Miscellaneous > Programming & Networking

Basic Programming for an utter novice.

<< < (3/6) > >>

Centurian:
Hey,

I never cared for COBOL either. I can still remember spending half and hour compiling one small program on an 8088 in COBOL.

Fortran now is a very different story. Its inherent math abilities make it great for doing graphics as well as almost anything. All graphics are based on math anyway. As an example Sierra's first few games were made in Fortran.

Assembly is kind of fun. I used to avoid it because of what everyone had said about it. Then when I got Turbo Pascal 7.0 I began writing inline assembler to increase the speed of certain  functions. Next thing I knew there was more inline asm in my code than pascal.  
I do have to agree a knowledge of assembler can be very useful.

jtpenrod:
Here is what I would do.
First off, give Python a try. Like BASIC, this is an interpreted language, so you get to see your mistakes as soon as they occur. The syntax is simple and clean, unlike Perl code, which tends to become rather arcane. Python is also object oriented, and that's definitely a good thing to learn. Not only that, but Python is something you can really use; unlike BASIC, it's not just something you learn with before moving on. And it has the advantage of using C-like syntax, so that C and C++ won't look completely foreign when you pick that up. As a related topic of exploration, you should also consider UNIX shell programming
 (see:Introduction: BASH Programming and Adv BASH Programming)

Next, definitely learn C and C++. This is important as the lion's share of modern apps are written with it. It really isn't as hard as some folks make it out to be. One excellent resource here is: C++ In Plain English by Brian Overland. This book is something you'll want to keep around as it's not only a C++ tutorial, but also a reference on all the keywords and functions. And it's well-written and the explanations are easy to follow. Once you've gotten this far, throwing Java into the mix really shouldn't be too difficult. Linux has some great programming aids for developing apps with graphical front-ends: Qt, Glade, and FOX. They're all free and probably available with most Linux distros.

You should consider Perl as it's often used as a "glue" language to connect C and C++ modules together into complete apps. Also, consider picking up some HTML. Not particularly difficult, and it can prove useful.
_______________________________

Powered by Mandrake Linux and Freedom
Computers are like air conditioners: they can't do their jobs if you open windows


[ March 29, 2002: Message edited by: jtpenrod ]

[ October 06, 2002: Message edited by: jtpenrod ]

foobar:
Assuming you have linux,

what really helped for me was to get a C or C++ book from  the library, create my own programming dir (like ~/programming), make an executable file named 'compile' and in that file was a syntax calling gcc to compile a certain file and provide all the nessicary option. Then use your favorite editor (heard vim was super, because of the syntax highlighting, but i use joe   :D  )
to edit your C or C++ code, and pop up another terminal to run the 'compile' prog after you have saved your try-outs.

It worked for me, kinda, but hope it helps you.

badkarma:

quote:Originally posted by -=f00bar=-:
Assuming you have linux,

what really helped for me was to get a C or C++ book from  the library, create my own programming dir (like ~/programming), make an executable file named 'compile' and in that file was a syntax calling gcc to compile a certain file and provide all the nessicary option. Then use your favorite editor (heard vim was super, because of the syntax highlighting, but i use joe    :D   )
to edit your C or C++ code, and pop up another terminal to run the 'compile' prog after you have saved your try-outs.

It worked for me, kinda, but hope it helps you.
--- End quote ---



Errm ... you ever heard of makefiles?

You can even use the autoconf/automake tools to make a configure script

check this link for more details:

ftp://ftp.ugcs.caltech.edu/pub/elef/autotools/toolsmanual.html

psyjax:
Hey now, no need to be sarcastic, your motto is:

If you can't learn to do something well, learn to enjoy doing it poorly.

 :D

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page