Linux Format forums

Re: A Beginner to Programming: Where should I start

ElectraComplex — Tue Feb 21, 2006 10:33 pm

Author: ElectraComplex

Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 10:33 pm

comcamel wrote:

I am getting fairly comfortable with php, html etc. however i don't go into advanced stuff like functions, void's etc. Which i don't really have a clue on. I would like to get advice for a starting point such as visual basic or something like that, or a book i should et. As i will have to wait till alevel to get started, but i cannot be assed doing it then.

thanks Luke

as a newbie, i recommend that you stay well away from languages such as C and C++. they really are bad languages to start out on and will probably do more to confuse, discourage, and disillusion you than anything else.
you are best starting out on a easy to learn object oriented language such as python, or perhaps, java. python is a great language to start on for the following reasons:
-its easy to use
-it encourages good and clean object oriented programming
-its widely used
-its powerful and has lots of applications.

Re: A Beginner to Programming: Where should I start

jjmac — Mon Dec 26, 2005 10:29 pm

Author: jjmac

Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2005 10:29 pm

Howdy

comcamel wrote:
>>
I would like to get advice for a starting point such as visual basic or something like that, or a book i should et. As i will have to wait till alevel to get started, but i cannot be assed doing it then.
>>

I think you lost me there

The QuickBasic is a good idea and i do believe there is a Linux port. Where would be up to "google". QuickBasic may well be on one of your Windows OSes, if you have any of them lieing around. Bill provided it for free, but you would have to look over the install disc to find it. Really good to, basic has excellent string handling and math capabilities, except for "atan" (grin). But that can be worked around.

VB creates bad habits imo. It doesn't separate the assignment and equality logic in their symbols, ie, they use "=" for both . And the use a data type called a variant, which basically can become anything, depending on the context in which it's used. That caused me no end of trouble porting some VB stuff into Java once, heaps of errors that were sourced to rounding errors associated with floats and doubles as were used in the java translation.

Having some purpose will clinch it though. Some special interest to provide the inspiration. When ever a person finds themselves doing purposeless coding, it really is time for a looong rest (grin).

A really good on line down loadable html set i came across was by a bloke called Bruce Eckel, "Thinking in Java" and "Thinking in C++"

jm

Re: A Beginner to Programming: Where should I start

1slipperyfish — Mon Dec 26, 2005 11:37 am

Author: 1slipperyfish

Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2005 11:37 am

i think you'll find i am the compile-meister
paul

Re: A Beginner to Programming: Where should I start

M0PHP — Sun Dec 25, 2005 11:56 am

Author: M0PHP

Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2005 11:56 am

1slipperyfish wrote:

you mean that i'm not afraid to compile
paul

You couldn't compile your way from source code to binary if the entire API was tattoo'd on your retina!

Re: A Beginner to Programming: Where should I start

Ninthwave — Sun Dec 25, 2005 1:33 am

Author: Ninthwave

Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2005 1:33 am

Well yes it is rubbish isn't that the point

Re: A Beginner to Programming: Where should I start

RD — Sun Dec 25, 2005 12:06 am

Author: RD

Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2005 12:06 am

Ninthwave wrote:

No the devil is a Visual Studio coder through and through he loves VB but is a .net advocate now.

What rubbish.

Re: A Beginner to Programming: Where should I start

1slipperyfish — Sat Dec 24, 2005 1:24 pm

Author: 1slipperyfish

Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2005 1:24 pm

M0PHP wrote:

1slipperyfish wrote:

ps php is the devils own language

Utter rubbish. He doesn't know what he's on about - he's a java programmer anyway.

you mean that i'm not afraid to compile
paul

Re: A Beginner to Programming: Where should I start

Ninthwave — Sat Dec 24, 2005 1:38 am

Author: Ninthwave

Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2005 1:38 am

No the devil is a Visual Studio coder through and through he loves VB but is a .net advocate now.

Re: A Beginner to Programming: Where should I start

M0PHP — Fri Dec 23, 2005 8:11 pm

Author: M0PHP

Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2005 8:11 pm

1slipperyfish wrote:

ps php is the devils own language

Utter rubbish. He doesn't know what he's on about - he's a java programmer anyway.

