[alexsmart12]

Right now I'm learning Lua and the commands are easy and i know what a code means, but i just can't remember how to write a code because i don't know where to start, what i mean is that i KNOW HOW To read a lua code and tell what it means but i don't know how to write one BECAUSE if you mess up ONCE,(the most common for me to mess up is a space or brackets or caplitazion) I have to remember all of this?!? Also, can you tell me if there are programming classes in high school, if there are, tell me if all high schools do programming classes, also, my brother had this Java book at home when he was still in school, and its 900 or so pages!! but now hes 24, the Java book is the 2005 edition, please tell me if i should learn Lua first, or Java. I want to do programming because i want to create my own video games, if programming is too hard for me i might do animation for my job.
heres the summary of my questions:


1. what programming language did you start with?
2. Was it hard at first, were you frustated, or did it became easier, i know you have to memorize every single capilaztion, seems hard right?
3. are there programming classes in high-school?
4. Is Java a good language to learn after Lua?
5. Please tell me your programming story from beginning to end, including how you felt and what language you started with, include details)
6. How did you learn your programming language? (it can be any language, but Lua is prefarable)

[jon.kiparsky]

1-2 I started with BASIC or PASCAL or the Bourne shell or perl, depending on where you want me to have started. And yes, it's alays frustrating when you start. And yes, you do have to memorize a lot of arbitrary rules, because computers aren't smart enough to figure out what you mean reliably.

3 There are certainly programming classes in high schools, but I don't know about your high school particularly.

4 Java is a good language if you want a strong, safe, general-purpose language suited to medium and large projects and large distributed programming groups. It's strongly object-oriented, which is a very nice feature in a language, and you can do a lot of different sorts of things with it.
It's not a difficult language, fundamentally, but all programming requires that you bring yourself to the machine. It won't come to you.

5-6 Maybe some time when I'm not at work...

[modi123_1]

RE: #2 - depends on your area. Where are you in the world?
REL #5, #6 - we have a ton of topics already covering this in minute detail. Just look at the first three or so pages the the student area, software development, and the cubicle corner.

Examples:

http://www.dreaminco...th-the-experts/
http://www.dreaminco...826-qa-answers/

http://www.dreaminco...u-start-coding/
http://www.dreaminco...s-be-like-this/

http://www.dreaminco...d-why-do-you-do

Let me guess.. you are picking up Lua for World of Warcraft?

[alexsmart12]

since i go to high school after this grade, (I'm going in 8th grade) i might ask middleschool technology/wood guy if there are programming classes in the high school, also i think Java will be easily enough for me because i'm not using the book, its something better called codeyear.com, it's fairly easy. Thanks for the help, i won't give-up now im only a beginner and beginners make mistakes

[Ryano121]

1. Started at college with Delphi with zero programming experience. I literally thought that programmers sat around typing 1's and 0's all day.

2. At first I found it very difficult. Kept forgetting the syntax and missing semi - colons. Plus I could never really understand any of the error messages. It gets better with practice, just don't give up and don't cheat. It will get your nowhere.

3. Maybe, maybe not.

4. Any language is good to learn after any language

5. mod's links

6. Get a book. Get a good book. Read it from front to back and practice, practice, practice!

Also Java is not the same as Javascript which is taught in the link.

This post has been edited by Ryano121: 19 June 2012 - 11:30 AM

[alexsmart12]

@modi No I'm learning Lua to make better games in RoBlox, its been a year now since i joined and im just starting to learn how to script

[baavgai]

1. BASIC, the kind with line numbers. Did Pascal in high school.

2. Yep, it's hard. You're building a foundation. At first you have only sand and nothing has anywhere to sit in your brain. Eventually, you'll be able to go "oh, yeah, like that other thing..." and you're off. It can always be hard, but in different ways. You'll know when you're "getting" it.

3. Usually. Most programmers are self learners, though. And never let the teacher you know more than they do.

4. Java is a good language. It's popular and teaches good skills. Lua is a wonky little language. The mainstream language it is most like is Javascript. ( A language completely unrelated to Java. I know, it doesn't make sense to anyone else, either. )

5. How much time you got? I picked up a BASIC book and stared running through the examples. And then fiddled with the examples. This is still basically how I learn a new language.

