Where to start...

[alexbarton]

I'm sure there are plenty of these threads, but ill make another one.

I'm looking for a way to start creating my own programs. Now looking around i can C++ is a powerful language and can be used well. Hopefully in the future i look into going into computer games programming. At the moment i am 15, and have little knowledge of code, and i will be moving onto taking A Levels next year, hopefully where i will learn small amounts of programming code.

My question is... IS C++ the best language to start with, and then after that is it worth taking a look at C#?

I wondered if there was another language, or method that would help me understand C++ easier. Also if you do recommend C++ do you know of any very good books. I read the C++ books list in the forum, maybe you could recommend these?

thanks for your response

Alex Barton

[Nick Evan]

Here's a thread about the same subject (it also discusses some books)
Personally I think C would be a good option. It's a pretty low-level language and will give you a good idea of what you can do. You can always learn C++ from there.

Reply again if you have any questions

regards Niek

[alexbarton]

Thanks mate, any other replies would also be appreciated.

[jwenting]

The actual language matters less than that you get the best possible training.
A LOT (probably the majority) of people starting out get terrible training and either give up or turn into a liability for future colleagues.

[jbennet]

im an AS student (nearly 17) - would definately reccomend AS computing by the way as you get to program in VB (and c++ at A2)

I started with VB (for conecpts basically, its a good way to learn structured programming and good coding practice) then i moved into text mode C++ which (take my word for it) you MUST master before attempting anything graphical

[John A]

My opinion is that C# is much better to learn if you are planning to create windows-based applications. C# makes it much easier to design user interfaces, and your development will be much faster than a similar program written in C++.

I also agree with jwenting: it's very important to learn a language properly, because if you do even if learning is difficult, you will be practicing good programming habits. I have to admit I am guilty of learning C++ inproperly; I got 10-year-old book from a used booksale and learned from that. I never knew how much I was hurting myself until I got internet, and found that void main() was all wrong, that iostream.h was outdated, and other stuff. You can't really blame the book for iostream.h because the STL hadn't been written at that time, but a whole lot of other stuff had.

In short: if you're willing to learn the language, you can. People who can't learn are usually the people who don't want to learn, as motivation actually helps learning tremendously. I'd say go learn either C or C++, but don't expect to be able to write the world's problem-solving program until you've got C/C++ under your belt (which could take a few years).

I wish the best of luck to you.

[jbennet]

i like c# as its a modern language but its not very portable unlike c++

[alexbarton]

thanks for the posts guys, is there anyway i could contact you bennet?

[jbennet]

see my sig - its my msn and email addy
i also accept pms

[PirateTUX]

Another consideration would be what compilers you might have access to. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't know if there are any free compilers of C#. Isn't that still Microsoft proprietary? I know for a fact that there are quite a number of free C++ compilers out there on the web, and if you're into Linux, the compiler is built into the operating system.

Somebody suggested that you start out with plain ol' C, which might actually be a good idea. You won't have to worry about structures and inheritance right away, and then when you want to move on to those more power, but more complex concepts, you'll already know the syntax.

Whatever you decide to do, stick with it. There's not much out there more satisfying than seeing a complex build run successfully!

[jbennet]

ms include a free command line compiler for all .net languages with the .NET sdk - its possible to link this into a free IDE such as sharpdevelop (http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/)

[PirateTUX]

ms include a free command line compiler for all .net languages with the .NET sdk - its possible to link this into a free IDE such as sharpdevelop (http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/)

Nice... I had no idea. I'm assuming that includes C#?

[jbennet]

I know for a fact sharpdevelop can do every language - its an opesnource IDE and looks and feels somewhat like VS2005. look on the website, youll be pleasantly surprised