Basic Comptuer programming

jow26ny

Solid State Member
Messages
8
I have never used comptuer programming before and never opened a book up about it. I would love to learn about it and want to start at a basic level and learn things. Please direct me the best route. Im looking to learn.
 
The easiest and the cheapest way to learn a program is to first know what language you want to learn. When you figure that out find a compiler to compile your programs. What I use for c++ is visual studio. VS also can be used for other programs. Then once that is done go to the library and borrow a book if you like the book than you can always go and buy them. Around me the cheapest good programming book runs for about 50 USD. Hope this helps
 
I recommend you look for a Visual Basic book. VB is probably one of the easiest languages to get into programming. You could also take a look at some online tutorials. I second option would be to learn Python.
 
My teacher said its best to not use Visual Basic as the first because its too user friendly. Which is easy to use.
I know its better to start with the easy ones first, but i dont think its best to use one where its like baby feeding you. Might end up getting lost later when trying out other languages.
 
I agree with Teny. It depends on your ultimate goal. If you want to write good solid code, and be flexible (able to switch from language to language to suit the requirements of your job), you should not start with visual basic. Java is a pain to many developers because it is so strongly-typed (strict rules). It forces you to become better however. I learned on java, and through my understanding of java, I learned many other languages easily (VB.NET, c++,C#,php,Ruby,Perl,etc...)

The type of code you will be writing in the beginning will be about the same anyways, some just looks scarier! :)

for example:
In vb, to accept input from a user and print it out to the console window:
Code:
Module Module1
  
  Public Sub Main()
     Console.WriteLine("Please enter your name")
     Dim userName As String = Console.ReadLine()
     Console.WriteLine("Your name is: " & userName)
  End Sub
End Module
The same code in Java looks like this:
Code:
import java.util.Scanner;

public class myClass {
  
     public static void main(String args[]) {
          Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
          String userName = "";
          System.out.printf("%s\n\t","Please enter your name.");
          userName = input.next();
          System.out.printf("%s\n","Your name is: " + userName + ".");
  }
}

*EDIT: PS: (Insert shameless plug here->) http://www.computerforums.org is a great place to learn programming if you come with a specific problem you are trying to solve.
 
I would agree with Daeva, starting with something like Basic, Visual Basic, ect... is not good for programing etiquette... But jow, Shell scripting or even batch filing, is a great way to start... it really can ease you into the transition of never programming to learning how to manually control a computer... From there it becomes much easier to understand programing... But isn't completely relaxed like VB... That is where I started, I too know a lot of languages (C/C++, Php, MySQL, VB, Perl, Python, Basic, Ruby, and learning Assembly).
 
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