6. Self taught. ( Philosophically, we're all self taught... ) I actually learned Lua once. Same as above: grabbed working snippets and started to try to get something to work. I ultimately achieved my goal of the "One click Warlock" in WoW. Click a button, wait for mob do automatically die, repeat. Shortly there after they nerfed the engine, but I did learn a lot.

[ishkabible]

1. with C++ but I didn't too outside of little tiny C programs that fit in main until after learning to program in VB.NET and ActionScript2. I then came back to C++ and it's been my life blood ever sense.
2. yes it was frustrating. but I liked it when I solved an issue and I kept going
3. if your school is big enough and funded well enough then most likely.
4. Anything is ok to learn. Java isn't bad, C++ isn't bad...just don't go learn VB6
5. I started with C++ but I'm not sure I would call that programing. After a bit of C++ I begin to work with VB.NET to make a calculator but I was still not really learning too much. Later I took a flash devolpment class in high school where I started to make my own games. That's when I feel like I really started to learn. I only did that for half a semester then I came back to C++ and started looking at remaking some of the games I made in the flash devolpment class. I mostly used SDL but also did some stuff with OpenGL. I worked quite a bit with Lua from embedding it in games and found that I really liked the Love2d game engine. After a while I got interested in language devolpment and that's been my primary interest for the passed year or more. I've more recently started to try and learn the finer points of C++, namely templates. I enjoy the deeper understanding of the languge. I'm currently working on a domain specific language in C++ that allows you to create parsers that can build ASTs from any iterator; it's not specific to text. I've also been trying to learn functional programing with Haskell but that's a work in progress.

6. I read stuff(mostly online) and then tried it out in code.

no matter who you are, programing is learned with 3 simple steps: read, code, repeat.

This post has been edited by ishkabible: 20 June 2012 - 10:19 AM

[Game_Creator]

1. The first programming language I learned was HTML.

2. It was VERY frustrating whenever I wrote a hundred lines of code and missed a comma. I used notepad so I didn't have a debugger. It does get better though.

3. It depends on what highschool but most do.

4. It doesn't matter what language you learn after Lua. Roblox uses a sandbox version of it so it is not the cleanest Lua available anyways. Some sort of C would be good but learn Lua well first.

5. I started learning HTML three years ago in the 6th grade. I started with just text in front of a solid colored background and improved from there. I also learned a small amount of LUA. In 7th grade I took a high school class on web development and learned CSS. I also Learned a tad bit of Javascript. This year I hadn't done much until a friend wanted to make a videogame with me. We were to use Game Maker and since I wanted the computer to preform advanced tasks I couldn't use D&D. I found GML EXTREMELY easy to learn since I already had a basic knowledge of programming. I am planning on learning C# on the side and eventually switch over to that. Thats about it. My friend and I are still making that videogame btw.

[mojo666]

Quote

i don't know how to write one BECAUSE if you mess up ONCE,(the most common for me to mess up is a space or brackets or caplitazion) I have to remember all of this?!?

You are learning a language. For every language, rules exist and they may seem arbitrary, but they often eliminate ambiguity. There are differences between sentences that end with question marks and periods, there are proper ways to use commas, ect. You probably had just as much frustration learning english, it just so happens that people are a little better at deriving the meaning of what you write. Computers are not. Something as simple as changing the case changes the instruction that you are giveing to the computer.

1. I dabbled with pearl, but the first language I actually learned was c++
2. Not really, but I went through a series of classes that progressively taught c++ over the course of a year. I got use to the rules as they were introduced.
3. Very little where I went. The extent of our programming was a few basic scripts.
4. Many people start with java. I don't know much about lua but a major frustration in learning your second language is that you will struggle to adjust to the differences in the paradigms and features.
5. Don't have time at the moment for the whole story, but I got into programming because I enjoyed the problem solving aspect of it. It really had little to do with the languages.
6. Classes in college.

