programming where to start?

lil_tech · March 17th, 2009, 02:47 AM

Im just wondering if anyone could help me get started on programming my teacher is suppose to be teaching us but he gets off task to easy and im heading off to college soon and i would like to kinda have a head start for college so if anyone could help send me off in the right way i would deeply appreciate it! and im looking at C++ or java script

Rootstonian · March 19th, 2009, 07:43 PM

Don't worry about...go to college, pay attention, study hard. You'll be fine

ShyguyXPC · March 20th, 2009, 02:16 AM

if its like most colleges, they'll probably require you to take one or two basic introduction computer classes to familiarize you with the computer in general, tech terms, etc..

at least they were still doing this 6+ years ago, not sure how it is now.

but if you can even learning other languages & what not like BASIC of VisualBASIC, can help some when you start to dive into C++, its been about 10 years for me since I started it, but had to quit college due to some financial hardships back then, was out for a couple years & went back & just couldn't grasp things again with programming, despite learning very fast older programs like COBOL & some others, when it comes to programming the phrase "Use it or Lose it" really does apply, take too much time away & a lot of times, the knowledge seems to disappear, at least talking to several other classmates I had 10 years ago, other ones that also seemed to have lost their way learning C++. even my uncle who'd been doing programming since he was in the USAF, in his late mid 50's now, has even told me the same thing, along with my college instructor once in a while when I see him, got to keep practicing otherwise you can easily lose your touch.

not sure what others here can suggest, I'm sure Rootstonian above may have some suggestions, but I'd suggest reading up on some free online tutorials when you can...

doing just a quick google search comes up with quite a few...

but best advice that can be given is as suggested above...

Quote:

Don't worry about...go to college, pay attention, study hard. You'll be fine

Rootstonian · March 20th, 2009, 08:14 AM

Well, I'm willing to bet most colleges these days ARE NOT teaching COBOL. I know mine stopped and I don't know why. Believe it or not, there is a ton of COBOL still in use. I was just at a meeting Wednesday about converting my systems' last COBOL program off the mainframe (but other shops still have it out there).

If you want a head start, you can't beat Dietel and Dietel's C++ book. I'm willing to bet most colleges use it for their Intro to Computer Science class and probably a class or two after that. I'll also point out that there are a few types of programmers: business, scientific, web, game, applications (Windows stuff). I'm a business programmer, but can program in C/C++ and do Windows applications as well.

The business programmer of old was trained in COBOL and Assembler and RPG. Today, I code in SQR; it's a C-like language that allows embedded SQL...fun stuff

Pick up the Dietel book. Get a free C++ compiler and try some simple programs. If you get stuck, post here and we can help

BUT, don't try to go too far. You have got to learn the basics first...program logic, modularity, program flow statements, program structure, top-down programming etc. Once you master these, you can code in any language; you just have to learn the syntax of the language!

ShyguyXPC · March 20th, 2009, 05:38 PM

Well Said.

Yeah I just brought up the COBOL, as it was one I learned back in 1995-1997 school years, couldn't grasp it at first, but after the first few weeks I suddenly was able to do a lot of it very quickly, even finishing the class & acing my final almost 2 weeks before it was over.

but your right I don't think too many offer it anymore, even though they should. I know the program at our community college only lasted another year or so before it was canned, as it was, I missed out by one year learning FORTRAN, they had actually canceled it that spring when I graduated from High school, so I missed out on that one.

had already had experience with BASIC from learning some in High school, but had already taken 2 or 3 classes during summer breaks over the years before that since 4th/5th grade on up to about 8th. Even got to play around a little using Mac Pascal in high school in the one computer class we had back then as well.

but been out of it so long, I only remember bits & parts of the different languages I learned or had started learning... down side of not keeping up with it.

lil_tech · March 21st, 2009, 08:38 PM

hey thanks for the advice guys i guess college has got me a little antsy. And thanks so much for suggesting the books and free tutorials i will have to look into them.

Rootstonian · March 21st, 2009, 09:08 PM

Good, you should be "antsy" about college. I didn't start till I was older, but was stiil apprehensive (ansty) when I went in. But I tell you this much; it was one of the most memorable times of my life.

By the time I went, I knew exactly what I wanted to do, the cousrework I wanted to take and the type of job I would end up at. Hard to do for most 18-year olds. Kudos to you that if you're at that age and you know what you want to do because I sure as hell didn't!

Don't get me wrong...it's hard...it's VERY hard. Most professors will tell you to expect to spend 2 hours out of class for every hour spent in class. Double or triple that for computer programming. It's not like writing a 5 page paper; it's like writing a 500 page paper!!

Watch how you schedule your classes too. You'll have to take probably 30 to 36 credit hours in General Studies classes; make sure to mix those in with the tough comp. sci. classes. And don't forget the math. Non business majors, that is, Computer Science students usually have to take Calc I and Calc II. Don't get scared; they're not that bad

(ok, Calc II was kinda rough LOL).

Business majors will have much less programming and more database and management classes. That's not a bad career path either. Of course, I went Comp Sci...left the BA for the woosies

ROFL

Creatures · March 21st, 2009, 09:08 PM

i'm probably the only one who prefers java, i tried C and C++ at first but then started to learn java and i have to say i really love it, sure it is said to be slow but most of the time you dont need the speed that C and C++ give you (games are totally fine under Java, there is even a 3D mmorpg with python (which is even slower than java))

the good thing about java is, it's a lot easier to learn than C or C++ and after understanding java you can easily switch to C++ and use it OO as it was intended to be, because programming C++ OO is very hard without understanding the concept of OO programming

Creatures

OO = Object oriented

lil_tech · March 22nd, 2009, 02:07 AM

well any suggetion on finding help with java? so is there a ton of required classes that are required for programming, also did you go with a bachelors+ degree or did you get a technical degree?

Rootstonian · March 22nd, 2009, 04:29 AM

Sorry, can't help with JAVA, don't know it (but I could learn it

). Looks just like C++.

Degree? 2 times, A.A.B in Computer Programming and B.S. in Computer Science, both from college.

College IS NOT High School...it's a lot tougher. And it'll go a lot faster than you think