learning programming

[FaderMonkey]

I know nothing about programming. Well, I did take one class in college, Fortran, but I don't remember much of anything from it. Other than taking classes, because I can't right now, where do I start....how do I learn? Should I just go to the bookstore and pick up some books? What books? Are there any good websites to learn from? What language should I tackle first? I tried searching for another thread about this, but I couldn't find anything. Sorry if it's been asked a million times.

Oh, and I own/work on a Mac with OSX...I don't know what difference that makes.

[Yakk]

I started learning how to program in my youth.

Learn how to make the computer do simple things, like print "hello world". Copy short games into your computer from books. Write up short choose-your-own adventure games. Take night classes. Do some scripting using perl and cron (write your own alarm clock!).

As for language, picking any simple one will do to get your feet wet. Learn how to read text, how to print text, how to write functions, and how to write if statements. That'll be enough to do something fun.

Once you are at that point, you'll want to start learning some computer science (algorithms etc). In addition to that, you'll want to pick up at least one other language, and learn the differences between them.

[denim]

Since you have a Mac running OS X, you might as well use the programming environment which comes with it. Assuming you installed the environment, you'll find documentation on the whole thing in there as, IIRC, PDF files.

My computer is currently disconnected, but I should be able to put it together and get the details. What version of MacOS X are you running?

[SinisterMotives]

I learned to program by first using scripts from "cut and paste" JavaScript sites. As time went on, I gained an understanding of how they worked by observing what they did and studying the code to see which lines, statements, etc., were responsible for each phenomenon I observed. Eventually, I read the excellent JavaScript tutorials on Lycos' Webmonkey site.

After becoming proficient in JavaScript, I found that those skilled carried over into PHP quite well. I was able to begin programming in PHP simply by applying my knowledge of JavaScript and looking up the functions I needed to use in the online manual.

[sailor]

One thing ill add about books--actually do the code in them. For the longest time, I just looked over the example code in them, figuring out how things worked. That was all fine and good, but I couldnt actually use it until I realized I was going to need to actually copy that code and try it.

Most books have exercises at the end of each chapter. Those are usually good to do as well.

[denim]

Yes, and don't just copy the code in from the disk or website. TYPE it in yourself. You'll be more aware of what's in there if you do.

[lytri]

I have seen a suggestion to learn Python as a good first language, and I must say I agree with this. It also helps if you understand HTML, while it really isn't a higher level programming language, it is certainly used a heck of a lot.

[SinisterMotives]

I'm not sure I'd recommend Python for a beginner. It's a great language, but its syntax and way of grouping statements is different from nearly every other language out there (except Visual Basic perhaps). For example, Java, C++, and PHP are similar enough that anyone who understands one can quickly learn any of the others. I'd recommend that a beginner learn a language like this so that the skills learned can readily be more generally applied.

[Mortified]

I learned programming in my youth by reading books about BASIC. I actually wrote little programs on notebook paper before I even got my first computer, a Franklin Ace (Apple //e clone). When I went to college, I studied engineering and the only programming classes I took were also in Fortran. Eventually for me, I taught myself C (by reading books, I mean) then C++. Now programming is what I do as my job.

I've just started looking into what language would be good to teach a little programming to my kids. One thing I found was called JUDO, which is basically Java with a really simplfied development environment. It is really easy to write a little program and just press a button to compile and run it. It has some easy ways to do text input and output as well as some simple graphics. I don't know that it will work for your Mac, but you might find some Mac version of Java development environment.

[sargorn]

It really depends on how -you- learn. Some of us learn by example (stepping through existing programs, etc) and some of us learn by reading text books.

If you can't remember anything from what you've already done with FORTRAN, then probably a beginners text book would be suitable (or a beginners website even).

Language wise, I would have to keep recommending C over pretty much most others. This is because:

a) Look and feel (syntax wise) is common with other languages.
b) It's procedural, no need to jump into OO.
c) It's a syntax nazi and will trip you up on improper syntax most of the time.
d) There's -plenty- of resources available for it.


Actual resource wise I can't really recommend anything in particular, sticking 'learning c programming tutorial' into google will find quite a few tutorials that might help. Book wise, head to a bookstore and see if there's any that call out to you.

HTH.

David M

[SinisterMotives]

I concur with most of what sargorn said, except for point (b). Object-oriented programming is ubiquitous nowadays and is the generally preferred way of organizing code, so it makes sense to go ahead and learn it. Thus, I think C++ would be a better starting point than C. The syntax of the two is 90% identical, and many textbooks save OOP until later chapters after you've learned the fundamentals anyway.

[sargorn]

Oh, I'm all for going ahead and learning OO as well, just as a starting point OO is an extra concept you need to grasp, and there's already a lot of those about (concepts that is).

And if you're going to learn c++ 'like c' then I don't see why you wouldn't just learn c then c++.

David M

[SinisterMotives]

Originally posted by sargorn
And if you're going to learn c++ 'like c' then I don't see why you wouldn't just learn c then c++.

You'd save $35 to $50 if you only bought the one book.