PROGRAMMING

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Rex Torres on June 13, 2009 at 8:42am

Good for you! Good luck!!!

I have actually helped Andrew and Brandonio (Both are members of Geeks) with their Visual Basic projects online by way of Teamviewer remote control, which allows me to see their screen (or vice versa).

Once you know your way around the Visual Basic IDE, and you're familiar with the code, the toolbox, the properties, events, methods, classes, objects and so on, then it's very easy to switch over to C#. Again, there are PLENTY of books out there, to get you started.

I learned VB when I bought "VB3 For Dummies" a LONG time ago, and I went through that book cover to cover, and I typed in every single line of code that was in the book! I tried EVERY example, EVERY chapter, and I tried to learn EVERY control, EVERY event and EVERY property. Once you do that, and you have made a few small Windows Forms applications, you're ready to move on to designing your own controls and then making websites!

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jadzia on June 13, 2009 at 9:06pm

I started out in VB (it was the only programming course at the tech college I attended) and then I played with HTML (wasn't fond of WYSIWYG so I hand coded a lot) and then I went into perl and c++. If I had it to do over again I would have tried to learn C++ to get an earlier start on it. I have an instructor and 2 relatives that stick to VB but I was working on a very large project and pretty far into the work I saw that it wasn't going to do what I needed. I felt that I had wasted an enormous amount of time. I really haven't used VB since. I'd probably only use it for small projects. Some of my old VB projects are in the process of getting converted to C++. I hear Python is easy but I can't comment on that since I have no experience. It's worth a look.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by deakaz on June 14, 2009 at 10:23am

check out alice.org

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by JavaGuy147 on June 14, 2009 at 11:32am

if you want to actually start programming and do not want to start on something "stupid" like HTML or anything, go with Visual Basic. VB6 is probably the easiest language to learn, and the programs are decently fast =]

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Andy Piesse on July 5, 2009 at 6:46am

Most of the programming languages mentioned developed from C (the non scripting ones)

C programs can be compiled in C+ or C# and C would be a good basis for general programming techniques.

It is a bit old but as a training tool check out
http://www.mixsoftware.com/product/masterc.htm
I was told it was the one that IBM used for internal training
I found it very helpful

BTW no one has mention PHP

For examples of programs you could try sourceforge.net as the source code is available and who knows you may find a project there that interests you

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Wyldrose on July 5, 2009 at 8:09am

Teaching yourself can be quite hard at times, motivational wise and ensuring you have learnt all you need to continue. As cliche as this sounds (you know 'stay in school' etc), my advise is to enroll yourself in a bachelors degree in Computer Science, because not only will you be guaranteed to learn all you need, but it's much easier getting a job in the field of your choice with a degree under your belt.
So imo, follow the advise of the other people in this thread about where to start in the meantime, and when you're ready, apply to Uni. All the best :)

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Shorty MacGregor on July 14, 2009 at 2:45am

I do this for myself, and I will reccomend that you start with simple HTML and CSS :)
And than move on to PHP later on. It is like they say, you gotta learn how to go before running;)

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Justin on July 14, 2009 at 5:26am

My first opinion is that you should really define exactly where you would like to go with programming. Starting HTML and CSS is really heading down a more scripting/markup road for Web design, if that is where you want to go.

I can't recommend that you start with HTML and CSS alone. These two combined are not really programming at all, but they do get you use to making the computer do something. Using ASP.NET you can learn javascript (client end) and a server end language that sits on the .NET framework (C# or VB.NET).

I believe C# is a great language, I really appreciate it because I come from a C-like background. For starting off, if you are running Windows as your primary OS, I would say give C# a go. There are tons of resources everywhere for it, and you are working with a base library that has had many improvements over the years.

If you are on Mac/Linux, I would gear you towards the closest thing to C#, and that is Java. Pick up the NetBeans IDE and find some good Java resources. Java is unbelievably powerful, it is a great language. This way you have a true programming language that helps you to learn all the small bits and pieces of standard programming that a language like Python may hide from you. It is always better to learn more up front.

At any rate, those are my recommendations. Programming is such a rewarding job, if you enjoy it. If you have any other questions feel free to ask me and I will do my best to help. Have fun learning!

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Shorty MacGregor on July 14, 2009 at 5:30am

I will also reccomend that you take a look here:
http://www.w3schools.com/
Here can you read all you need to know :)

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by geeks.nick on July 19, 2009 at 12:23am

i advise you to learn HTML first,JavaScript next,then css .
if you want to program softwares start with c++ coz if you learn this you can learn anything

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by frederik on July 31, 2009 at 11:08am

I started programing by making games with game maker, a program made by yoyogames.

When you just start, you can make games by dragging actions into events. After you get used to that, you can learn learn game maker language (gml). It is still really easy. I'll post a bit of gml so you can see the syntax.

if (x<5)
{
global.destroyed+=1
instance_destroy()
}

you can probably guess what it does.
If the x position of an object is smaller than 5, the object is destroyed,
1is added to a variable called global.destroyed
and the object is created.

▶ Reply to This

• First
• Previous
• Next
• Last