Questions for expirienced programmers

[CaptainHighpants]

I'm 17, and I have A LOT of time on my hands. I'm pretty fluent in web based languages (html, php, CSS), but I'm confused when it comes to things outside that realm...

Where should I begin if I want to make different types of programs like the ones I see in this forum. What should I learn? C++, Visual Basics, Python? I'm overwhelmed because I don't know where I should begin and I get mixed answers.

I know some of the basics of C++, but that language is daunting to learn.....

So what do experienced programmers recommend I learn? I have a lot of ideas for programs, but can't express them through lack of knowledge =/


Thanks guys!

[mar77a]

Python is a good language to start with but I suggest learning C++ eventually since it's \the\ language to know (and once you know it, most high level languages are a piece of cake).

On the other hand, once you know a handful of languages, I like the philosophy of "the best language for the task" instead of "my favourite language to rule them all"...

EDIT: And yeah, first decide what you want to code, then decide the language and code it. Learning a language without coding real programs is usually boring and you don't get the idea of "real world" programming.

[FliesLikeABrick]

I agree with mar77a on python and c++

[DorkeyDear]

imo, i learned pascal as my first real programing language (well, scripting language for soldat server) (excluding things like TI's calculator language ) and that came in handy when starting to work w/ php; php then came in handy when I started working with C++

so basically, sense u already can do php stuff, try C++ or C

[jrgp]

Don't learn Visual Basic. It's a dead obsolete language that's almost never used ever. Only knowing php won't help you that much since it can only work with dynamic websites and doesn't encourage good programming habits. I agree with what FLAB and Mar said.

Taking a glance at pascal before you look at python or c++ would probably be helpful. It's extremely simple and was pretty much created for the purpose of teaching good programming habits. Looking at some of Soldat's Server Scripts would be a great place to get a feel for what pascal is like. Pascal isn't very useful in the real world, however. While learning it will teach you useful things, it's barely used at all right now.

[iDante]

Learn Java. Because of the constraints put on compilers (they MUST throw exceptions every which way and that) it teaches very good programming habits. It is advanced enough to be useful today, object-oriented, powerful, etc.
Its syntax is very similar to c++ (I just got a book called c++ for java programmers... reading it now). c++ however, has many complicated things that you need to look after. For instance, java automatically manages all of your memory, whereas c++ can dynamically allocate space for objects and then just leave them there if the programmer isn't careful. Java has a handy feature called the 'garbage collector' that cleans that up for you. You have to learn pointers for c++, as well as many other things.
Plus the API is freaking enormous (http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/).

[urraka]

You have a lot of time, learn c++.

[ramirez]

What you should learn first depends on what you want to do. Python is very good general purpose language to learn. If you want something more low-level if you're interested in coding games or other such applications, C/C++ is a good choice. If you think that C/C++ is too much for you now, but you still want to learn something similar, C# or JAVA are good choices (both are excellent languages to learn about language theory, as they both enforce good coding habits in many aspects). If you want to build your general Windows GUI apps, I suggest going for C# or Delphi. Remember that it's much more easy to pick up a new language after you learn one or two. As long as you're willing to devote time to whatever language you choose, and learn the theory behind the language, picking up other languages will be easy.

[CaptainHighpants]

Thanks for the responses! Is it wise to just start on c++, i heard if you do that it's easy to get bad habits that's hard to undo and ultimately without classes you won't get very far.

Is this true? Or can I actually get somewhere if I get books on it?

[mar77a]

"The C++ programming language" by Bjarne StrToUpper is the only book I have and I definitely recommend it.

[iDante]

Is this true? Or can I actually get somewhere if I get books on it?

IMO a book can be good for just starting out, as a reference, etc, but I would reccomend you try to learn c++ syntax and basic concepts on your own, then get a more advanced book (effective c++ third edition is a good one) that teaches the more complex stuff and how to use that.

"The C++ programming language" by Bjarne StrToUpper is the only book I have and I definitely recommend it.

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