Starting out - programming

Hi, soo.. I've been meaning to invest the rest of my summer break learning a bit of programming and get started with some simple apps that'll give me some foundation on which I can add to.

So my prior experience... I took an AP Computer Science class and learned java at school this past year. Unfortunately, any education I ensue in the next 4+ years is gonna cost big $$.

So for the most part, we didn't do anything too advanced... didn't touch any kind of visual interface. Mainly stuff you'd find on webpages to prompt for random information, and do calculations and whatnot accessing different classes, and arrays and such.

Now java in my opinion is a ugly code. Needs to run on a runtime environment.. slow, bloated, and hogs resources... 'in my opinion'.

So the first thing I want to do is find a nice solid language to start with. Something that speaks - "standards", "flexible", "lightweight", and "robust".. or something along those lines.

-It'd also be nice if there was a free compiler I could start with like dev-c++

Now I was thinking c++, particularly because I've read that the syntax is similar to that of java, or C, because I've read that programs written in C will result in slightly better performance than those written in C++... but I wanted to hear it from the experienced programmers before I regret it later on.

#465582

I didn't know anything about programming, nothing, zero! I read a book called LEARNING COMPUTER PROGRAMMING by Mary E. Farrell (ISBN 1-58450-061-1) and it changed my life. It teaches the very fundamentals concept of any programming language and you don't have to be in front of the computer because you don't have to type anything, it is a very abstract book(you may say not very practical, but very powerful conceptually speaking).

I'm not a super programmer now, but 1 year ago I couldn't do anything, now I'm programming serious stuff.

If you want something extremely simple yet powerful check out RUBY or PYTHON, both Object Oriented(like Java), free and the syntax is almost natural language, specially in Ruby.

If you want something "standard" and widely used, just stay in C or C++, although the first one is a procedural language and the second an Object Oriented One, more like Java.

#465653

Check out this thread -->http://www.aqua-soft.org/board/showthread.php?t=43957

#465657

Thanks gcarcass: I'll check that book out next time I hit the book stores.

And thanks sirSmiley, but I've checked out just about every thread in this section.

The problem is that the thread recommended just about every single programming language at least once... and that doesn't really help, as I'm trying to choose one specific one. So I kind of gave my own specific personal background experience and such so you guys could help me narrow them down.

#465677