Big Time Newbie

Hello I'm to the board and new to programming. I am pretty much the biggest noob there is in the world of programming. Though I am very interested in learning how to program I'm not sure where to start. I have done three lessons of the C programming tutorials so I guess I know a little bit about programming but pretty much just a noob that knows nothing about programming. I think programming is fascinating and I was excited to get started programming even got DJGPP C compiler but I read somewhere that C is not for rank beginners. Should I just ignore this or start with something smaller. Reason why I wanted to start to program is to one day be good enough to design a game and C or C++ is the best to do it. I really need some guidance so your help would be appreciated. Thanks.


-Roman

I was really asking what language I should start with since I'm a complete newbie, I was just interested in game development. I hear that Visual Basic is really good to start with and you can do lots of cool things with it.

But you know I believe anyone can start from any language really and so far I see that C is not that hard to learn. Just a matter of preference I guess.

I just don't understand why people say that C or C++ is a bad language to start with. Oh I don't guess you can point me to some good tutorials?

Most beginners start at least with web programming experience or something before C/C++, eg. HTML, PHP, Perl, VB, Pascal, etc. But you don't seem to have a problem.

Beginning C++ is actually easier than C and learning it first means you probably won't have troubles breaking C habits when you start using C++ primarily (as it is).

Learn C++ then C if you really want, then whatever libraries are required of you. win32, OpenGL, DirectX, SDL, boost, etc.

Have you programmed never before? also no webscripting? Well, I recommend you the same what Dae says, I am not the one who knows it all very well while I am almost such a noob like you! But I done some php before. If you ever wanna do a webscripting use php because some structures are very simular to c++

I rambled with Visual Basic, HTML, and Javascript. But never anything seriously. This language so far is fairly simple to learn however somethings are difficult. I'm sure with good tutorials I'll be ok so if anyone has any feel free. Not sleepy tonight so I'll be up all night.

VB is great for "grey box" applications in a hurry. To get into high performance coding though, you will need an optimised compiled language. I think you should stick with C/C++, you seem to be doing okay.

I learned C++ first without prior programming experience. So go straight with C/C++.

Quote:

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I hear that Visual Basic is really good to start with and you can do lots of cool things with it.

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..at the sacrifice of speed and flexibility.

VB is not a good language to learn programming in. Today it is so tuned to the Windows API it's like BASIC for Windows. Not good.

If you want to learn basic programming concepts w/o worrying about all the razzle dazzle of graphics I would recommend using QuickBasic 4.5 or 7.1 PDS. There really is no reason, however, why you cannot just jump right into C/C++. But if that is intimidating, the concepts you learn in QB45 or QB71 can be applied to C/C++ quite easily.

To be truthful the farther you stay away from Windows GDI crapola the better off your game programming adventure will be. Windows GDI has NOTHING to do with graphics concepts used in games. Your better off learning DOS 16-bit or DOS 32-bit graphics programming. The memory problems of 16-bit programming will teach you a lot about memory management and how to maximize it's use. You will be writing memory managers for a game for most everything you do. This is why I say that most, if not all, of the knowledge gained from DOS graphics/game programming will be helpful and/or applicable in DirectX and/or OpenGL at some time in your foray into the wonderful world of game code.

Some may disagree but Windows API and VB is NOT a good place to start, especially if your interest is game programming. Nearly all of the principles involving matrix math, rasterization, bit blts, sound programming, etc, etc. that I learned in DOS are directly applicable in modern day DirectX. Accessing the video memory in DOS is so close to accessing a texture surface or surface in DX, it's pitiful. Selecting a bitmap into a device context, however, is about as archaic as the Atari 2600.

But if you don't want to go back to DOS to propel you forward, do this:

1. Get MSCV 6, .NET 2003, or .NET 2005. (I recommend 2005)
2. Get the DirectX or OpenGL SDKs (I don't recommend one over the other)
3. Buy a beginner's book on DX or GL.
4. Code.

NOTE: When using DX or GL you should know what is happening underneath each API call, or at least have some grasp of the concepts. Blindly using API calls to accomplish tasks with no thought as to how they are accomplishing the goal is ludicrous and will not help you. So, if you call it, understand it.

I don't recommend these for good games programming experience.
1. Visual Basic (objects in this language are a joke - more like pseudo-objects)
2. Java (don't make me go there)
3. Windows GDI or Win32 programming (nothing to do with graphics concepts)
4. SDL (hides too much from the coder, corners you into a certain design)
5. Allegro (Ditto #4)
6. Dev C/CPP (extremely hard to get working with anything)