How long does learning programming language take?

[DaWhim]

I have never learned programming, but want to start self-learning. which one should I start first? C++?

 

[JDrake]

21 days

 

[Heisenberg]

I'd start with just plain C. It really shouldn't take that long to get the basic stuff down if you've got a fairly logical mind.

 

[stan394]

GW Basic FTW

 

[mundane]

Python

 

[tweakmm]

It really depends on the person, to some it just comes nautrally and some people are never going to get it.

It's been years since I've even looked at a compiler, but I want to say that I remember hearing that Python is the best language to learn on. Plus, it's a lot easier to make mini script programs to do tasks on ones computer.
I've actually been meaning to pick up Python again so I can automate some of my day trading.

 

[maddogchen]

many years, you'll keep learning new things if you use it for work.

 

[DaWhim]

Originally posted by: maddogchen
many years, you'll keep learning new things if you use it for work.

how about just pick up the basic stuffs? darn, I should've learned it long ago.

 

[maddogchen]

Originally posted by: DaWhim

Originally posted by: maddogchen
many years, you'll keep learning new things if you use it for work.

how about just pick up the basic stuffs? darn, I should've learned it long ago.

A community college class takes 3 months, you could learn it faster, the best way to learn is going through projects and getting experience in what things do.

 

[BurnItDwn]

C, Fortran, Pascal, and/or Basic would all be "self learnable" via book if you have strong logical thinking.
C is of course the only truly "usefull" language of the one's I've mentioned. But once you know one you can learn the others a lot easier.

I took a Pascal course in High School (1997) then a Fortran and a C class in college (2000.) The Fortran and C classes were much easier then my High school Pascal class. (though the HS class was AP, and it was worth 2 symesters of college credit.)

 

[notfred]

If you try to teach yourself to program ,there's a good chance you'll end up as a crappy programmer, not because you don't understand the language, but because you don't understand the general concepts of programming.

For instance, if you teach yourself to program, and you find you have to sort data, you'll probably end up writing bubblesort, since that's the simplest sorting algorithm to think of. You're not too likely to think of quicksort, because it's not intuitive at all, but it's a ton faster than bubblesort.

Similarly, you're not too likely to teach yourself recursion very well, nor are some of the more advanced object-oriented concepts going to come easily to you. These are all useful things that, if you try and teach yourself to program, you're likely to end up not using, you'll have working code, but it'll be slow, innefficient, and messy, because no one ever showed you the right way to do things.

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: diegoalcatraz
Python

 

[Cooler]

C/C++ is way to go java might be easyer for people just starting out but they lack pointers and other important aspects of programming. Also you never fully learn any programing lang as the stanards change every few years as well as new API from windows. I have been a programmer for 7 years and i still learn new stuff


//C
int main(){
printf("hello world");
system("PAUSE");
return 0;
}

//C++
int main(){

cout<<"Hello World";
system("PAUSE");
return 0;
}
//java

public class testing{

public static void main(String [] args){
System.out.println("hello world");
}

}