Programing software for beginner??

[BadBen]

Im completly new to programing. What im looking for is a program for a newbie that with some tutorials. I dont realy care about the price unlees its under 100$ US.

Thank You

[bdog]

Look into Python. It is free. It is a great language to learn on. www.python.org (http://www.python.org)

[psyklone]

python definitely gets my vote as well. the website has tutorials on it and also o'reilly (sp?) makes a good intro book for about $20.

[qball]

Can't speak about python, as this is the first I heard of the language. Seems to be some sort of multimedia enabled scripting language, but therein lies a problem.

Does is behoove you to learn programming on a language few know about?

I would recommend a few things. HTML, though not a true language, is fairly easy and all you need is a browser and text editor. Using a GUI tool like FrontPage or SaveAsHTML in Word defeats the purpose. Macros are where most people get started. Open up Word or Excel and write a macro to do something (sort a column, perform some calculations).

If you are truly serious, you need to go out and learn a procedural language. No way around this, as these are the fundamentals. Take a class in Fortran/Basic/C/C++. Or you can even go out and buy "Learn C++ in 21 Days".

If you are looking for the easy way (who isn't), you won't find one. It is like skateboarding. Looks easy once you're good, but it takes some work to get good. If you do the work and put in the time, you learn AND gain experience. If you don't, well....

A great exercise I still occasionally perform is what I call "My Lottery". I've done it so many times, in so many different ways. Anyway, the concept is to create a Lottery program/macro/whatever. The user enters in a three digit number (1-999). The system then generates random numbers until a match and tells the user how many guesses it had to make;

"It took me 678 guesses to match your input."

How this is accomplished is part of the fun. It will prove out quite a few things:
1) User input. You need to get the number(s) from the user. Can be done many different ways.
2) User input validation (verify the user entered in a proper number(S). No 'a12'.
3) You need to generate random numbers and compare to user input, whilst keeping count. This should be the most challenging for a beginner.
4) Need to output results, again many ways to do this.

This program is fairly simple but it shows user system IO, logical processing, and flow of events. Whether you do it in python or Excel (javascipt can do this, but straight HTML can't) or a DOS batch file, it is something you can apply to every language you learn.

[Oli]

Try Mastering VB 6, very nice. I started with that and now I make $100/h +
HEHEHE

[orkboss]

I think BASIC is agood place to start. Maybe even PASCAL.

HTML as rightly stated is not a true programming language but it is useful in for getting the concepts of programming.

If I could put my mind to it I would learn Visual Basic. It's a good cash earner.

[Brangwen]

Badben, try this link. You are provided a tutorial on teaching yourself C++ Programing in 21 Days. If you stick with it, you'll get a pretty cool taste for FREE.


http://www.itknowledge.com/reference/archive/0672310708/htm/ch01.htm

Good luck. Brangwen http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif

PS: There are places to find compilers on the Web for free as well. Email me if you have trouble finding one.


[This message has been edited by Brangwen (edited 08-29-2000).]

[crockett]

cool that will help me 2...anyone know any good places 2 learn Visual Basic at?

[Deke]

If you want to get into Windows Programming very quickly, I recomend Delphi, it's actually pascal object driven, powerful yet easy to use. I actually made a front-end program for playing Doom2 over a modem.

Please remember this hobby of programming will take many hours of fun learning.

Good Luck
Deke

[Gutter Ball]

I'll be starting VB 6 in about 4 days. A lot of the industry analysts here say that VB 6 and Java are the languages of the near future(2005). VB 6 is difficult from what I hear http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[spark]

I think it really depend on what is your purpose of learning the language. Methink Perl, Java, C++, Visual Basic, Visual C++ Java Script are all popular languages.

(Correct me if I am wrong http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

Perl is first develope for CGI script on the web and now developed into a kinda really powerful language. (How powerful? I don't know. I am planning to pick it up very soon.) There are thousands of job openings in the States for Perl programmer. For people familiar with Unix environment, a lot of stuff in Perl might be familiar.

Java and C++ are Object Oriented Programming language. They are kinda similar. And OOP is getting really popular these days. Personally, I think java is easier than C++.

Visual Basic and Visual C++ are better for people work in windows environment.

You can find different Java developing kit at: http://java.sun.com/j2se/
Tutorial at: http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/

O'reley has a couple of Java in a nutshell, Java example in a nutshell, I consider to be practical and helpful.

Another thing I encountered while learning a language is that there are so many languages out there that it's easy to lose focus. Methink it's better to stike to one language, understand it thoroughly and then continue with others.

Hope this helps http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif