Computing language

[nebula]

I wanna learn a computing language, where should i start?

should i learn HTML first? or just go onto something? i don't have any experience or knowledge of any atm.

 

[Woodrow]

It is interesting in how computer languages came about. I suggest that you try to get a very basic knowledge of the early languages. FORTRAN, COBOL and BASIC

This will give you a basic understanding as to how each language works as all of the newer ones are variations or shortcuts of them

From there try to find what is the newest language you are most apt to use and select that as the language to learn.

JAVA, JAVASCRIPT and HTML seem to be the most useful

 

[Forced_In]

I wanna learn a computing language, where should i
start?

should i learn HTML first? or just go onto something? i don't have any
experience or knowledge of any atm.

assalam

As far as I know HTML is not a real programming language rather it is a text
highlighting one. I have read recommendations for newbies to learn Pascal or
Python for procedural languages but I know almost nothing about them though.

wassalam

 

[GreyKode]

I think you should start with plain old C, from my experience once you learn it you can switch to any other language, it is the mother of all other programming languages.
Don't choose too easy languages like basic they are usually not as powerful as C and its derivatives(c++, java).

 

[Yanal]

Ask Abdulahi ,he and aabirsabreel talk computer a lot.

 

[Danah]

It depends on what exactly u want to do.
If you are planning to work on developing stand alone applications then I will suggest Java as its simple and powerful and JavaScript as well.

If you are welling to work on web designing then you can go with JSP(Java Server Page), ASP(Active Server Page) , or PHP (Personal Home Page)... I suggest PHP as most of websites use it now.

HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) is good to make you aware of how texts are formatted on pages, you don't really need to spend much time on it because you can use Microsoft frontpage that do all HTML codes for you. But you need at least to know how they are working so you don't feel lost. but as I said, it will not take long from you...couple of days and you are done with HTML

All the best

 

[GreyKode]

It depends on what exactly u want to do.
If you are planning to work on developing stand alone applications then I will suggest Java as its simple and powerful and JavaScript as well

Indeed Java is powerful, but I wouldn't recommend it for someone who has absolutely no previous exp., the OOP stuff at this stage will be very confusing. I thinks he needs to be introduced to the concept of programming down from the basics and not to worry about developing fully-fledged applications straight away.

 

[Woodrow]

I think you should start with plain old C, from my experience once you learn it you can switch to any other language, it is the mother of all other programming languages.
Don't choose too easy languages like basic they are usually not as powerful as C and its derivatives(c++, java).

I had forgotten about C that came out after COBOL and FORTRAN and seems to have combined the best of both. It should be an ideal starting point as everything after it is essentially the same.

 

[AabiruSabeel]

As bro GreyKode and Uncle Woodrow said, its recommended to start with C. It gives you a basis for understanding any other language later, be it C++, Java or any other Object Oriented Programming Language. C has very wide range of applications. It is also used in electronics for microcontrollers/microprocessor programming.

 

[nebula]

can anyone recommend any good websites or books that might be good to learn C inshallah?

jazakallahu khair for the replys so far

 

[GreyKode]

This is one very good book on C for beginners
Apress.Beginning.C.From.Novice.to.Professional.4th.Edition.Oct.2006

 

[Forced_In]

As bro GreyKode and Uncle Woodrow said, its recommended to start with C.
It gives you a basis for understanding any other language later, be it C++,
Java or any other Object Oriented Programming Language. C has very wide
range of applications. It is also used in electronics for
microcontrollers/microprocessor programming.

assalam

Hmm, Let me disagree with all of you. Assuming you want to learn the
procedural programming languages, I highly recommend avoid learning C as
the first language. For I have seen many programs in C which invoke
undefined behavior more than the number of lines they have! That means the
program may behave as expected in some cases and sometimes otherwise.
The main reason for this is the efficiency issues considered while designing C
I suppose , so that much of the work is put on the shoulders of the
programmer.

A language like Pascal on the other hand as I have heard puts much
emphasizes on the educational part. So when newbies even experts makes
mistakes the compiler is much more helpful in diagnosing those mistakes and
thus prevents confusion to a greater extend.

Also though I know little about object oriented paradigm I am pretty sure it is
easier to understand in a shorter time than to say some low level work on
languages like C. I suppose even C++ could be better starting point
comparing to C on condition that you find an excellent book and/or tutorial
for starters.

In any event use a good book and a forum/newsgroup related to the
language you choose and don't hesitate to ask your questions there/here
from respected experts.

If you intend to learn some other PLs for other purposes I suspect what sis
Saya has said is applicable.

At last I found this link which teaches some general programming concepts.
Though couldn't bother to read it all, this may be helpful inshaallah.

http://courses.cs.vt.edu/csonline/ProgrammingLanguages/Lessons/index.html

 

[GreyKode]

For I have seen many programs in C which invoke
undefined behavior more than the number of lines they have! That means the
program may behave as expected in some cases and sometimes otherwise

I can't think of any cases of difference in behaviour for the exact same lines of code.
The only thing that might be tricky is the portability issue concerning the sizes of variables.
But that is hardly a concern for a beginner.

 

[Forced_In]

I can't think of any cases of difference in behaviour for the exact same lines of code.
The only thing that might be tricky is the portability issue concerning the sizes of variables.
But that is hardly a concern for a beginner.

Let me say it in this way :

I have seen newbies posting programs say f.i. having 10 lines of code (ignoring
the braces and so on). But the apparently simple programs invoke more that 10
cases of undefined or implementation defined behavior as pointed by experts.
These can be out of bound index in a loop, many pointer arithmetic stuff,
calling printf and scanf with wrong parameters, not including required standard
headers, writing to unallocated memory location and so on. Interestingly these
mistakes are not limited to newbies.

 

[GreyKode]

Well, if he abides to the language rules and standard practices he won't get into trouble.

These can be out of bound index in a loop, many pointer arithmetic stuff,
calling printf and scanf with wrong parameters, not including required standard
headers, writing to unallocated memory location and so on. Interestingly these
mistakes are not limited to newbies.

If you are suggesting that all these problems are nonexistant in Java then youre right, But still I think that procedural/structural programming paradigm seems more natural to start with for a newcomer.

 

[Woodrow]

Well, if he abides to the language rules and standard practices he won't get into trouble.

If you are suggesting that all these problems are nonexistant in Java then youre right, But still I think that procedural/structural programming paradigm seems more natural to start with for a newcomer.

I second that opinion. Starting with JAVA might be easier to begin with, but can get you stuck if you try to move out of JAVA plus learning C or one of the ealier languages gives you an understanding as to how a language works and gives you things to look for when debugging.

 

[Forced_In]

Well, if he abides to the language rules and
standard practices he won't get into trouble.

Good point. The language standard is hundreds of pages full of technical
words. Not an easy read for a newcomer who wants to get the basic ideas.
All these does not mean that a programmer is helpless rather it would be
more difficult to start with something like C in the first place.

If you are suggesting that all these problems are nonexistant in Java then
youre right, But still I think that procedural/structural programming paradigm
seems more natural to start with for a newcomer.

Well Pascal is a procedural PL AFAIK. Only with more help for newbies out
there. Java mainly an object oriented PL. C++ is a multi paradigm one.