Post subject: How did you learn programming? Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 4:26 pm
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I am planning to learn visual basic, just to do some basic programming. But I am not sure how I am going to do that. Learning out of a book is IMO not the best option: I tried it several times but usually you just have to copy some code that is in the book and so make a very basic program. I find it quite boring and I don't learn anything from it because it is all standard code. In stead of: "we are now going to link the button to a function by ...." they just write down the code.
So I am interested, how did you learn programming? And what programming language do you use and why?
Post subject: Re: How did you learn programming? Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 4:31 pm
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I learnt VB (2005) from a Dummies book. I don't like learning from books either but I did find that it worked very well with clear examples and explanations.
Post subject: Re: How did you learn programming? Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 4:42 pm
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Well, I learned by reading up on kernel internals, DDK sample code, documentation, MSDN library, VS2005 documentation, SDK sample code, include headers and Windows code.
Post subject: Re: How did you learn programming? Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 7:11 pm
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Back in junior high (1997-2000) I was in the "Computer shop" (there were three shops, as required by Mexican junior high law: plastic arts, technical drawing and computing, which had replaced tachymechanography just two years before). In 2000, when I was about to finish junior high, the shop program included an introduction to programing. In it, we were shown how to do a tiny -and I mean, TINY- program in Pascal. Since I liked it so much, I asked my teacher if she could teach me some more, and she borrowed me her source code on some easy programs she had made. Then I learned how to include IF causes in Pascal.
Then, in High School I entered the "Technical Option", which is that, in case you just finish High School, you at least get a degree as a technical specialist in something (less than a bachelor's degree). Once again, I chose the Computational degree. In the last year of the course we were supposed to learn how to program using Visual Basic, but our teacher was more preocupied to show us what you could do with Visual Basic than to teach us how to program. Anyway, I somehow did manage to create a program that assigned you a computer to use of the computer lab.
But as the course would end giving me a professional degree, I had to do something called a "Social Service", which is nothing more than working, for free, for a determined number of hours. My mum got me working on the place she works, with a friend that was in charge of the network of the whole place. There, since I wasn't an employee and I couldn't access the intranet -because, you know, I wasn't authorized to- my mum's friend told me I could learn Java with some tutorials he had made. So, I learned how to program in Java and I did some cool programs, like a anime character's encyclopedia, complete with images and tooltips.
But since that was too long ago, next March I'll be starting another course, now on an introduction to C++ and how to program videogames in it. I'm really looking forward to it.
My experience is that its better to have a teacher show you how to program, since many questions arise and, if you don't know how to sort them out, you could end up with serious doubts that ether make you commit errors while programing or take the fun of programming away.
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Post subject: Re: How did you learn programming? Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 8:41 pm
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I started from reading PCs for Dummies, 8th edition (I think). There was a little blurb about QBASIC (not the same as QuickBASIC) so I put qbasic.exe in my Run dialog and started playing from there. Now I'm using QuickBASIC 7.1 PDS. I should learn C
Post subject: Re: How did you learn programming? Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 12:51 am
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I taught myself GML (Game Maker Language) by using google. I found other people who had written code or scripts that I needed, and rewrote them to work in my programs.
I learnt C++,by making batch files and then porting them, with help from google.
All my other languages are the same. Get stuck? Google Need help? Google.
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Post subject: Re: How did you learn programming? Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 1:29 am
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I learned some basics of batch programming in primary school. I learned Turbo Pascal at secondary school. Serious programming begun at university: classics such as The C Programming Language and The C++ Programming Language - both are must reads if you want to call yourself a programmer; then Java and Python - excellent on-line documentation. I've written also in several other languages (sh, Perl, JavaScript, Lisp, Prolog and more) but I can't say I know a lot about them. And of course lots of books about libraries, frameworks, technologies that I needed to learn for my projects.
Post subject: Re: How did you learn programming? Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 1:23 pm
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nickenzi wrote:
I'm learning Java as a mandatory course in my Information Technology major in college.
Java... If I take a programming course next year, I'll be learning that and actionscipt. But why the [censored] don't they teach a real programming language like C/C++. They're going around praising Java for it's cross-platform capability, but with some work, it is possible to port the program to other platforms, and those C ports will run faster than Java any day. And tell me this: when was the last time you bought a program written in java? I for one have never bought one - nor have I seen a Java based program for sale. Sure, if you look around, you will find free java [censored] all over the place. [/rant] Btw, my school already has VS 2008 pro installed, so it's not like they don't have the supplies to teach C - And the teacher knows C.
Offtopic Comment
We need a [rant] bbcode
Anyways, I'm having some trouble with VC++ 2008 on mah computer. Whenever I Try to build something, I get the "error spawning mt.exe" error. Any way to fix that?
Post subject: Re: How did you learn programming? Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 4:42 pm
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Marcello wrote:
But why the [censored] don't they teach a real programming language like C/C++.
Because Java is a real language
Marcello wrote:
They're going around praising Java for it's cross-platform capability, but with some work, it is possible to port the program to other platforms,
Yeah, if you have lots of money everything can be done.
Marcello wrote:
and those C ports will run faster than Java any day.
Any benchmark?
Marcello wrote:
And tell me this: when was the last time you bought a program written in java? I for one have never bought one - nor have I seen a Java based program for sale.
Post subject: Re: How did you learn programming? Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 5:09 pm
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Marcello wrote:
And tell me this: when was the last time you bought a program written in java? I for one have never bought one - nor have I seen a Java based program for sale.
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