HI everyone

I'm pretty new to this kind of stuff so I came here hoping to find some help and guidelines, since I don't even have a basic knowledge about programming

My ocupation is 3D and graphic design, but recently I got interested in software development.

I've asked a few people from where I should start learning end exercising and almost everyone gave me a diferent answers.

So considering that I'm a total beginnerI hope someone can give me some guidelins from where I should start, which language I should use etc.

Thank you for your time

Best regards

I think Pascal or Basic are good places to start, if you don't have any programming experience. I learnt Pascal first, I thought it gave me a good idea on the fundamentals (i.e. datatypes, functions, etc) because that's what's most important; fundamentals.

I did Pascal for maybe 6 months (transitioning over to Delphi in that time), then no programming for a few years, then I started learning Java and C++, and the stuff I did in Pascal really helped me understand everything so much better.

That's because there isn't a right way. What you can accomplish with limited learning will be... limited. And if you are going to dedicate time over years to software development, then it won't matter really.

In any case, I presume what you are trying to say is you want to get into programming, and everyone suggested a different language. You need to be able to take initiative as a programmer, and form decisions on your own. If you get 10 different suggested programming languages, and don't know what to pick, investigate each on your own, look it up on Wikipedia, Google, and their official websites. Look at how easy the instructions are, what Google and the websites say for learning resources, how much money it costs, etc. Make decisions.

I've consistently recommended Python to beginners. It has a number of qualities that make it attractive to any programmer, but especially to beginner programmers. It's a mainstream language. It's popularity is growing or steady. Learning resources are accessible (many books are freely available). It's a good swiss tool, scripting language, a good general purpose language, and an excellent launching pad to various types of applications. For example, web development, simple automation and various scripts, hooks into various programs (some programs used in 3D and compositing, etc., have Python support).

Pascal deserved better I think, but it's not mainstream enough anymore. Try finding Pascal help on this forum. Not as many people for C, C++, Java, C#, PHP, Perl, and Python. Ouch. Pascal's a good language, but you decide.

As for Basic, well, you take a look as well. BASIC is a family of languages. They have similar syntax, but you need to pick a specific variant. Some cost money. Some are outdated. THe big one, Visual Basic .NET, is a .NET language, and in that case, I recommend starting with C#, which has more mainstream and learning support.

I agree with Oler1s that Python is a great language to begin with. But I will also suggest C#, great starter language.

Great place for learning C# is http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vcsharp/bb798022.aspx, it has wonderful videos.

You should start with something using a common syntax, like C# or Python. You can start with C or C++ like I did, but first you should learn the basics of programming. A good way to do that is with web development/scripting. If you want to start with C/C++, first dabble in PHP or something similar.

My recommendation:
1) C#
2) C++
3) C

p.s. Don't start with any BASIC languages (like BASIC, or VB (VisualBASIC)), they teach a bad syntax for starting programmers.

Thank you so much for ur advices ppl. I think I'm having an idea now from where I should start.


btw only one dumb question about this, but since im a new to this please don't mind ... do I have to know "html" to start with php ?

Thanks

This post has been edited by Gogymotion: 8 Jun, 2009 - 11:43 AM

You do not. I would only recommend php as a first language if you were going to be doing a lot of web development. I highly recommend Python or Ruby as well - they each have differing philosophies. Python is probably better for a first language. It's clean, consistent, and good.