Thread: Where and How did you learn to program?

  1. #1
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Posts
    5

    Question Where and How did you learn to program?

    The title says it all, but I would like to know this so I can get a good start on programming so I won't waste time and money.

    Of course C++ is the most popular language, but if you started with something else please let me know. I am just wondering how you got from Point A to Point B!

  2. #2
    Jack of many languages Dino's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Chappell Hill, Texas
    Posts
    2,332
    I don't think C++ is the most popular language.

    Self taught. I started with REXX in 1984. Then assembler. Then I lose track.
    Mainframe assembler programmer by trade. C coder when I can.

  3. #3
    Registered User
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Posts
    120
    in my oppinion (im a starter too and self taught as well) is that you start with c if u want to go to c++. search for good online tutorials or books about c because that will preety much give you what you need to move on to c++.

    and also, dont hurry things because thats how usually people give up.

  4. #4
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Posts
    5
    Quote Originally Posted by shiroaisu View Post
    in my oppinion (im a starter too and self taught as well) is that you start with c if u want to go to c++. search for good online tutorials or books about c because that will preety much give you what you need to move on to c++.

    and also, dont hurry things because thats how usually people give up.
    Could you tell me what you used to learn C?

    Thanks, Adam.

  5. #5
    C++ Witch laserlight's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Singapore
    Posts
    28,413
    Quote Originally Posted by shiroaisu
    in my oppinion (im a starter too and self taught as well) is that you start with c if u want to go to c++. search for good online tutorials or books about c because that will preety much give you what you need to move on to c++.
    In my opinion (I am beyond the beginner stage but I am partially self taught as well), you should start with C++ if you want to learn C++. On the other hand, you probably will want to learn C too, so the order is really your choice.

    This messageboard has a forum dedicated to C and another dedicated to C++. There is a book recommendation sticky thread in each of them.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bjarne Stroustrup (2000-10-14)
    I get maybe two dozen requests for help with some sort of programming or design problem every day. Most have more sense than to send me hundreds of lines of code. If they do, I ask them to find the smallest example that exhibits the problem and send me that. Mostly, they then find the error themselves. "Finding the smallest program that demonstrates the error" is a powerful debugging tool.
    Look up a C++ Reference and learn How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

  6. #6
    Woof, woof! zacs7's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Australia
    Posts
    3,459
    Eiffel (it's the best), Perl, Bash, sed, awk, C, C++, Java, Javascript and now I'm working with C# :-)

    In my opinion start with English if you want to learn C or C++

    Quote Originally Posted by RialnisMada
    Of course C++ is the most popular language, but if you started with something else please let me know. I am just wondering how you got from Point A to Point B!
    You'll find most language surveys do not support that statement.
    Last edited by zacs7; 08-09-2010 at 03:59 AM.

  7. #7
    C++まいる!Cをこわせ!
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Inside my computer
    Posts
    24,654
    Guide to learning language (C or C++):
    • Read good beginner's book.
    • Do lots of exercises.
    • Read good books of topics you want to specialize in.
    • Attend some programming course (optional; but it makes you smart).
    • Hang out on this board, read and answer newbie questions.

    This is the ultimate guide to the ultimate programmers
    Now get to work!
    Quote Originally Posted by Adak View Post
    io.h certainly IS included in some modern compilers. It is no longer part of the standard for C, but it is nevertheless, included in the very latest Pelles C versions.
    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    You mean it's included as a crutch to help ancient programmers limp along without them having to relearn too much.

    Outside of your DOS world, your header file is meaningless.

  8. #8
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    3,229
    I'm almost completely self taught. No books either. Just online tutorials, Google, and this forum.

  9. #9
    Lurking whiteflags's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    United States
    Posts
    9,613
    I bought an incredibly thick book called Teach Yourself C++ in 24 Hours and read it one November a few years ago, then I went to college.

