revisting an old interest "computer programming"

[dkff49]

I was wondering if those of you who are involved in computer programming could offer up some advise on books, websites, languages, or things to steer clear from.

For a while now I have been kicking around the idea of taking up computer programming, on more in the form of a hobby for now. I really don't have the money to take courses right now and probably won't for a long time. I am however very good at teaching myself how to do things and I actually have some experience with this.

I took programming classes in high school which consisted of programming in Basic and Pascal. I was quite good at it though this was 18 years ago and I have probably forgotten most if not all of what I learned. I remember when I was in school thought the final project I did was write a program for a game called Othello. Yes that is the one with the chips that have a black side and a white side and the object is to get as many of the chips to your color as you can. I had written the program to tell if a move was valid and then flip the chips over automatically.

I had alot fun programming and many times wish I had pursued it further, besides this would help me to pass the time while at work in between calls.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[ChickenHawk]

Microsoft has a few of its express edition compilers set up for free download here:  http://www.microsoft.com/express/default.aspx

There are gobs of self study programming books out there.  Pick a language and have fun.

[trigger2]

I suggest starting in either C++ or C# (They're relativly similar). I perfer to use Windows Visual (i.e. Windows Visual C# or Windows Visual C++). Anywho, good luck, and I suggest starting with the programming section (Console applications) before you start working on Visual programming. (:

[68Wooley]

C++ may be syntactically similar to C# (C sharp), but they are very different languages. I'd probably suggest avoiding C++ - at least initially.

C# is a decent choice for general programming, as is Java if you want to do stuff on anything other than a Windows machine. If you're interested in programming for the web, take a look at PHP.

There are excellent tools for all of those available at little or no cost - at the very least, you'll want to get yourself a text editor that does keyword highlighting and block indentation - I use Textpad on Windows.

More useful than simple text editor is a full integrated development environment such as Visual C# Express, Eclipse (for Java) or Activestate Komodo (for PHP, Perl and a bunch of other languages). Amongst other things, a good IDE will highlight syntax errors and let you do line-by-line debugging.

As for reference books, there are literally thousands out there of varying quality. Read reviews on Amazon and always check the data book was published - don't buy anything more than a couple of years old. With a few notable exceptions, programming books don't age well.

[dkff49]

thanks guys

I will be giving those a try. If nothing else it will give me something to do with my down time at work.

[Shuffler]

Great posts guys <S>

[Reschke]

Dave,

If you want them I have some books on Java and a couple of other things at the house and if you pay the shipping they are yours. They are gathering dust since I don't do the Java stuff any longer. In fact I was never any good at it and now when I look at those books I wonder why bought it and several others.

[dkff49]

PM sent

Thanks Reschke

[soda72]

What kind of programing are you interested in?

Depending on your area of interest will give you a clue as to what languages you may want to focus on.

[Vulcan]

I used to love prolog.

[dkff49]

really trying to start out fairly simple. just something to get started on and learn with. maybe some simple application type programs then expand beyond thatmaybe adding some visuals to it after that.


not really sure how else to answer Soda. Iam not looking to jump right into 3d grahpics or any highly graphical programs for that matter, at least not to start with anyway.

[detch01]

really trying to start out fairly simple. just something to get started on and learn with. maybe some simple application type programs then expand beyond thatmaybe adding some visuals to it after that.


not really sure how else to answer Soda. Iam not looking to jump right into 3d grahpics or any highly graphical programs for that matter, at least not to start with anyway.

basic 3D programming isn't as hard as it looks - here are a couple of sites that will get you up and playing with 3D graphics (and C/C++) fairly quickly:
http://nehe.gamedev.net/ (very good basic OpenGL tutorials)
http://www.chadvernon.com/blog/tutorials/directx9/(decent intro into Dx9)
and, a useful C++ reference: http://www.cplusplus.com/.

Cheers & GL.
asw

[indy007]

If you're going windows only, C# is the way. It also has easy tutorials for the XNA dev kit that will have you making simple 2d & 3d games in no time that will play on Windows, xbox360, or Zune. There's also physics libraries that are easy to use. It's pretty cool.

I use Bloodshed DevC/C++ for anything else. It's free and fast.

[soda72]

really trying to start out fairly simple. just something to get started on and learn with. maybe some simple application type programs then expand beyond thatmaybe adding some visuals to it after that.

not really sure how else to answer Soda. Iam not looking to jump right into 3d grahpics or any highly graphical programs for that matter, at least not to start with anyway.

If you are looking for something simple to work with and to familiarize yourself with programing concepts Java is a good start point.  The Java SDK can be downloaded for free, however you'll need to find a good editor to use unless you perfer using something like notepad.  I would check out EMACS it's free, and it should support java syntax.  The Java SDK has a rich set of classes that will do a lot for you.  It's capable of doing console programs as well as windows GUI type interfaces. If you are also interested in web development you can explore this area as well with java.

If you're able to spend a little money, C# is a good alternative.  Microsoft use to provide a free c# compiler but I don't think they do that anymore.  If you know a university student that's willing to buy you a student copy you can save a lot of money.  The .NET library used by c# also provides a rich set classes that will let you do a lot of things.  You can write console programs as well as windows GUI interfaces.  If you are not able to find a c# compiler, but want to explorer some of it's capablity theres cheap way to do it but you want be able to create any exe's or dll's.  If you have windows XP professional you can install both IIS and .NET 2.0 for free.  This will allow your PC to run as a web server.  Once the .NET library is installed you can run .aspx files using c# syntax.  Granted it's limited but it will let you explore some the the .NET classes for free. 

Once you start to get bored or feel like you want to move on to something more challenging I would recomend exploring languages like C/C++.  Try writing a windows program in C, nothing complex or fancy just a window that pops up with a minimize, maximize, and close buttons.  It's good way to get familar with win32 api's.  If your really want a tough challenge download NASM or MASM(MASM will only install if you have MS visual stuido installed) and try a few console programs using assembly. 

[indy007]

Soda, there are Express versions of every .Net language compiler on their site, free still.