Thinking of taking up programming - Any suggestions?

Dark_Angel

Dark_Angel

Dark_Angel

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I'm completely new to it, aside from HTML and the like (which aren't exactly programming :p) I've not touched anything similar.

So yeah, basically it's for fun / something to learn. Can people recommend a good language to start with, perhaps a few starting points?
 
If you want to start off really simple then try ASP and VBScript.

Its nothing complex. A great beginners language and introduction to things like Variables, Conditional Statements and Flow Control with Loops.

Theres tons of VBScript tutorials out there.
 
djkav said:
If you want to start off really simple then try ASP and VBScript.

Its nothing complex. A great beginners language and introduction to things like Variables, Conditional Statements and Flow Control with Loops.

Theres tons of VBScript tutorials out there.
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Hell no, I can't think of many worse things to start with (assuming you're referring to classic ASP)

If you want to develop Windows applications then I would recommend C#, you can download a free version from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/express/vcsharp/

If you don't want to be tied to Windows then Python could be a good bet to get going with.
 
I downloaded and installed that the other day. After I installed it I ran it and could not get it to do anything useful.. Are there any beginner guides to this sort of thing ?
 
whitecrook said:
I downloaded and installed that the other day. After I installed it I ran it and could not get it to do anything useful.. Are there any beginner guides to this sort of thing ?
Click to expand...

1) Create a new windows based application
2) Go to the control's pane on the left and drag a button and a label onto your form
3) Double click the button to open the code for the click event.
4) In the button1 click event (between the {}) type:
Code: 
label1.text = "I have clicked a button!";
5) Press the green 'play' button at the top of the window and the application will launch.
6) Press the button and the text on the label will change to whatever you put
7) Gratz you just created your first c# application ^^
 
Tilluss said:
1) Create a new windows based application
2) Go to the control's pane on the left and drag a button and a label onto your form
3) Double click the button to open the code for the click event.
4) In the button1 click event (between the {}) type:
Code: 
label1.text = "I have clicked a button!";
5) Press the green 'play' button at the top of the window and the application will launch.
6) Press the button and the text on the label will change to whatever you put
7) Gratz you just created your first c# application ^^
Click to expand...


OK.

How would I make a 'Browse' button that when clicked opened a 'select folder' dialog? I couldn't get that to work. I managed to make a nice form, but it couldn't do anything useful... :(
 
Is there huge differences between (prepare for a dumb question) c, c# and C++?

Can they all roughly do the same type of things, or used for totally different applications (as in uses).
 
Dark_Angel said:
Is there huge differences between (prepare for a dumb question) c, c# and C++?

Can they all roughly do the same type of things, or used for totally different applications (as in uses).
Click to expand...
They're related, but pretty different in practice.

You can make most normal applications in any language. The big question is which language's characteristics and associated libraries are most suitable for the task in mind.

How would I make a 'Browse' button that when clicked opened a 'select folder' dialog? I couldn't get that to work. I managed to make a nice form, but it couldn't do anything useful... :(
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Find a book or a tutorial, dude, or you'll have to come back and ask for each line! :)
 
Dark_Angel said:
Is there huge differences between (prepare for a dumb question) c, c# and C++?

Can they all roughly do the same type of things, or used for totally different applications (as in uses).
Click to expand...

I dont have any experiance with C but they can all be used to achieve most applications, at later stages different technologies become available to some languages that arn't available in others but if your just starting out you dont need to worry about it.

C# is a .NET language, this means it uses the .NET library of existing code to make general things easier but can only be used on windows machines (unless you are looking to rely on mono which is attemping to mimic .NET for all platforms).

C++ can be applied to most platforms for the most part but obviously the tech available to it will be different on each platform it runs on. It's generally a harder language to master and to start off with than c#.

EDIT: I wouldn't worry about opening a dialog box at the moment, get the basics down e.g variables, statements & classes. If you get the basics down everything else will seem to fall into place :)
 
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I recommend Java. It's a good language to learn some fundamentals. Check out the BlueJ IDE as it's made for people like you.

Be careful about where you learn from as bad habits are hard to unlearn. I'd also recommend staying away from anything GUI related for a while. You can probably find some free chapters of Objects First with Java; work through them.
 
In my opinion Java is a horrible language through and through. Python is supposedly one of the easiest languages to learn and there is a python project for Windows which will allow you to code for it (can't think of exact name right now).

As for C/++/# each have their benefits, if I'm totally honest though, I would heartily suggest working with C at first doing some basic cmd style coding (I.E. no GUI) just to get a feel of syntax, functions, pointers and structs, once you've got the basics of C C++ is pretty easy to pick up, and I assume the same with C# (I don't actually code anything that's platform dependent).

I started with C personally, one of the best and worst decisions, just see what works for you :)
 
Going to go completely against everyone and say Python.

It will teach you good structure, documentation and concepts that more than a few Java/.NET programmers could do with learning.

You can write Windows/Mac/Linux/Web apps using it and there is a fantastic community out there to help you along the way.

**disclaimer** I am a C++/C# developer who is currently deeply in love with Python and the Google App Engine
 
If you want something that's relatively easy, with plenty of ready to go scripts so you can actually achieve something with your programming, then go for PHP/MySQL.

Rgds
 
radderfire said:
If you want something that's relatively easy, with plenty of ready to go scripts so you can actually achieve something with your programming, then go for PHP/MySQL.

Rgds
Click to expand...

It's not really desktop programming and i think that's what the OP is after :P

When i started i started with VB.NET, i didn't know about any programming at all and was willing to teach myself. After 2 years of that i moved onto c#, and c# has been a brillaint language to learn for me, it's enabled me to go on and adapt to other languages in a matter of a few hours (javascript & PhP).

I'm currently learning objective-c for iPhone developemt, and it is very alien to look at compared to a lot of other languages, but the basic's are still there. It also needs a lot of memory management to be written manually which is a bit of a shock to the system, but im finding it easier now i've played with it quite a bit.

It's all about personal preference at the end of the day, normally you can adapt skills from learning one language to most other languages by just changing the syntax slightly (or in objective-c's case, a lot).

I hope that helps a bit more than some of the posts saying 'thats a s*** language use XXX instead'.
 
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