Finishing Intro to Java class moving on to advanced Java this Summer and I will also be learning MYSQL & SQL Databases this Summer so I'm wondering what langauge I can study in the mean time to keep me well versed. Thus far I'm not really sure if I can handle software programming as from what I've heard web programming is much easier. Perhaps C is a bit easier then Java but what would you recommend I begin to learn?

Should I learn .net or is that to advanced?

This post has been edited by tnachbauer: 8 May, 2009 - 10:13 AM

why not keep learning Java?

I would suggest something along the lines of Python, Ruby or Lua as they are ridiculously easy to learn. You could probably get a good grasp of Python in about a week or two. Hello World? print "Hello, World" there. Whole program. And sometimes its fun to use a language where you don't have to debug so much, and work with a language that's a little different than your used to.

This post has been edited by erik.price: 8 May, 2009 - 12:17 PM

Learn .NET as it is a recommended language in the future.

vb.net or asp.net

why not C++?

I think it depends on what you are wanting to learn. I'm assuming that you intro to java course was an object oriented class, so if you want to continue learning that style of programming I would say explore Java more. If you want a change of scenery C# is also a very powerful object oriented language.
If you are wanting to get into web programming I would start with a firm grasp of html and css. They seem simple and boring, but you'd be surprised how much you can do with a solid understanding of these two languages. After that you can fart around with any number of scripting languages. Javascript and PHP are especially cool because there are alot of scripts out there that you can download and play around with. I would be careful when you get into some of these scripting languages though. They are very easy to use and sometimes the ease of use overshadows whats really going on, and it is import to understand exactly whats happening when your write something.
My favorite language combo to play around with is C# and he XNA game framework from Microsoft. C# is just like java so you'll be able to figure things out quickly. There are a ton of tutorial for the XNA framework. You can have a pretty sweet game up and running in a month no problems.

Hope this helps!

Thanks sbromley ur post really helped alot my question is where can I find some good FREE sites to learn or would u recommend a book if a book which book? I've been to w3schools and it's really basic and almost useless I really want to learn both sides of the programming world but first web being that im learning object in school
Thanks again for ur help

I usually don't use books, but thats just because I don't want to pay for them. The ones I do have are helpful though.

As far as web programming goes w3schools is a solid place to get your bearings in a language. After I just figure out what I want to do then google search until I find a solid example or an example thats really close.

I don't know what you're are using to write your code, but if you don't have anything check out notepad++. It supports a wide variety of web languages.

Hope this helps!

Most people probably think they can't handle software development after taking one class (I didn't know a damn thing about programming when I became a computer science major), but if you stick with it and find a niche for it, you'll stand a fighting chance. There are a lot of opportunities out there for java developers. If you like java in the slightest sense, just keep learning it. C# is another popular object-oriented language created by Microsoft, and they're not all that much different from each other in terms of syntax. .NET, which C# is a part of, is no more complicated than the next language. One of the popular key differences between an older language like C++ and C#/java is memory management; you have to manually reserve memory in the system, maintain references to those pointers, and release the memory, which can really bite you in the ass. C#/java automatically handles memory management even though it may not be as timely as that of C++. I know, because I'm a Delphi/C# developer, and the pointers in Delphi have kicked my ass every now and then when I'm debugging. Unfortunately, I can't recommend Delphi to you because the demand is not as high nowadays.

Glad to hear you're learning about databases, because that's essential in this industry as well.

For web development, I wouldn't say that ASP .NET is easier than creating desktop applications, but it requires a different way of implementation and thinking; i.e., session management and postbacks can bite you in the ass.

Like sbromley, I don't use programming books. I used them when I was in college and didn't know a thing about programming, but afterwards, I've found that I would open a book, read a few pages, then close it and let it collect dust. I'm also cheap too. I've been learning solely through the internet for a few years; every time I got stuck on something, I used my friend, google, and that seems to be my choice method of learning. I'm not saying that I recommend that you do that, but there are a variety of tutorials for beginning and advanced topics online. You can start off by searching the forums here if you need help with anything.

What's the point in learning languages if you don't know what to do with them? I may be a master at swinging a hammer up and down, but that doesn't make a carpenter, if you know what I'm getting at...

Computer Science is all about the math. So learn that. One subject that you should absolutely master is algorithms and data structures. Might as well start it now.

This post has been edited by Dantheman: 28 May, 2009 - 03:38 PM

It's interesting to see so many vouch for .NET but I'm curious now. Do people actually hire you to sit in their office to drag and drop buttons onto a form these days? And if so, what are some of the popular programs going around that are made by .NET frameworks? I don't remember ever downloading a VB application and saying wow this will be useful. Many people seem to use it as a hobby tool or gag to launch scripts and inject DLL's. If .NET and C# is really that great then I'd like to take a second look at them. All this time I thought Microsoft released XNA just to ruthlessly promote XBOX and again, monopolize as much as possible because DirectX was dying out slowly.

Think about how difficult it would be for any company to actually convert to this framework. Where I work ever since we started doing web apps its been java based. We've slowly built up repositories and technologies all based on Java. It would be almost impossible to convert and use .net for the simple reason that its not java based.

But because I've seen all these different frameworks, like spring, struts1, struts2, ruby on rails, groovy on grails, and on and on, its easy to see that the .net framework is very useful. Its unfortunate that it can't be used more in the industry.

I did however think of an example of how it is used in the company I work for. We have an inter office networking site. Like facebook or myspace, but just for employees. And it is completely driven off the .net framework. It was developed in under a year and is an amazing application.

This post has been edited by sbromley: 5 Jun, 2009 - 01:06 PM

That sounds like a wacky place to work where a year is spent on creating a private myspace. There was a lot of hype about Ruby but now it got quiet again. Was hoping it would escalate for the same reason as .NET applications. Give this science a more welcoming front and encourage everyday hobbyists with some motivation to hop on board with a little effort. But it seems people will continue to drop like flies from introductory programming classes and never touch the stuff again. It is a lonely career as it is.