  10. #10
    Registered User NeonBlack's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    431
    I bought an incredibly thick book called Teach Yourself C++ in 24 Hours and the next day, I was an expert programmer.
    I copied it from the last program in which I passed a parameter, which would have been pre-1989 I guess. - esbo

  11. #11
    Lurking whiteflags's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    United States
    Posts
    9,613
    It was a misleading title indeed. But that's the level of quality on shelf at my local bookstore.

  12. #12
    Registered User VirtualAce's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Posts
    9,607
    I learned to program in BASIC in the early 80's and moved to C++, skipping C, shortly thereafter. Later I learned assembler. I learned to program on my own but did take a BASIC course in high school. Myself and another fella were so far ahead of the class we were given special assignments just so we would not be bored. We essentially completed the actual course in about a week or so and then moved on to other projects to keep us busy. Good course but I wanted more and I had outgrown BASIC.

    I learned C++ primarily on my own with the help of one or two books. Back then I didn't have the internet and had to stare at the old Borland Turbo C++ yellow text on blue background help screens to figure it out. It was quite intimidating but once I figured out the structure of a program (main, headers, declarations, definitions, etc) the rest was pretty much smooth sailing.
    Various personal game projects presented many many challenges that required a wide range of skill sets that enabled me to research a vast range of computer science topics.

    But in short, my drive and my passion and this board and its many brilliant members were instrumental in greatly accelerating my C++ skills.

  13. #13
    Make Fortran great again
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Posts
    1,413
    Quote Originally Posted by cyberfish View Post
    I'm almost completely self taught. No books either. Just online tutorials, Google, and this forum.
    Same. I started with QBASIC in 1999.

  14. #14
    Password:
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    NC
    Posts
    587
    Quote Originally Posted by Bubba
    I learned to program in BASIC in the early 80's and moved to C++, skipping C, shortly thereafter. Later I learned assembler. I learned to program on my own but did take a BASIC course in high school. Myself and another fella were so far ahead of the class we were given special assignments just so we would not be bored. We essentially completed the actual course in about a week or so and then moved on to other projects to keep us busy. Good course but I wanted more and I had outgrown BASIC.
    Basically, I lived this guy's beginning in this millennium.

    I started with Visual Basic, until I started to see it's limitations. One I noticed the flaws of too high level, I started my search for the lowest level possible, spending a few months with C(I learned very little the first time I tried C. I was actually using a C++ compiler, but my code was still all C compatible because I had no grasp of OOP.), then finally finding asm. I learned asm, and it taught me the usefulness that C provides. A few more months with C taught me the intuitiveness of C++ and OOP in general.

    My opinion: Start with what you can easily understand and have rapid progress. As you get better with a language, almost any language, you'll learn the basic concepts that are universal to programming. For example, I learned functional programming from VB, instead of all the code in one function, I learned it was better to separate the code into functions, a function for each purpose. In asm, I learn that asm is not best for big projects . In C, I learned to use layers of abstraction. My search for better abstraction lead me to C++. I've learned everything I know about computers in the last year. You'll notice that I've had a reason for moving on to each new language. That's the best way to know that you've learned a language. You can see it's strengths and it's weaknesses and the remedies to it's weaknesses. I've learned everything I know about computers in the last year, to give you an example.

    Edit: As to where, I just had questions, and people on forums, or Google, answered them.
    Last edited by User Name:; 08-10-2010 at 06:57 AM.

  15. #15
    and the hat of sweating
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Toronto, ON
    Posts
    3,545
    I taught myself Basic & C around grade 9 or 10, then learned VB in school. When I started working I taught myself Visual Test, C++, Perl, Rexx, Groovy, Java, Bash...
    "I am probably the laziest programmer on the planet, a fact with which anyone who has ever seen my code will agree." - esbo, 11/15/2008

    "the internet is a scary place to be thats why i dont use it much." - billet, 03/17/2010

Popular pages Recent additions subscribe to a feed