Author Topic: Learning programming-where to start  (Read 3657 times)

dmcfarland

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Learning programming-where to start
« on: 25 November 2005, 21:16 »
Happy thanksgiving all. I want to learn how to program. I dont know a thing. Ive only had experience with modifying batch, config.sys, ini and some registry keys. Other than that I dont know a thing about programming or writing code. I am primarily a hardware guy, a little networking, software and ms software, and so on.

Where do I get started? How do I crawl first so I can walk and later on run. What do I start out with? Is it something like HTML, or perl?

Whats the best course for a programming newbie thats pretty much starting from scratch?

Thanks :thumbup:
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TheQuirk

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Re: Learning programming-where to start
« Reply #1 on: 25 November 2005, 21:51 »
Anything you want, really. Just buy a book from your local book store and start going through it. Once you're done, start working on more interesting things.

Personally, I would recommend Python. It's free and popular, and the website has a guide which will teach you all the basics.

H_TeXMeX_H

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Re: Learning programming-where to start
« Reply #2 on: 25 November 2005, 21:57 »
Yup, python is probably the best language to start with ... and they have tutorials for non-programmers :thumbup:

worker201

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Re: Learning programming-where to start
« Reply #3 on: 25 November 2005, 23:23 »
ESR also recommends Python, but as a second language.  First is HTML - if you can't make a web page using vi, then you aren't ready to program.  Personally, I kinda like JavaScript, because it is so useful, and it is an interpreted language, so you can just open your browser to test your programs.

dmcfarland

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Re: Learning programming-where to start
« Reply #4 on: 25 November 2005, 23:45 »
Isnt htlm a markup langauge? I hate VI. I would rather use emacs or write it up in Open Office, save as text and insert the html tags afterwords.

HTML is a lot of memorization.
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cymon

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Re: Learning programming-where to start
« Reply #5 on: 25 November 2005, 23:48 »
Everything is a lot of memorization. You can't just open up gcc and type whatever the hell you want. You memorize the functions, objects, and you learn how to use them.

You can get some free programming ebooks on Java and C++ from mindview.net

solemnwarning

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Re: Learning programming-where to start
« Reply #6 on: 26 November 2005, 00:04 »
Code: [Select]
#!/usr/bin/perl

print("Perl pwns all non-compiled languages! :D\n");
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
 Version: 3.1
 GCS/CM d- s+:+ a--- C++ UL++++>$ P+ L+++ !E W++ !N !o !K-- w !O !M !V PS+ PE- !Y !PGP !t !5 !X !R tv b+ DI+ !D G e- h !r y-
 ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

Pathos

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Re: Learning programming-where to start
« Reply #7 on: 26 November 2005, 01:13 »
There is only one programming language: C++

Don't bother with HTML, thats not a imperative.

beaver, kate, kedit, gedit are all reasonable code editors.

get MinGWStudio once the bandwidth exceeded error goes away, its the most beautiful IDE ever.

http://www.parinyasoft.com/mingwstudio.html

There are plenty of free C++ resources but there are a lot of tricks to learn.

muzzy

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Re: Learning programming-where to start
« Reply #8 on: 26 November 2005, 02:53 »
The government of Muzzylandia cannot recommend C++ to a complete newbie. It has way too many newbie traps and problems, and its abstractions tend to leak to machine level in every implementation of it so you need to understand a lot more than just the programming language when your program doesn't work and you need to fix it.

Python is fine, even though I find the indentation issue to be unholy.

solemnwarning

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Re: Learning programming-where to start
« Reply #9 on: 26 November 2005, 02:54 »
Quote from: muzzy
The government of Muzzylandia cannot recommend C++ to a complete newbie. It has way too many newbie traps and problems, and its abstractions tend to leak to machine level in every implementation of it so you need to understand a lot more than just the programming language when your program doesn't work and you need to fix it.

Python is fine, even though I find the indentation issue to be unholy.


perl :P
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
 Version: 3.1
 GCS/CM d- s+:+ a--- C++ UL++++>$ P+ L+++ !E W++ !N !o !K-- w !O !M !V PS+ PE- !Y !PGP !t !5 !X !R tv b+ DI+ !D G e- h !r y-
 ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

Pathos

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Re: Learning programming-where to start
« Reply #10 on: 26 November 2005, 14:14 »
Quote from: muzzy
The government of Muzzylandia cannot recommend C++ to a complete newbie. It has way too many newbie traps and problems, and its abstractions tend to leak to machine level in every implementation of it so you need to understand a lot more than just the programming language when your program doesn't work and you need to fix it.

Python is fine, even though I find the indentation issue to be unholy.


only one way to learn... :P

but actually I think java is the best to learn with. I just can't recommend any IDEs worth using...

Aloone_Jonez

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Re: Learning programming-where to start
« Reply #11 on: 26 November 2005, 14:52 »
Visual Basic and Qbasic's are good newb languages.

Oh sorry they're M$ so I must recommend FreeBASIC.
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Orethrius

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Re: Learning programming-where to start
« Reply #12 on: 27 November 2005, 04:09 »
Quote from: Aloone_Jonez
Visual Basic and Qbasic's are good newb languages.

Oh sorry they're M$ so I must recommend FreeBASIC.
It would seem you're not quite as convicted as your signature belies.

Visual Basic has horrendous loadtimes, and Q is all but gone - find an interpreter. Go ahead, we'll wait. Now for the rest of us that want to get with a REAL programming language instead of a "slap-together-a-script-kiddy-device-in-under-a-minute" language, head on over to pick up MinGW, GCC (you'll need Cygwin if you expect this particular GNU compiler to compile on a non-GNU system), or Bloodshed Dev-C++.

Oh, and Jonez, it seems you linked to the wrong site; FreeBASIC may be found at http://www.freebasic.net/index.php/download.

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Jack2000

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Re: Learning programming-where to start
« Reply #13 on: 27 November 2005, 04:55 »
"slap-together-a-script-kiddy-device-in-under-a-minute"
muhuahah that is the whole Microsoft ideology

Pathos

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Re: Learning programming-where to start
« Reply #14 on: 27 November 2005, 06:05 »
I LOATHE BLOOSHED DEV-C++

it is the most awful ide...

Hang on... why are you suggesting windows only ides?