learning programming

wolfeking

wolfeking

banned
Can you all suggest some good books that I can use to learn to program? I want to start by building simple programs like games or an animation or such, and move on to building an OS.

Don't care about the language (comp. lang that is. I can only read italian and american). Its ok if it is technical minded as I pretty much learnt to read on hynes manuals.
 
Well, you'll really need to pick a language for this. If you are just getting into programming, I suggest going with python, as it is really easy.

When it comes to programming an OS, then you'll need to learn assembly and C. Assembly will be required to write the boot loader but then you can move on and use C for the actual OS.

As for a book. you can have my python programming book if you pay shipping. One area that text books are actually helpful is programming. I have a C++ book as well.

and considering you live in madison, which is really close to me, it'll be there in no time.
 
if you will going to build some applications like game you should know first the foundation of programming like java programming language which is you will find ---> HERE.
 
I don't see Java ever taking off for game development. It has it's uses but gaming isn't one of them.

Jumping right into C/C++ or other low level languages is usally a steep step. Like above, I'd suggest python or ruby or something high level like that (Basic is also an ok option).
 
One thing I would say that really helped me was using a programmable chip such as the arduino Duemilanove I started off on this and although not fully c++ (its close but is off on a few key parts) it is nice because you can put code in to allow inputs and outputs and see it physically (Leds and switches).

When I started I had an idea to use inputs and be able to turn my light on and off in my room. Since I knew the design and what I wanted to do it was easy to learn because I knew what it was doing.

But in truth, you could kinda do the same thing on c++ in virtual and not go to the hardware level but its what ever you think would be the most fun. Remember if its not fun, you will not remember as well.

Just my 2 cents
 
My recommendation is the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 which is the newest eidition of the Visual Studio and also the easiest.It is the development environment which contains few GREAT programming languages in which you can make anything you want including games.So it contains Visual Basic (VB),C# (C-Sharp),F# (F-Sharp),C++ (C++ / C) and great tools,MSDN help center and you can also find MANY text and video tutorials for the C# programming language and other Visual Studio built-in languages!
I personally use Microsoft Visual C# 2002 (don't ask me why 2002 lol) and it's great and powerfull as hell.My recommendation for you is the VB 2010 because it is very easy,logical and there are many tutorials for it.You can start with the video tutorials and THEN move to books.Do NOT use books at the beginning because for the beginners it's very hard to learn these thing from the books.You can however buy Microsoft Visual Basic Express 2008 programming for the absolute beginner.Here is the link:

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Pro...05/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1297213193&sr=8-11

Things from that book ALL apply to VB 2010 so don't worry about it.

Now...since the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional is about 750 dollars and since you are the beginner,I STRONGLY RECOMMEND YOU to download the VB or C# 2010 Express edition.It is free and you can make a LOT of things in the express edition and it will be MORE THEN ENOUGH for you,especially if you are just starting.However if you want the entire Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional package,here is the link:

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-C5E...TO8S/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1297213477&sr=8-8

But like I said...its too expensive,you dont need that because the VB express 2008 or 2010 will be even too much for you now ;)

NOTE: You must know more then basic things about the informatics in general if you want to be making powerful programs or even games.I am currently working on the Mini OS in the Microsoft Visual C# 2002 which is going to be running under the Windows OS.


Cheers!
 
I say start with Python, it will teach you the fundamentals, though Python also may help develop bad habits since Python uses white spaces for their syntax instead of { }

I say then learn C. C is the base for most languages and you can branch out to C++, Objective C, and every other language that shares similarities with C.
 
Cromewell said:
I don't see Java ever taking off for game development. It has it's uses but gaming isn't one of them.
Click to expand...

RuneScape? it's Java based. I believe that Civilization 1-5 uses Python. I'd love to recommend the Ruby language, here's a sample of the hello world program in ruby, very simple:

Code: 
puts "Hello World"
 
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Java won't ever make major games, maybe hand held games since Droid is all Java.

hello world
Code: 
/bin/echo "hello World"

/usr/bin/printf "Hell world"

/usr/bin/python -tt
print "Hello World"

main( ) {
        printf("hello, world");
 }
 
puts "Hi, what is your name?"
gets.chomp == name
puts "hello,"+ name + ", how are you today?"

It'll ask you your name, you enter it and it replies. cool, no? :D

to be honest, I haven't quite gotten past this stage of programming.
 
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I'd recommend C++ before C. It might make more sense to learn C first since C++ was built as an extension to C, but C is actually a lot harder IMO. Granted, C++ has advanced features that can make your life even harder when learning but the basics are, in my opinion, far easier to pick up.
 
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