What programming language

Roody · Post by **Roody** » Sat Oct 11, 2003 8:53 pm

Is best to learn first if you want to get a grasp on the rest of them? I took Visual Basic while at Devry and a C class, but I was confused with C. Should I start with C, or go with something else?

in2deep · Post by **in2deep** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 6:09 am

Concepts such as variables of different types, control structure for looping, decisions branching and subroutines/functions are common to all high level languages, so with a VB course, you already know a good deal.

What confused you about C?

Immortal · Post by **Immortal** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 3:41 pm

I learnt starting from "turing" then "C#" then "VB.net"

It worked out great slowly learning from one to the next.

Roody · Post by **Roody** » Tue Oct 14, 2003 9:19 am

Originally posted by in2deep
Concepts such as variables of different types, control structure for looping, decisions branching and subroutines/functions are common to all high level languages, so with a VB course, you already know a good deal.

What confused you about C?

I seemed to pick up on VB okay when I took a VB class at DeVry. As for what confused me about C we had a god-awful teacher, and he really screwed us up on it.

in2deep · Post by **in2deep** » Tue Oct 14, 2003 12:04 pm

VB is, of course, largely object oriented, (you can write non OO VB programs, but few peple do). C procedural, not OO, to use objects you should learn C++.

Otherwise loops are loops, if's are if's etc. The syntax varies a little from language to language, but the concepts are broadly similar.

cyberskye · Post by **cyberskye** » Tue Oct 14, 2003 7:04 pm

My boss - a developer by training - told me that she wished she had started with Java - any OO would have been better than C.

Same arguement as starting with BASIC teaches you bad habbits. Not that C is a bad habit, but you approach things a little differently. Java doesn't allow you to make syntax errors so that makes it easier to learn for some than C++; unless you're coming from C...

The only (or main) downside to VB is that it only runs on windows. C and java run anywhere (though C apps can require a lot of porting).

Can't write a server in VB....

parse27 · Post by **parse27** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 4:00 pm

i started with c, then ended up with vb. wish i had stuck to c then migrated to c++ and so on.

Mantle67 · Post by **Mantle67** » Thu Nov 13, 2003 9:52 pm

I am liking the java classes that I am taking now, it is a lot like C++ but seems to be a little easier. (I am taking AP Computer Science as a HS Senior)

BigAmp · Post by **BigAmp** » Fri Nov 14, 2003 1:36 am

hey, I have been taking all kinds of programming for the last few years.. and I would have to say to get going you need a well layed out class that you can really get a good idea of what makes a good program and what you need to do to make good coding. so i would say start with VB. I have not really had someone say they had a bad class of that, just may be that ot was too easy. then move in to something like C++ to get started on OOP, or move up into one of the OO's like C# or Java.

but remeber it is importaint to know how to porgram not just take what others have done and use it. for that reason there are a lot of bad java and C# classes out there.

have fun and good luck!

vinnie · Post by **vinnie** » Sun Nov 16, 2003 5:14 am

OO doesn't exactly spring to mine when someone says VB... o_O

Learn Java or C++, they're fun, remarkably similar at a low level and if you learn one the other is much easier to learn afterwards.

I remember learning GW basic through trial and error in the good old days, then qbasic, VB, C, C++, then Java. Then things got a little bizarre with Eiffel, SQL, SQLJ, assembly, Perl, and then Prolog. Basic didn't help with C. C++ is somewhat easier than C in some aspects if you take your time.

C++ and Java are completely interchangable at some levels, with a little reworking of declarations and the like, you can sometimes port whole chunks of code. There are plenty of freely available resources for both out there.