I'm thinking about learning how to program.

[diane2jsmith55]

Well...the tug is becoming a bit much. I think I'm ready to start learning how to program slowly. I feel too limited by my current computer skillset and I'm having way too many ideas and becoming too frustrated with how to deal with it. I'm thinking of getting into dot Net and C sharp. I think that's a good beginning for a newbie and the combo will mean fast applications I think.

I've held off on this for years. I'm totally the kind of person that is drawn to programming. I've become such a software geek over the years, I know exactly what I want in programs. I programmed the TI calculators back in high school and got pretty good at it. I took an introductory class in my freshman year in college for programming. I did very well in that. I've just never plunged in because of my other hobbies and I knew it was the kind of thing that would suck me in in a dangerous way.

One thing that I've learned over the years about taking up new things is to just dive in and do it. I'm inclined to study a lot up front and ask a lot of questions before even getting my hands on something. But as an adult, that can prevent you from actually starting and I end up in a perpetual state of learning and never doing.

 

[Sodajaxon]

C++ is a good place to start Diane, its the grandfather of computer languages.

or better yet, if you can get a hold of Apple machine, with OS10 you can actually get started making apps almost instantly for the smart phone industry, and if you have and experience with Linux, and Java it would be a breeze to pick up.

good luck!

 

[Jacques]

Hi diane2jsmith55,

Welcome to our forum. :)

We recommend all new members to post an introduction in the Newbies section telling us a bit about themselves, how they found the cass material, and how much of the work here they have read.

You can have a look through that board to see how others have done it.

 

[jordifs]

I'm an experienced programmer.
My knowledge background is C, C++, and Java (12 years, I love it).
Nonetheless I'm now in the process of learning PHP.
I do belief it is at present day the most useful language to begin with (plus SQL, HTML basics).

I wish not to touch dotNet, Microsoft, Apple, neither C/C++ (never again).
But this is my opinion, not my recommendation. You must choose according to your needs and depending on what your target is.

 

[Psalehesost]

C is very good in that in learning it, you'll learn to handle the lower-level details - having mastered this "rawer" (compared to modern higher-level languages) form of programming, it'll be easy to move around to other languages as well.

C++ is incredibly huge and complicated for someone to learn all of it (most people - vast majority - only use a subset, and different subsets), but would cover many things. Plain C does not involve the modern style of object-oriented programming, so learning an OO-oriented language is also a good idea. Becoming familiar with more than one language and their differences could also help one think in a more general way about programming.

So I think learning C as well as a modern OO-language would give a lot of understanding. Learning plain C and other lower-level things seems to be hard for those who learned higher-level programming first, so I think it's good to have at the start.

Java is still somewhat faddishly popular nowadays, much as C# is. So plain C and one of those could be a good preparation for work, I think. Disclaimer, though: Have not yet done professional work myself, only observed what seems to be in popular use as well as many discussions.

PHP would also be a good idea for web programming. But at first, sticking to two things at a time (or perhaps one thing, then two in parallel for a while, then eventually adding the third if relevant to you?) might be more manageable.

In either case, it'll probably take about 5 years to become a really good programmer, given the 'knack' for it. The 'knack' consists of an intuitive ability to learn to think in programming (without which in practice people do not learn and never gain skill); some people cannot do this, but it sounds (with your mention of that introductory course and how it went) like you probably have it.

There is no telling in advance how far you'll finally go in terms of skill - from what I've read (in several places, this being recounted by many programmers as their experience, few being at the "top"), there is seriously a difference of two orders of magnitude among professional programmers in how well they eventually get to know and perform their craft, this seeming to amount to brain wiring.

Since this thread is in the "Books" section of the forum, I'll point out that learning is easily begun with a good tutorial, some own initiative, and finding an online community for programming if questions are needed and cannot be answered on your own, and generally to interact with others with the same interest, which helps - think up something to do (if not at once, then after some experimenting. experimenting is a good idea), then search your way to relevant steps in learning leading up to it.

A book is mostly of use for the beginner as a reference of both ideas, good and bad practices, features of the language, etc., but you'll find this on the web as well, only not all in a single place (unless of course you find a comprehensive book online).

"Just diving in and doing it" once you've come up with some rough idea of where you want to go first sounds like a good idea.

fwiw

 

[wanderer]

Software is a tool. You should decide what you want to accomplish and use whatever language is most appropriate for the task and is within your means to acquire and learn.

If I was starting out now I think I'd be considering cell phone apps. These days I make a nice living writing web apps using .NET. Works for me.

 

[lostinself]

diane2jsmith55 has probably accomplished his/her/its mission here, by supplying the link in the post footer. exact copies of the initial post can be found on other forums, as well as other "fire & forget" answer-begging posts by this ubiquitous forum user.

to Mods: prohibiting usage of active links in the footer would probably discourage advertising activity (often called "spam").

 

[Vulcan59]

Thanks for the reminder lostinself. We did think that this was a spammer but since it wasn't conclusive, we gave it a reasonable amount of time to post an intro. Looks like times up for this character. :)