Replying to Where To Start Learning Programming

I would honestly have to say that IMO Python is a language you should start with, it is very simple and covers the roots of everything you should learn starting off. For references of tutorials, there are some on Wikibooks that you can try.

-reply by Helping

Pls , kindly help me I have opportunity of working in software company without having basic knowledge of it . Pls what should I do to become a programmer

-reply by zeun

Here is an interesting link to somebody who is a skilled programmer, but wanted to decide for himself which language is most useful in general applications. He has done the best job I have seen comparing C++, Java, Python and Ruby.

He has chosen a relatively sophisticated computer-science problem, implementing a red-black tree for for maintaining a collection of data elements. He has coded it in all four languages, and constructed a very elegant HTML frame page in which you can compare any two of the languages side-by-side. As a result, you can just look at the different language constructions and get a sense of how the language is written, and what is needed to solve challenging problems.

If you are interested in trying them out, he even has the code in a zip file, so you can download it and work with it yourself. His conclusions are presented at the first link. Basically, when a programmer has chosen the relative importance of execution speed, portability, program clarity and ease of debugging, the programmer has probably chosen a language. Take a look!

i want to know more about where to start - eg. what language is best for what i want
Where To Start Learning Programming

<a href=http://www.astahost.com/index.php?showtopic=8630&view=findpost&p=56904>Replying to Tamer78Aly</a>
Well I truly want to know where to start without later regreting that I started at the wrong place
Please advise me as I have this idea and want to put it into a program
Please let me know
My idea is a very intricate system to solve the problems of many issue in my work - printing is my line and I have a idea which I would like to put into a program
Please mail me back

Thank you
Craig van der Klashorst
South Africa
-craig

I also have to ask you guys, "Where can I learn a programming language?"

After thinking about WHY: As a hobby at first and grow up into a freelance or a programmer for some company. I take a great amount of interest in computers and I have to say programming is very vital in this computer world.

But first, I have to know where I can learn some stuff. Hmm... the problem is I don't know what language to start out with. I finally decided on HTML to get the hang of what everything is - but I also do not know how to "learn" HTML. Teachers told me that it's a self-learning language through the trial and error method / use of Frontpage codes.

It was very intimidating because I had no idea what these codes stood for, except for some. For example, <br> means break (return). <b> is bold, <i> is italics, and that's it. Hahaha!!

I just got started learning to code myself. I went to a site called HTML Goodies and it can teach you about HTML, Perl, ASP, Javascript, Mysql and some others too I think. I've found it very helpful. I've wanted to learn coding for fun, for a game I've wanted to make. But someday maybe I'd like to do it for a career, who knows.

I understand Visual Basic is pretty useful for writing Windows viruses... and not much else.

Actually thats not the case,
Visual Basic is completely useless when it comes to coding anything subtle, worms or viruses or anything that needs to be well crafted.
The main reason for this is: MSVBVM60.DLL..
i mean really, "i am sorry i cant start the virus, please install msvbvm60.dll so i can take over you computer, thanks in advance, the friendly virus."


VB is only useful for quick and dirty (notice DIRTY) gui aplications for windows.
thouse quick applications that it would be a drag to code in pure win32api because the main part of them is the interface and not the code.

Like said before, the question is, what do you wanna do with it?

Option one, GAME PROGRAMMING

Try GameMaker, it's a great program with a very nice language: GML. The syntax of GML is pretty much equal to C++ so it's easy to change if you want to become a more expierenced programmer. You can download GM at www.gamemaker.nl and there's a very good forum at forums.gamemaker.nl.

The second option, WINDOWS APPLICATIONS

I personaly should try Visual Basic or C# since they're designed by Microsoft and you can make sweet applications with them. C++ is also an option.

-=jeroen=-

I understand Visual Basic is pretty useful for writing Windows viruses... and not much else.

Just wanted to add something...
it'll be really short:
"Never start learning programing from VB..."
and if u can, stay away from vb for good...

Hai every one
i googled upon some good article on why you need to learn c
i am posting it here i got it from www.cprogramming.comwww.cprogramming.com

Why Learn C?
---------------
There are an awful lot of programming languages available right now -- everything from the extremely high level (such as Visual Basic) to the low level power of assembly, and a good variety of specialized options in between (Perl, Ruby, and Python are good choices for many tasks). Java has also become quite the hot programming language for some tasks, in part because of its large API and in part because the virtual machine provides some elements of security. (Garbage collection is another nice feature and can make programmers much more efficient.)

Nevertheless, there are some good reasons to learn to program in C. First, age has its advantages: C has been around for 30 years, and there is a ton of source code available. This means there's a lot to learn from, and a lot to use. Moreover, many of the issues with the language have been clearly elucidated -- it's well understood, and you can find a lot of tutorials available. Plus, with C, you get lots of strong opinions mixed with insights that you can understand.

As a result of its age and its use as the language of system programming for Unix, C has become something of the lingua franca of programming. C is a great language for expressing common ideas in programming in a way that most people are comfortable with. Moreover, a lot of the principles used in C -- for instance, argc and argv for command line parameters, as well as loop constructs and variable types -- will show up in a lot of other languages you learn so you'll be able to talk to people even if they don't know C in a way that's common to both of you.

Third, C is reasonably close to the machine. When you're working with pointers, bytes, and individual bits, things like optimization techniques start to make a lot more sense. There's also utility in knowing exactly how something works underneath the hood -- this helps a great deal when something you're trying to do in a higher level language seems way slower than expected, or just doesn't work at all. You also tend to get a better picture of advanced topics like exactly how networking works. A higher level language will make it a little bit simpler, but it'll be harder to understand what's going on, and when things stop working, it's much better to know exactly what's going on so you can fix it. Additionally, if you like computer science as a discipline, or just like knowing how things work learning the details of the system is great fun.

In fact, a lot of fun programming is done in C -- for instance, system software and data managers such as Berkeley DB. If you want to be able to do more than write a simple web app, C is a great language. If you want to write a great, fast game, C is again a great choice. You can write an entire OS in C. It'll be much harder to do so in Java, and nearly impossible in a scripting language. And the language, being succinct as C is, will probably make your fun program more elegant looking to boot.