computer programmers?

[sublime]

i'ma start learnin how to do some basic programming shit. i'm not takin any classes or anything just in my free time..but if ne one knows of any good programmign video's or things to start programmin, let me know ...thanks

 

sorry, prolly should have put this is recreational activities

[General]

At my school, programming = 95%games, 5% worktime.

[Chuckun]

What programming language are you looking to learn? If unsure, as a starting point;- what type of application will your programming be for? Computer programs or web programming? Chuck

[nrgy]

I'm doing games programming at school now - it started with C# and now we are making out own game with XNA using MS Visual Studio 2010. There are many good books on Amazon.com but Im not sure which language your trying to learn..

[lazyhum]

It really depends on what you want to do and learn.

 

Starting off with one object-oriented programming language and knowing it well will make it easier in learning new languages.

 

I started off with Java and it made it so much easier in learning new languages because you know all the concepts, you just need to learn the syntax and other minor differences. Java is a great for "learning" programming rather than learning a programming language.

 

If you are going towards web programming then you'll need to know the basics like XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc. Depending on what you want to do, you can learn other languages like PHP, AJAX, python, ruby, etc. If you want to go towards Microsoft's side then learning ASP.NET is another option.

 

For windows application, I don't really have much experience in that, but, you could learn WPF. You'll need to learn C# or VB to use it.

 

For mobile programming, it depends on what OS you are interested in.

Blackberry - based on Java

Android - based on Java (The android developers site is really useful)

iOS - Objective-C (primary one, you can use many others)

etc.

 

Good luck.

[Chuckun]

Yeah I'd probably recommend Javascript as a starting point too tbh.. I wish I'd done it that way. Java is actually very widely used too.. Websites use javascript, applications use javaxcript, a lot of languages are actually just modified versions of it.. Java is a good place to start.

[hobbit]

Back in highschool I took a Java class and now @ college my 1st required class for comp science major is python. Knowing Java really made it so much easier than if I hadnt taken a programming language before. BUT python itself isnt that hard to learn.

[Panini*Hobbit@mp3]

I started off learning Visual Basic last year for my computing class, I failed that class and have to repeat it this year so I'm learning Java now after they switched the languages for 1st years..

 

We did a web development class which was real fun, involving CSS, Javascript and HTML.

[Midnight]

Sublime, like you I started learning my programming on a hobby basis. I have never taken any formal classes in the matter and started out with C++. I usually use the cmd prompt window to do most of my programming, being as I am more familiar with that approach than say the program Code::Blocks. I just did a simple web search for beginner C++ programming and found some good examples to work with and manuals that you can print. I will look for those manuals and C++ builders that you can download. Also I would suggest joining a forum strictly dedicated to C++ programming (or whatever programming you choose) alongside this one.

[->RoGue]

Just to clarify since some posts above seemed to give this idea: JAVA IS NOT JAVASCRIPT. They are VERY DIFFERENT.

 

Also, learning Java as a first language can cause problems in the long run as Java does many things for the programmer or abstracts it away. For example, Java doesn't allow pointers and cleans up dynamic memory allocations automatically. If you get used to that and then move to a language like C, then you're going to run into lots of memory leak issues.

 

Personally I started with C++, then moved into C. Later I did work with Java, Android, MySQL, php, and JavaScript. Granted this was part of a college curriculum, so I had help and direction in learning.

 

Basically, I think learning Java first might handicap someone if they needed a more "under the hood" language later.

 

-RoGue

[rolf]

^^ True, but on the other hand more and more people don't need to learn C/C++ anymore. And with current development in languages, you either get pointer parties with C/C++, or you avoid them with Java/C#. If you don't follow classes, the pointers can be quite hard to understand (even for me it was...). You can, in that case, better start with Java or C#. Yes, switching to C++ is hard (C is even harder), but not impossible.

 

I actually started with C, and later C++. Even these days you can still easily see that I've started with a not object oriented language which is a bad thing if I listen to my fellow students (too many variables public rather than using getters/setters). On the other hand, I understand pointers better than many others

 

 

It also depends on what you want to learn. Simple scripts: Python, (eventually) advanced applications: Java or C#, understanding every concept to programming (which will become painful every once in a while): C or C++, and learn the other one quite fast as well.

[PiNoY]

i'ma start learnin how to do some basic programming shit.

 

you said basic programming shit, then you might want to try basic programming language then, its pretty basic shit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC

[rolf]

I would really suggest to skip BASIC, it won't learn you anything else than the ultimate basic stuff and everything beyond that is close to impossible. Python is more useful in that sense. If you want (eventually) to learn more than the ultimate basic, start immediately with a more complex language as Java/C#.

[BoomStick]

It sorta depends on what you want to do/learn.

 

Through college I learned/used a few different programming/web development languages;

C++, JavaScript, ActionScript (it sorta counts ), HTML, HTML5 (it's a bit of fun to use!), Ruby, Ruby-on-Rails (this is the language that Twitter is designed in. If you want some fun learning it, check out the Rails for Zombies guys.), and Visual Basic. I have probably done more but can't really remember them.

 

Unfortunately, we were only the 2nd year doing the course, so there were still a lot of problems and Java stupidly never was taught, though supposedly they've tweaked things around now that we've finished and teach Java in either the 2nd or 3rd year.

 

If you want a relatively easy language, I would recommend Ruby-on-Rails. It uses what's called duck typing, which means you don't need to declare variables, like you have to in the likes of C++.

[rolf]

Never ever learn a language with duck typing, or at least start with it. Declaring the variables has a few advantages:

1. You know what you are doing

2. You get an error on a typo, rather than weird behavior (although that can be 'solved' at the compiler, but is not always)

3. It's easier to learn a language which does enforce declarating variables.

4. Better in memory usage, generally

 

 

Hell, I even hate the 'var x in List' in C# and the equivalent variant in Java. Declaring variables is the easiest thing in software development, don't be lazy.