What's good to learn?

[ixle]

What kind of things are good to learn if you are going into computer programming, such as game programming/designing. Like what kinds of math?(Algebra1/2, Geometry, Trigonometry, Pre-Cal, Calculus, etc).

Was also wondering whats the best type of language to learn for programming games/software for games.

 

[David Lindon]

C and C++ are good languages to learn. Also Java is good for games and easy to pick up.

 

[Steveswaldo]

C/C++ for games and stuff and just general stuff. VB/VB.net is good for simple gui programs. perl is good for webbased stuff and server scripts and such and to automate things. you dont need advanced math to do most coding.

hope that helps a bit

 

[Reiken1]

hey Steve, got any more ideas for webserver scripts to learn?
I'm currently using PHP, haven't had any problems with it so far, but it's a pain debugging and when you accidentally write and test an infinite loop my Iexplorer crashes all the time (only becuse I don't use an IDE)

RC

 

[David Lindon]

Have you tried Perl?

 

[Shadow0fDeath]

DarkBASIC specializes in 3d games
Visual Basic for programs
Java Works for web-based games
Perl or PHP for web-based programs

i wouldn't suggest C++ if you're a n00b to programming, i've tried learning it back when i first started programming and found a lot of stuff hard to remember =/

 

[politics]

As for math, I really dont think you need to take very much. I have taken Calculus I, Calculus I, probability, statistics, linear algebra, discrete math - total of 21 college credit hours... and I can honestly say it was completely USELESS in my programming classes. Pisses me off just thinking about the fact that we have to put up with so much math.

 

[Iowa]

Im sorry, but i fail to see how Visual Basic is any good. Its reasonably difficult to learn, irritating, takes ages, and is just generally bad. Shadow - just cos a friend of yours uses it, doesnt mean its the best. To be a decent programmer, you at least, need to have a computer running Linux or Unix. Why? Open Source Code. You can see it, change it, pretty much anything youd like to do with it. Its surprising how quick you can learn from it - one problem though - VB isnt compatible with Linux.

Python is far better in my opinion, even for a beginner - flexible, the program you use is free,(unlike Microsofts VB - unless you wanna download it off Kazaa) and it (once again) gives you the source codes, better yet, it is usable on Linux.

 

[David Lindon]

Ya, go with rocker on this one of pick up a few books on C++, that can be picked up quickly.

 

[Iowa]

I have seen bits of Python. It is pretty simple. For OS programming, as Dave said, go with C++. For standard programming, avoid VB like the plague, cos if you move to Linux and want to do programming, your gonna have to learn another Programming Language.