Programming n00b

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saffakanera

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Hi guys, what would be the easiest, most simple platform to approach programming as a whole from? I only had maths up to St. 8, so im pretty clueless in that department.

Any reading materials, platforms, languages you recommend?


Thank in advance!
 
what do you want to do?
web development or windows programming or linux programing?

i enjoy java it runs on everything, from your phone to linux to windows
http://www.pixel2life.com/ is a good place to start off
http://www.pixel2life.com/tutorials/java_development/

this looks like a good one
http://swivvet.com/-java-beginner-the-basics-of-java-programming-t7.html

also if you are looking for a IDE(the program you use to code and compile the stuff)
then I advise NetBeans, its the best IDE out there IMO
check out ther website
http://www.netbeans.org/
 
Thanks guys, yea just something to grasp the programming fundamentals, im not a very smart person, but im sure if I give it a shot i should be able to do SOMETHING heh :)
 
Give PHP a go. Its cross platform, easy to install with XAMP under Windows and you can get cheap / free web hosting companies.

But my real advice will be that you learn SQL. I hear to many wanna be'es say not interested any thats a big mistake. Your dev language can and will change, but your underlining SQL will be there. Give SQLite a try or MySQL, and even though Access is not a true db you could play with that.
 
What about something like Delphi or Visual Basic? Both very easy languages and could be a good starting block to grasping the concept
 
x86 assembler... :P

*ducks*

I reckon Java or Python (my usual suggestions for first-timers), mainly because it's quick to get up and running
 
The Open Source loon inside of me says Java: Trail: Learning the Java Language

I also enjoy the .net/mono framework a lot and seeing I have a Delphi background I liked the way Anders Hejlsberg designed C#: Learn Visual C#

To be honest if you understand how to program and know different design patterns and methods you will be able to pick up any language easily.

My advice to you would be to think of a project/program you want to design and then chose your language to implement it in. The best way to learn is to have a goal.

If you share your idea I'm sure we will help you to select the best programming language for the job.(We might even have a big flamefest about it :D)

Regards,
 
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I second (or third?) all C#/.NET Framework recommendations made here. The intellisense in Visual Studio makes learning programming a breeze and there are many helpful tutorials available on CodeProject for newbies. It's also VERY easy to get running under Windows - just install Visual Studio (or Visual C# Express, because it's free), code your project and press F5 to get it compiled and running. Quick and easy.
 
VB.net as a language, and use Visual Studio. Its one of the easier languages, but extremely powerful. You can write full on 3d games with vb these days and .net has some powerful network/internet functionality. and if you like, after that you can move onto C# too, they are quite similar.. .Net is nice that way

There are free ebooks everywhere, and alot of source code out there.
The most important tool for a programmer is google.
 
hoegh said:
I reckon visual basic is a good starting block. anyone here used pascal? :D
Click to expand...

If you used Delphi you used Object Pascal. But yes I started on pascal and assembler(To do all the fancy X Mode graphics).

Ps. I'm seeing some people are recommending Visual Basic. I don't think there is anything wrong with the language but I would rather go for C# if you want to go the .net route. Because Microsoft left all the old VB users in the dirt: Visual Basic .NET Criticism

Regards,
 
d-_-b said:
If you used Delphi you used Object Pascal. But yes I started on pascal and assembler(To do all the fancy X Mode graphics).
Click to expand...

I can't really much from those days, but I do remember learning the graphics stuff in Matric.

As the saying goes, you can learn almost any prog language, the concepts are essentially all the same and it's those concepts that you need to have a grasp of. When you move into advanced stuff then you find each language has it's own advantages and disadvantages.

BTW, maths is not a huge pre-requiste for programming but you do need some basic understanding of variables. The main thing is an ability to problem solve which has an element of natural talent involved.
 
d-_-b said:
If you used Delphi you used Object Pascal. But yes I started on pascal and assembler(To do all the fancy X Mode graphics).

Ps. I'm seeing some people are recommending Visual Basic. I don't think there is anything wrong with the language but I would rather go for C# if you want to go the .net route. Because Microsoft left all the old VB users in the dirt: Visual Basic .NET Criticism

Regards,
Click to expand...

I wouldn't worry too much about the criticisms. It was based mainly on companies who had invested in VB6 and had hoped for a backward compatible upgrade, and not getting that meant they couldn't simply convert/upgrade their existing code, which meant alot of manual intervention, often more difficult than simply rewiting progs from scratch. But I think that solution would have meant that vb.net would probably suck for many of the same reasons vb6 did. VB.net is much better, and its future is more secure with the .net framework IMO. Alot of criticism also came in about how much the language had changed, and that knowing vb6 didn't really help you with learning vb.net. But after about 2 days into it, I was already happier using vb.net. If you knew OO theory, then that helped alot with the transition. Alot of vb6 users were people who were not willing to implement OO, and VB.net kind of forced them into it, which I believe is a good thing.
 
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Even though I am a Java prophet, I would if you have never done any programming start with something easy like VB.

After that you can start to get up to speed with the more complex cocepts like Object Orientation etc.

I saw someone posting about SQL. It's never a bad idea to have a solid understanding of SQL and how to build queries.
 
If you want a nice easy yet quite powerful language to get started on why not look at RealBasic. It's cross-platform too - the same project can compile for Win, Mac and Linux. The basic version for Linux is free too. It is an awful lot easier to get into than any of the MS languages.
 
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