Debriefing > Questions, Help, & How To's
Question for the devs
steven_m64:
--- Quote from: The Beatles pwn j00! on March 31, 2009, 12:13:22 am ---I've recently decided that I want to learn how to program. If I'm going to sit in front of a computer for disgusting amounts of time, I might as well learn a useful skill.
I decided to start with Visual Basic, since that seems to be the easiest to learn, from what I can gather. I'm a little over halfway done with the "Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition" guided tour, with it's seemingly trivial and barely explained examples. A few things are lost on me so far, but I think I'm following most of it. I'm certain I could learn it if I put forth a concentrated effort.
Is it a wise move to start with Visual Basic, or should I just start learning with C++? I know there is no clear answer for that, I just wanted to know what your guys' recommendations are.
I definitely intend to pick up a couple of books next month. Are there any particular books you guys would recommend?
--- End quote ---
a lot of people think starting with vb is a good start but really every VB book i have seen is only useful as kindling to start a fire and no matter how you use it its always like programming with lego blocks.
VB is the only "language" i know of where you can learn it and never actually learn any of the fundamentals of programing or actually understand what the hell you are doing.
i linked to in a previous post in this thread possibly the best programming book ever made "c++ how to program" any idiot can learn c++ using it if you dedicate yourself to reading and learning from it.
its not a simple read to get through being about 3" thick :D but after reading through a good chunk of it you will be a better programmer then most idiots out there and will actually understand everything behind the scenes witch makes life a hell of a lot more easy.
and after learning from said book its not hard to pickup and move to other real programming languages by just learning the syntax and a few of the library's.
other good books to look out for are those written by andre lamothe.
VC:
PM'd.
VB isn't even Lego. It's factory-second Duplo.
killermonkey:
Here is my personal progression on learning how to program:
HTML -> JavaScript -> PERL -> C++ -> MySQL -> VB (out of necessity to make a complicated ACCESS database) -> PHP -> XHTML 1.1 Strict
It doesn't matter where you start, except if you start with VB. VB is by far the worst language to start in for two reasons:
1. You don't garner an appreciation for what programming really is
2. You learn sloppy, and often costly, methods that will haunt your thoughts when you move to C++
I started programming at age 13. I am now 24 and am still learning new tricks and different methods for doing things more efficiently and EASIER TO READ. Don't expect this to be a walk in the park, and if you don't have AT LEAST 5 books on programming on your shelf by the end of this year, you have not tried hard enough and will fail. You must put in the effort.
Mark [lodle]:
I wouldnt do vb at all. It is nothing like any thing else and screws you up when you learn real languages.
I would start with c then go onto do c++/c#/java
WNxMurktinez:
for a hobbist programmer vb.net isn't that horrible of a language. it all depends on what you want to do and how serious you are. if vb.net was such a bad language people wouldn't get paid to develope software using it, but of course c/c++ is by far superior to any other language.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version