well, because the
    syntax of most other languages are at least vaguely similar to C on the
    procedural level.

    Pointer reference is hidden in most langauges now, but understanding
    for example that: while ( *a++ = *b++); copies a text string is useful at times.
    Don't use pointers all the time though. C is a good start to intermediate stuff.

    Also, you can develop fairly decent console gui apps using ncurses.
    ncurses is a good start before any serious gui work.

    Check out: http://www.cprogramming.com/
    Good luck on your quest OP :)


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