[CallOfKtulu]

Ok I have been a wonnabe techie for years I know the basics such as I know how to reinstall windows I do a good bit about XP and its coponents but I hav eno idea how to program so what Im asking is can anyone help me learn basic programming is there a site I can be taught this?

[tommyboy123x]

i'm sure that you don't know this, but many people around here don't like when people ask "how to program," because the best place to learn is here. I've really noticed that people are always interested in learning programming and hacking in a day or so, but it really takes years to learn it enough to be like the "person on 24" or something when they click "upload" and a dialog pops up saying "uploading virus..." and all this stuff. Another tip for the future is to tell what language(s) if any you know.

If you want advice as to where to start, you should most likely start with the most simple of programming, HTML. whenever you want to learn a language, simply go to google and put "[programming language, in this case html] tutorial" with or w/o the quotation marks and go to one of the links.

Once your done with HTML, or if you already know it, you will want to check out something else simple. I would recommend either Python or PHP. Both are great "bridge" languauges for the "final point" of programming...

which is the more complex C/C++/C#/Visual Basic/etc. these will be the most complex and require you to know how more than one language works.

One thing i must recommend is that you become familiar, i mean very familiar, with HTML, PHP, and one of the C/C++... languauges. When i first learned i read through a tutorial in a day or so before a vacation, went on break, and when i came back forgot everything and had to re-learn it. So take your time when learning a language. The best thing to do is to play around with all of the commands you know for a day or so, and see what happens when you use quotation marks, or when you put an alphabetic value when a numeric one should be present. Experimenting is a great thing, use it.

Also, as you may or may not know by now, programming takes a lot of skill and abstract thinking. Once you work up to something like C++, you will spend hours looking for one simple error that was caused by not putting a ";" after a line of code...

Finally, you must make sure you have fun with your code and again, play around with it to make weird results.

[raross]

Although I agree with some of the things you're saying, not all is correct. Python and PHP are just as hard to learn as any other Object oriented language. If not more complicated. PHP v5, now has OOP and AOP. The easiest way to learn programming, is not with html. Anyone can "code" html. Get a book on the programming basics. For instance, you should learn about iteration, selection and everything that is useful in ANY programming language. Google is a good resource, but you would be happier with a book.

Programming really is not that hard, what becomes hard is the more complex real life problems that you will need to solve with any high level language. That is when knowledge of high level math comes into play.

[SoLaRiZe]

I started to learn programming with Java. This programming language also features OOP. I think the sooner you know OOP the better. Because most languages use this paradigm.

Just invest in a good programming book and then the transition to other programming languages will not be that difficult.

[tommyboy123x]

even with oop, i still say python and php are MUCH easier. in php, all you do is say

<?
echo "hello";
?>

and you will have a page that says hello. Same with python (except print). With c/c++ you will have to include headers, make sure that the program your making doesnt just print "hello" and close, and so on. PHP and Python are also much easier to debug. I have spend hours trying to debug a c++ code for a calculator. In PHP i spent a good part of a day making a program that takes a password, associates it with another depending on the first letter of the other password, calculates the ASCII value of each letter and adds them together, multiplies that number by three, adds four, and separates every two digits with a period. Doing that on C++ or C would take MUCH longer IMO.

But i do agree on how a programming book would be better than google, but to learn some basics and diversify (and save money) google is always a great start.

The easiest way to learn programming, is not with html. Anyone can "code" html

not true, HTML teaches you things you must know for other languages as well as gets you an easy way to move to more complex languages. For example, HTML will teach you to use the proper syntax (if you follow a well written book/guide). It will teach you about ending a line (or closing a tag). You may also do a little bit of debugging as well because you forgot to close the center tag. I think it is vital to start out with html. Also, it will give you a rewarding feel to know that you can make something on a computer, such as a web page. Sure it may be simple, but a great foundation for future languages such as PHP which requires knowledge of HTML, especially forms.

[fitzjj]

I don't necessarily disagree with what tommyboy123x is saying, but i'm not entirely sure as to whether php is a great language to learn with. Data types are an important part of programming and since php is so loosely typed i feel the transfer from php to, say, C would be all the more complicated. The syntax used in php is... well it's C syntax! so why not learn C, a beginners tutorial wont put you in too deep to start with. - also php really requires a webserver with php installed, C just requires a compiler.

[TheHeadFL]

Yeah I don't think you want to get used to using a loosely typed language either. That will set you up for trouble in the future.

[furtivefelon]

geez, do we need another thread about this??

please search the forum before posting, which generalizes to think before you act..

http://www.tech-forums.net/showthrea...threadid=17862