[cfoley]

1. what programming language did you start with?
BASIC on the spectrum.

2. Was it hard at first, were you frustated, or did it became easier, i know you have to memorize every single capilaztion, seems hard right?
I was 9 and had no expectations. I loved the idea that I could control the computer and each new thing I learned opened new and fascinating options for me.

3. are there programming classes in high-school?
There were in mine. Unfortunately, the curriculum was uninspiring.

4. Is Java a good language to learn after Lua?
Yes.

5. Please tell me your programming story from beginning to end, including how you felt and what language you started with, include details)
No

6. How did you learn your programming language? (it can be any language, but Lua is prefarable)
By practising. Practising enough to know the syntax for the commands, enough to know what the error messages mean and enough to build up skills to write bigger and more impressive programs. That's what you need to do too. Practice.

[cfoley]

Quote

4. Many people start with java. I don't know much about lua but a major frustration in learning your second language is that you will struggle to adjust to the differences in the paradigms and features.

This is true but I don't think I've ever seen it written down before. I learned it once through experience but forgot. Thanks for reminding me!

[no2pencil]

alexsmart12, on 19 June 2012 - 02:11 PM, said:

1. what programming language did you start with?

Did some QBasic in High School.

alexsmart12, on 19 June 2012 - 02:11 PM, said:

2. Was it hard at first, were you frustated, or did it became easier, i know you have to memorize every single capilaztion, seems hard right?

I don't recall it being difficult, but I also didn't take it seriously.

alexsmart12, on 19 June 2012 - 02:11 PM, said:

3. are there programming classes in high-school?

Chances are good.

alexsmart12, on 19 June 2012 - 02:11 PM, said:

4. Is Java a good language to learn after Lua?

I don't know Lua, so I can't say yes.

alexsmart12, on 19 June 2012 - 02:11 PM, said:

5. Please tell me your programming story from beginning to end, including how you felt and what language you started with, include details)

Wow, that's a lot of years & a lot of history.

I was enthusiastic to start doing pc programming with compiled languages like C/C++ rather than the interrupted language of QBasic. A friend of mine calvinthedestroyer came across (or told me about & I found?) a QBasic compiler. Looking back it was probably something to do with Pascal.

After high school I finally obtained a C/C++ compiler. I fumbled with it. Then in '96 a friend introduced me to Linux. Linux came with gcc (GNU C compiler) & as (assembler). From this I started to recompile tar balls (.tgz) that I downloaded. I also started doing a lot of shell scripting.

In 2004 I was introduced to PHP, & from that I started to learn mysql.

The rest is really a blur.

alexsmart12, on 19 June 2012 - 02:11 PM, said:

6. How did you learn your programming language? (it can be any language, but Lua is prefarable)

Step 1 : purchase books
Step 2 : read books
Step 3 : replicate data from books

[fromTheSprawl]

1. I started with C on College. I had no idea what programming was all about. I thought it was all drag and drop and I didn't know a thing about coding.
2. It was hard at first. Then I picked up a book about C Programming, read it on my own free time, got interested, then it went steadily easier from that point on.
3. I think so. My classmates told me they took programming on their respective high schools.
4. As Jon said, try Java first. More opportunities but that's not what you're aiming for right? It'll at least give you a good grasp of programming in general and can help you take on lots of other languages, Lua included, once you're good with it.
5. I was in school, now I'm at work. The end.
6. In school. I didn't get it well on that(never completely rely on your professors!) so I learned more as I code more. So just code and code. Practice makes perfect.

You know, if you get good following rules you'll get along fine with any programming language. Also, with your local police station.

[carnivroar]

Quote

2. Was it hard at first, were you frustated, or did it became easier, i know you have to memorize every single capilaztion, seems hard right?

I think you're getting frustrated for all the wrong reasons.

Programming is not about memorizing a language. You're always going to have to look up, maybe over and over again, how to write certain instructions. Focus on learning the concepts instead, independent of any language, because that's how you become a better programmer.

I've only been programming for 1 year (started with Python).