Thread: I Have No Place To Start

I just came up with a smashing idea for a new program, but I am unsure which language I should learn to write it in. I want to be able to assign, say the "q" key to activate a variable everytime it is pushed. I wish to be able to do this with all the keys but escape. I also want the variable to be a sound, so please tell me what i need to LEARN, or teach me!

C or C++ should be able to do all that. Start with a tutorial on the basics of said languages.

yeah..... about that, do you know any good freeware C compilers, the only ones I have found dont work, and i am -excuse my language- flat on my ass broke~

Dev-C++ is free and very popular. It works with both C and C++. Go to http://www.bloodshed.net.

Wow, that was quick, thank you!

YYYAAAARRGGGG!!!!! Ok, so I think to myself, golly gee that sure was helpful, this will be easy now, but no, it cant just be easy. I have gone to many different tutorials, and each of them have a different code for the "hello world program" the dev compiler can run any of my programs, and I see things like this, and have no idea what to do.:
"To compile this code, type cc samp.c. To run it, type a.out. If it does not compile or does not run correctly, edit it again and see where you went wrong."
WHERE DO I TYPE cc samp.c, where do i find the box to type a.out, I need a tutorial that will really help me learn, do you guys have any suggestions?

if you are using dev-c++ you dont need to compile through the command line. there should be a compile button there on your top left

I don't use Dev-C++, so I can't directly help... But DON'T GIVE UP. Dev-C++ is one of the most popular free compilers. You should start-out with a popular compiler, so that you can get help.

Compilers are usually tricky to set-up, configure, learn to use. I've used several (mostly obscure) compilers over the years, and I don't remember any of them working as expected "out of the box". Take your time, read the documentation... carefully! Don't feel bad it it takes you half-a-day to get "Hello World" working.

One "gotcha" to look out for is the Program Window Dissapearing Before I Can See The Results problem. This is a Windows operating system issue. It's not a problem with C++ or the compiler.

but I am unsure which language I should learn to write it in.

C/C++ is the most universal, and most popular programming language. Word, Excel, Windows, and Linux are all written in C/C++. You can get a C or C++compiler for just about any processor/platform. However, it's not the easiest language to learn... There is a lot to it!

Before you start, you should be aware of the things you can't do in standard C++. Because C++ is portable and will run on any machine, there is no sound, golor, or graphics in standard C++. Also there is no way in standard C++ to get the program to respond to a keypress without hitting the ENTER key. Of course, compilers like Dev-C++ do have additional non-standard libraries to do this stuff.

And, it takes awhile to learn programming (any language). I usually compare it to learning music. How long does it take to learn to play the guitar?

for the "disappearing window before the program executes problem" simply type:

Code:

system("pause");

right before the return at the end of main. I know this works in C I dunno about C++

Originally Posted by stodd04

for the "disappearing window before the program executes problem" simply type:

Code:

system("pause");

right before the return at the end of main. I know this works in C I dunno about C++

about.com's C++ tutorial is pretty helpful. It's probably the worst C++ tutorial in existance, but it really, really helped ME a lot.

Originally Posted by stodd04

for the "disappearing window before the program executes problem" simply type:

Code:

system("pause");

right before the return at the end of main. I know this works in C I dunno about C++

the system() function is in the stdlib.h header so it is probably in the cstdlib header (c++).