Starting out Programming

What would be a good programming language to start out with?? I only know HTML right now...i wanna know some stuff before i start taking Intro To Programming next year in High Skool.

I also started with HTML and moved on to XML and VB script and Java and on�

If you want to go into web development from HTML I will say to XML almost like HTML
Then VB script then java script and DHTML some SQL and PHP.

If you want to go into Programming start at Visual Basic 6 or Visual Basic.NET then Asp and to Java and C++ or C carp, Delphi And .NET.




[Edited on 20-5-2004 by vaswegpg]

Depends what sort of programming you want to do.
My advice would be to learn a clean syntax language like Python first. This will teach you good aspects of modern programming including Object Oriented Programming.
After that, maybe learn Java - though as you will still be new to programming, it may be a steap learning curve - so stick at it.

Then go onto C or C++ (I would say learn C before you learn C++). After learning those, you should have very good programming knowledge - then you can go on to learn any language you want. C# is a very good language, and is very easy to learn after Java and C++.

For Web Development, I wouldn't say learn XML, not yet anyway - learn one of the above languages first - XML is *not* a programming language, it doesn't do anything - so you need to use a programming language to do anything usefull with it.

Web Development, (I am guessing you have already done CSS), go onto JavaScript and then PHP. Then again, once you learn those - learn what you want, as you will have the skills to learn any language you want quickly.

For a good overall programming knowledge, try and learn several different programming languages - an example would be: Perl, Python, Lisp, C/C++, Java and Visual Basic. That is a good range.

Please remember, programming is a complex skill - sure, you can learn to program from a book like XXX in 24 hours, but most of the time - you won't learn anything, only how to copy others. Programming requires dedication - it normally takes someone between 1 year, and 18 months to gain a true programming skill.

Anyway, hope my advice has been helpfull.

For High school, I�m not familiar with what you do aver there bit here we do java and C I�m not in school anymore but that the word�

MetalHead it rite lots of dedication so good luck man�

And you can always start night classes somewhere to boost you�re programming that will help the sooner you start the better


[Edited on 20-5-2004 by vaswegpg]

The best way to learn programming is to do it. Don't waste your money on night classes, they won't help. Pick up a few books on some of the languages mentioned, and start coding away.

I just feel the best way to learn to program, is to teach yourself. Even though books aren't exactly 'teaching yourself' all the way, books help with the technical details about the language.

Thanks...a few people on other boards gave me the same advice on where to start...and im 14, so i couldnt afford night classes anyways. Ill prolly get a book and teach myself like i have about everything else about a computer. But this will be the first book on computers id ever gotten....

Edit...know any good Java/Perl/Python/C/C++ or VB books??

[Edited on 20-5-2004 by dreamlandmafia]

Some of the best books out there are the "Teach Yourself" series by SAMS publishing. Titles like"Teach yourself C++ in 30 Days". If you buy any of these books keep in mind that the the longer the date range in the titile, the more indepth the book goes. So "Teach Youself XXX in 10 Days" isn't as good of a coverage on the subject as "Teach Yourself XXX in 30 Days." The O'Reilly Publishing series is pretty good too, but I think for starting out you'll find the SAMS series easier to work with. The Sams series also has a skill level description on the back to let you know if you're getting a book in the proper level.

These books won't make you a genius overnight, but they are a good place to start. You'll find exercises in the books that walk you through everything you need to complete a certain task. As others have posted here, the main thing is actually sitting down and programming. Trying out what you have done, and making changes.

What language should you learn? If you want to have fun right away, learn Visual Basic. It takes care of a lot of stuff for you. HTML is pretty straightforward as well. If you want to learn a really powerful language, there is no substitue for C/C++. This is what the actual Windows operating system is coded with.

One of my favorites is "Practical C++ Programming" by O'Reilly Publishing. It has a picture of a chipmunk on the front. Actually all of the O'Reilly Publishing books have some sort of animal on the front cover. All good books.

Good Luck

Sorry dbates, but I would not recommend Sams Teach Yourself books.
I am only 16 years old dreamlandmafia.

Some good books are as follows:

C:

"The C Programming Language"

C++:

"C++ Primer Plus"

Python:

"Python In A Nutshell"
"Python Essential Reference"
"Python Programming On Win32" - Aimed at Windows programmers, other Python books aim at Unix.

Perl:

"Programming Perl"
"Advanced Perl Programming"

Java:

"Java In A Nutshell"

XML:

"XML In A Nutshell"

JavaScript:

"Beginning JavaScript" - May be out of print now
"JavaScript: The Definate Guide"

PHP:

"Beginning PHP" - May be out of print now
"PHP and MySQL Web Development"

Visual Basic:

"Pure Visual Basic"

Sorry for the long list. I have all these books (and loads more of the same subjects), and I can easily recommend these.
On top of that, I can recommend almost every O'Reilly book.

Come on! There's nothing wrong with those books. Well, that's just my opinion anyways. I have at least 3 of them. The ones that i have seen are fairly well written. It's really a matter of preference. One thing you might try is searching for the book title on Amazon.com and see what kind of reviews it gets.

Originally posted by dreamlandmafia
i wanna know some stuff before i start taking Intro To Programming next year in High Skool.

Speaking of high skool. I remember taking a class back then that used Basic.

10 PRINT "I used to have to use this really crappy language"
20 PRINT "to make programs. Actaully you could do a few cool things "
30 PRINT "but when you tried to add stuff in later you would run out of "
40 PRINT "room between numbers."
50 END

[Edited on 25-5-2004 by dbates]

I must of been unlucky and read the bad Sams titles, lol.
I have a number of books published by Sams, not the Teach Yourself series.

What I felt with the Teach Yourself series, was that they didn't really teach you the art of programming, just how to copy and paste. But then I guess, no books can teach the art of programming, so I take back my previous comment

What we have here is actually two different things. One of them is language skills and syntax, and the other or what you are calling "The art of programming", is style. The latter is a very important part of programming, and deals with structuring your code so it is easy to maintain, and understand. You also need to make decisions about keeping your program simple and efficient.

For instance if you were making your own calculator program and wanted to multiply 125,789 by 2, You could go through each number and multiply by two, carry the remainder, ect. Or, you could realize that by simply doing a left shift of the number in the CPU's register you would get the same result in one instruction. No big deal right? Well, if you are multiplying billions of things, you could reduce your program to a crawl if you do it incorrectly.

The other aspect of programming, and what is most often covered in language books, is using correct syntax. Like in C you need a semicolon at the end of each line (usually). Or maybe you want to know how to pop-up a message box and get the answer from the user. In this case a clear example you could copy-paste would be welcomed.

int response;
response = MessageBox("Are you happy?","Need Answer",MB_YESNO|MB_ICONSTOP);
if(response == ID_YES)
// say something happy
else
// say something sad.


Books that teach syntax don't usually go into detail about programming style, and detailed style books usually don't teach you about the language. I have one book titled "Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis in C" that assumes on page one that you know all about C. I guess you really can't study both things at the same time, or at least it's too much to put into one book.

Very true dbates.
I have always felt to master programming, you need to teach youself. For example, learning by your mistakes - to eventually knowing how the language, or even programming in general actually works.

This is why I don't recommend evening classes or any other paid programming course, because you could learn all that a class would teach, in books - which can cost much less.

The book "The C Programming Language" I think aims to teach how to program in C, (i.e - the syntax), and second - to teach good programming style. It is a very good book, and recommend anyone to read it - wether their interested in programming in C or not.

Edit: And "The C Programming Language" is a very small book, compared to other tomes. So it did a really good job of teaching C, and programming style in general.

[Edited on 25-5-2004 by MetalHead]