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I want to learn programming...where to start?

For common use and functionality I would say java. I don't know java, but i have seen it used and it is very friendly to mistakes. Fortran is not as common these days but it is an easy language to learn. But dont trust me alone, i suck at programming.
 
a) Get a book. I'd start off with a regular C++ book to learn the basics, then get a visual C++ or an MFC (microsoft foundation classes) book to learn about making Windows programs.

b) Looking at and messing with code that others have made is a good way to learn by example. soruceforge is a pretty good place, but their download server is slow as hell.

 
Would C++ be easy for the extreme newbie who has never programmed anything before. Or would Visual Basic be better? List pros and cons please, if you can. Thanks!
 
dcpsoguy: it's really tough to say, but I think it's possible to learn c++ without knowing basic/visual basic. Visual Basic can be learned by almost anyone, but the more advanced things you can do with VB also require knowledge from a book.

If you're unsure, I'd suggest downloading a free compiler (I'm busy right now, but I'll post a link to one later) and reading some online tutorials to do a few simple c++ programs. If it's not too rough, then I'd recommend completely skipping VB and continue doing C++.
 
Bruce Eckel's books rule. Period.

I started programming with GW-BASIC, but that was stone age then 🙂

Most probably, especially if you are a younger kid, you want to see results of your work too quickly and do something "cool". For that I'd reccommend PHP, as you can then make "cool" web pages with relatively small effort.

Whn you are ready to move on, I'd suggest Java and C++. Java is platform-neutral and has a lot of enterprise API's, so in large corporations knowledge of Java is a real plus.
With C++ you have to be very broad-minded. One way would be to learn only with MS tools (Visual C++. MFC etc) but that means crippling your C++ skills. So be careful, and start off writing console applications - they might not look good, but they teach you C++ very well without thinking about the user interface.

Just my $0.02
 
i recommend perl. its not too difficult to learn and you can write cgi scripts. its a good way to learn with a language thats not too difficult and you get to see the fruits of your labor.
 
I'm a little out of touch, but here are some points:

1) Do not learn Basic as your first language. It sucks and will teach you bad habits.

2) Learn a good structered language(Basic is *not*). In my day, Pascal was the first language of choice, today would be something else though.

3) Learn to code first, then after learn Visual(whatever). The Visual languages are really easy to pickup once you know how to hand code that particular language, it's not quite so easy doing it the other way around though.

4) There are a number of good books on the subject, I think the &quot;Learn <language> in xx days&quot; are pretty good. Check them out.
 
I agree with starting out with C++... it is harder to learn at first, but makes learning other languages later in your life A LOT easily... since C++ is an object-oriented language (which is quite important nowadays), it will be much easier for you to learn other O-O languages in the future since you will already know all the concepts... While if you learn VB first and C++ later, it will be much harder...

I recommend picking up a book and learn the basics... if the book has examples do them... You can't learn programming by reading, have to learn by solving problems and actually writting code...

Good Luck! I learned C++ first, and then learned C and Java in no time... Well, those languages are all based on the same origin, so that made things even more easy... but trust me, learning a O-O language first, then maybe learn non O-O ones later will be much easier than the other way around...
 
BCYL is guiding you right -- starting with something that will give you a solid OO foundation. Once you've got that down, and you're thinking in terms of objects, everything else will be easier.
 
If you wanna learn C++, I'd say to start of learning C, then move on to the more object-oriented C++ (By the way, a new version of it, &quot;C#&quot;, sounds pretty interesting!).

Yes, Visual Basic can be learned very easily, at least the basic stuff. It can get very confusing after that if you don't take advanced classes or reference many books. However, I'd say learn C/C++ first, then do something like Visual Basic so you'll really understand what is going on in the background. You can also get into some of the older procedural-languages that have strong foundations, like COBOL.

FYI: I've interviewed with many &quot;large&quot; corportations that look down on Java, and commonly refer to it as the &quot;craze&quot; that went nowhere. I did C++ and not Java, so I really couldn't personally tell you what's better, but Java is highly requested in the web field.😉
 
You don't have to be a math whiz for any of this stuff, unless you specifically want to program things with lots of complicated math in them (e.g. 3-d rendering). Programming languages are just tools. What you choose to do with them is up to you.
 
try your local votech
even if they dont have classes on the schedule ask to speak with thier computer guy
at my school they waited untill enough people asked then offered c++ untill then they had a waiting list and even though it was not listed asking for it put me on the list and now there is a class
 
I was learning C++ with Sam's Teach Yourself in 21 days. It was quite easy but at around day 8 I got bored. It just wasn't fun but I really should be learning something while I spend time on the computer rather than sitting on these forums or playing games!
 
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