Question:
Ive always wanted to learn to program, but don't know where to even start! I don't wanna do games or for money, just like a casual thing i can do in my own time. What would be the best to start with? python, C, Visual or something else I once got to play around in VB6 and that was great I just need someone to point me in the right direction, and ill go from there!
Thanks in advance (hopefully)
Answers:
C# would be my preference if I was starting again (I just do a little bit for fun on websites - asp.net) but currently do a tiny bit of VB.Net
As to how to do it... I tried to teach myself from a suitably titled book however I havent had that great a success - would be interested in any other suggestions.
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I think this is almost an unanswerable question because there are so many different programming languages available and each has its own function and purpose.
What you really need to decide is what function and purpose do you want to achieve with your programming and that will determine which language to start with.
For example, if you were interested in website building then HTML, PHP, MySQL etc. may be the way to go. For programs that perform tasks on your PC you might be better going the Visual Basic route or something similar.
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Microsoft now have freely downloadable versions of all their languages, so you can try them all out and see which you find most useful .
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Hi
C++ is one of the most powerful and difficult languages to learn. However I learnt C++ in a matter of weeks by reading 'Beginning C++: The Complete Language' Its not cheap @ £39 but in my view it was worth every penny....also read the other reviews on amazon, they're all happy!
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Microsoft now have freely downloadable versions of all their languages, so you can try them all out and see which you find most useful .
Are them express versions any good?
Thanks baby frogmella, will check it out!
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VBA is a good language for beginners. It's built in to MS Office applications and is just a different "flavour" of VB geared towards Excel, Word or whatever.
There are a few demo snippets of code at the following link, but Google for VBA and Excel and I'm sure you'll find more!
Good luck.
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Are them express versions any good?
I use the free C++ version for everything I do at home. However, some of the Microsoft libraries are missing, so you might need to download some equivalent free libraries instead.
I've been using libraries for user interface stuff, which also means that in theory the C++ programs can run on Linux and other operating systems too.
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LISP
Seriously, depends what you want to do.
For desktop stuff VB is very, very easy, but often considered rubbish by C++ guys. I've got a few components written in VB, though and they work great. Very good for throwing together quick apps.
But, either VB.NET or C# is probably the way to go. As you're starting afresh go for C# which would be marginally harder than VB.NET, but not by much. It'd also be very easy to pickup Java from there.
If you want web stuff, look at ASP.NET and PHP.
Learning SQL to a decent standard is always helpful, too.
C++ is the ultimate, but might be a bit scary at first!
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learn something useful like php. that way you can can program with a purpose like having your own custom built website. at the same time set up a linux box as as webserver; you only need apache mysql and php. its easy these days to host your own webserver on a broadband connection.
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If you want to set your PC up as a server, then I'd recommend using Wamp5:
It instals Apache, PHP and MySQL together with PHPMyAdmin and SQLLiteManager and everything works together beautifully.
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If you want to set your PC up as a server, then I'd recommend using Wamp5:
It instals Apache, PHP and MySQL together with PHPMyAdmin and SQLLiteManager and everything works together beautifully.
there's also xampp
i've used that before. worked great.
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I've mainly done C++ as part of my BSc, but the Uni are about to switch all the modules over Java.
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Microsoft's official site for .Net. It's got loads of excellent walkthrough videos, tutorials, code examples and also a decent forum.
Anything .Net related I'd suggest you start there.
I personally prefer C# and have found it more common in industry than VB.Net. It's also a "cleaner" language, in my opinion.
If you want the Ruby approach, have a look at SubSonic () or MonoRail (. It's basically Ruby for .Net.
The best way of learning is to find a project, or something useful you'd enjoy working on. Maybe a website, and think of things you'd like to include on it.
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I've mainly done C++ as part of my BSc, but the Uni are about to switch all the modules over Java.
Noooo! I do program in Java, but the benefit gained from teaching the course in C++ is huge!
Anyone who can do C++ could pick up Java in about 10 minutes, but not the other way around.
I wish I had learned in C++. Now it scares me!
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learn something useful like php.
Alternatively learning C# or VB.Net will allow you to both write stand alone programs or websites using ASP.Net (which can be written in either of the above languages) and therefore probably more practical than php that has only the single application
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I'm gonna suggest Java. It's fairly logical and there are some pretty good books on it. I like Savitch or the O'Reilly nutshell ones.
If you can do Java it wouldn't take much effort to pick up C, C++ languages. It means you can have fun making little applets for the net too.
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Ruby - the Ruby guide for those learning to program is . Seriously, has all the elements of modern languages and is designed for simplicity and to be easy to code and read.
Once you've done the basics of programming, you can use for web and database development way easier than with C# and .NET or Java and J2EE.
Plus Ruby and Ruby on Rails are all open source, so everything is free!
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Probably right about improving grades. Remember Java is a managed language, so things like pointers and memory allocation are redundant. It's those things that are harder but make better programmers.
Java is pretty easy, really, as all that is done for you.
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Probably right about improving grades. Remember Java is a managed language, so things like pointers and memory allocation are redundant. It's those things that are harder but make better programmers.
Java is pretty easy, really, as all that is done for you.
Hmmm, arguably a better programmer. Depends whether you need to know that sort of thing. Garbage collection in managed languages such as Java and C# is put there to make things easier for you.
I wouldn't necessarily say Java is easy either. It's easy to pickup but you can always take it further, whether this be more low level like reading bits from an ID32Tag, or overall architecture, business logic, data access, unit testing etc...
The whole idea is to take away a lot of the tricky or annoying tasks. That's why C++ was developed and Java too, otherwise we'd still be coding in machine code.