Re: A Beginner to Programming: Where should I start

1slipperyfish — Fri Dec 23, 2005 7:27 pm

Author: 1slipperyfish

Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2005 7:27 pm

i found java to be quite a fun language with its animation and sound capabilities, after learning java i had a go at c# which is quite easy to learn although i found it not as powerful as java,i also had a go at C++ which is very powerful but i find a bit long winded as you have to free the memory once you have used it,where in java you have automatic garbage collection etc
paul

Re: A Beginner to Programming: Where should I start

Nigel — Fri Dec 23, 2005 9:47 am

Author: Nigel

Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2005 9:47 am

Some random thoughts...

It doesn't matter too much which language you start with. If you learn it properly, a good chunk of the knowledge is transferrable to other programming languages.
Each language has it's strengths and weaknesses which make it more suitable for some types of application and less suitable for others. Take a look around to see what is commonly used by others writing the sort of programs you want to write.
A good grounding in C will help you with most other modern programming languages.
Avoid Cobol unless you want to become a maintenance programmer for ancient payroll & stock control programs (which could be very lucrative, given the amount of these things still in use ) - it is very different from most other languages.
There was a series of 4 articles on Gambas in LXF recently which I thought was pretty good. Or go back a couple of years and dig out the Troutwars series that used C++ - that was great fun.

And I totally agree with Ninthwave - ignore other people's biases, try several languages & see which suits you best

Re: A Beginner to Programming: Where should I start

Ninthwave — Fri Dec 23, 2005 5:28 am

Author: Ninthwave

Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2005 5:28 am

I think if you work in IT or are spending alot of time with computers no matter what you do with them, get a safari.oreilly.com account. ANd get books on the work load you have or on the whims you have. Ebay for second hand books to get ideas on how the language works.

I strongly recommend Perl, Ruby, Python, C for starting. But programming isn't going to hold your interest until you do something with it, that list comes from what I had to do which was text processing and transformation - perl, an existing program I wanted to modify - ruby, a job requirement - python, I wanted more control than all these interpeters I was using - C. Perl got me more work done and I could do more with it especially after I learned threading and using the TK toolset, but then the TK toolset is their for other things, Ruby I am just really getting into and I am must admit I like it, it reminds of python without the spacing requirements and some hints of perl. I think Ruby might also be a good language to learn in, it really seems to be readable in english. A line of code reads back pretty much like what you get from it, though it is object heavy in todays programming world knowing objects is an ok thing.

Oh well that was a ramble I would go for an interpreter based language I am a big Perl fan, but Ruby looks good for the beginner so to speak. The great thing is you can just try them all, they are free as in speech and mostly free as in beer so if you really want to do it waste some time play with many ignore other people's biases and make some of your own.

Re: A Beginner to Programming: Where should I start

Lozzy — Wed Dec 21, 2005 11:25 pm

Author: Lozzy

Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 11:25 pm

Ask a million people this and you'll get a million different answers.

I was asking this around a irc.freenode.net channel, and someone hinted at me to try CLISP. I'd tried Java in the past, and found it bloated, and just not fun at all. I really enjoy CLISP, and would recommend it to anyone starting out. You can find an online printed version of a CLISP book at: http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/ which is really concise and useful. I program with emacs and the slime plugin, which is a great combo- I find most IDEs to be really irratating. This is simply a suggestion, but using the gigamonkeys book breaks you in quite slowly.

Re: A Beginner to Programming: Where should I start

CJLL — Wed Dec 21, 2005 8:35 pm

Author: CJLL

Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 8:35 pm

Huh functions advanced stuff .... rofl!

I think you really should start with something simple like QuickBasic

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0878357777/qid=1135197122/sr=8-9/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i9_xgl/203-6739830-4494317

Re: A Beginner to Programming: Where should I start

RD — Fri Dec 16, 2005 12:12 pm

Author: RD

Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 12:12 pm

Hmm like jjmac said look back over the forums (mainly the programming one) and you should see there is a few threads todo with this sort of thing. If your wanting a "VB" type language then i can only recomend two thats REALbasic or Gambas

Hope this helps