[Joe's Student]

To programmers on BD:

The thing is that I'm interested in learning some form of computer programming, but unfortunately I have never had any hands-on exposure to it i.e I don't know where to start. Bearing in mind that I don't have any experience of programming and that I'm unsure of what I would even like to program, I was wondering could anyone here on BD point me towards a good website for learning the basics and whatever background knowledge is necessary to begin?

What language would any programmer here suggest to start off with? As I've said I'm not even sure of the kind of things I would like to program, so I have an open mind. Preferably something basic, a good platform from which I can bring the background skills and concepts to go on to more complex languages.

Thanks .

[unreality]

One of the hardest aspects of programming and learning a new programming language is getting off the ground. There are tons of different languages. Some would argue that x is better than y, etc. I say that JavaScript is one of the easiest to work with, since all you need is a text editor and an internet browser. But it helps to have knowledge of C first. The first languages I learned were HyperCard and BASIC, it sort of snowballed from there.

But coincidentally, there is such a system here on BD. Check out "VNA" in the games section. There are three different versions up to this date. The language is an abstract, very limited low-level machine code meant to create warrior programs within an abstract "array" environment, so many of the actual features won't be transferrable to a higher-level language such as C++ or Java. But the most important part of programming is the mindset and the logical picture of the process... things which you can get for sure from VNA.

[Guest]

I agree with Unreality. The first step is to get into the mind set of what exactly programming is. Something like the VNA would be a good place to start. Alternately, simple little flash games like Bot Light are pretty amusing, and can be helpful as well.

That said, when it comes to learning programming languages themselves, learning a scripting language (or a "scripting" language, in this case) like Perl is probably the easiest first step to make. I also happen to know that there are some excellent Perl books out there that describe learning to program within that language. That will help get you in the door so to speak.

If you are looking to get a JOB in programming, then going through a degree program is pretty necessary, and I would say that having a solid understanding of all the major aspects (algorithms, assembly level stuff, as well as how that translates to other languages, OOP, etc.) are pretty vital. However, I will look up what the Perl book is, and we'll see where we can go from there.

[plasmid]

Perl seems like a good place to start. Not only is it pretty easy to get started with, but it's still pretty flexible and reasonably powerful (not in terms of graphics or user interface by any means, but in terms of everything from computations to file handling). And it's pretty similar to C, so it would be an easier switch if the time does come.

If you have a Mac or Unix or Linux machine, Perl will already be installed and you can just start using it from the command line. If you're using a Windows box it doesn't come pre-installed. I suggest downloading ActivePerl (it's free, you don't need any sort of professional version or anything), and once you've installed it you'll have Perl on your system. It installs stuff like a Perl Package Manager, but you will never need to use it, you can just run perl code from the command line.

To write a program, open Notepad (or whatever basic text editor you prefer) and start typing the source code. To make sure you've got Perl installed correctly, you could try saving this simple program

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;

use warnings;

print "Hello, world";

When you're done, save it in plain text format as hello.pl somewhere. To run the program, open a command line window on whatever system you're using, go to the directory where you saved it, and type "perl hello.pl" and it should run. It will just print "Hello, world" right underneath and then give you a new command prompt.

As far as where to go to learn how to program in Perl, you could try going to http://www.perl.org/books/beginning-perl/ where you can get all the pdfs for each chapter of the Beginning Perl book. No need to go out and buy a book if that one does the job for ya; if you finish it, you would probably only need to go to perl.org for command syntax reference stuff from there on out.

Edited May 4, 2009 by plasmid

[Joe's Student]

Well from your suggestions I looked at Perl as a start, so I'm going through the basics of it now. It has nothing to do with trying to get a job in programming, it's just something I have been interested in for a while now but didn't know where to start. Also b/c I hope to do physics in university, I have an idea I'll need at least some background info on it. So hopefully through this I'll manage to "get into the mindset of a programmer" and go from there.

Thanks alot everyone for your help .

[Guest]

Well from your suggestions I looked at Perl as a start, so I'm going through the basics of it now. It has nothing to do with trying to get a job in programming, it's just something I have been interested in for a while now but didn't know where to start. Also b/c I hope to do physics in university, I have an idea I'll need at least some background info on it. So hopefully through this I'll manage to "get into the mindset of a programmer" and go from there.

Thanks alot everyone for your help .

I think the first thing you should do (like mentioned above) is to learn the whole process logic behind programming, you must try to see common activities with a pretty abstract point of view. After that and when you understand the use of iterations and yes/no processes it's all downhill...

It really doesn't matter what langauge you choose, wheather it's C or Pearl, all you need to know is the basics, once you learn that you can use any language by just studying the very specific things (this on a high level and for basic operations).