Thread: New to programming

  1. #1
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    New to programming

    I just started college and am planning to major in programming. I want to get a head start before I am scheduled to take programming classes. What is a good way to self learn programming? Should I start with C or C++?? What software do I need to get?

    Any suggestions on helping someone with no programming knowledge would be appreciated.

    Thanks

  2. #2
    Frequently Quite Prolix dwks's Avatar
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    Well, your choice of language should depend on what you're going to use in your programming class, right? You can learn C++ without learning C first, so that's not a reason to learn C if your class is about C++.

    What software do you need to get? Well, a compiler. Fortunately, most compilers out there compile C as well as C++. A nice one is Dev-C++ or Code::Blocks, both of which are free.

    How can you learn? Read some online tutorials, or better yet, get your hands on a programming book. Books are the best resource for learning programming at first, at least in my opinion.

    And, of course, if you have a problem, post your code on CBoard and you'll likely get help with it.
    dwk

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    Thanks

    Thanks for the tips. I am going to download Dev C++ and play around with it. It seems like there are tons of online tutorials to learn from.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by chief_darkcloud View Post
    I am going to download Dev C++ and play around with it.
    I wouldnt advise you to use some Integrated Development Environment (aka IDE: a software for making programming easy) in your case Dev C++ if you are starting from scratch and learning from Textbooks as it might scare you...
    And also most of the examples given in your text book wont address how to do the same in a IDE..
    you can get into using IDE
    dont get into IDEs untill you are familiar with Makefiles & headerfiles that you will learn about in latter part of your course

    stick to any simple text editor with syntax highlighting (automatically color your code) for now..

    All you need now is
    A text editor: you can easily get notepad++(windows) OR Kwrite/emacs(linux) that are free to download.
    A C compiler: GCC or MinGW these are free too
    C's Motto: who cares what it means? I just compile it!!

  5. #5
    Woof, woof! zacs7's Avatar
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    Of course there are tonnes of online tutorials, just don't get them from any old place (you don't need money, an education or a publisher to write online tutorials, hence any potentially unskilled 'programmer' could create them without a clue about what's going on themselves), perhaps start with the tutorials on this site and get yourself a good book from a respectable author, see the list at the top of this board.

    If you're beginning out then I would say an IDE is easier than using the command line to compile, or dealing with complex makefiles. If you're going to go with a text-editor I suggest vi, or SciTE (Windows, Mac & Unix) if you're into UIs.

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