4 replies to this topic

[kruegs35]

I am trying to figure out the OOP language to learn. I do not have any education in programming, but I have discovered how much I enjoy programming and would like to pursue a career in it. I started writing vb in excel. From there I messed around with vb.net. I picked up on it pretty quickly and although I am still a beginner, I feel that I could do well advancing through the language. Our programmer at work strongly recommended that I start writing in pascal. He writes everything in pascal and claims it is the best, most robust language available. However, I mentioned pascal to another programmer, and he dismissed it as out-of-date. I also notice there is not as much info available on the web about pascal as there are other languages, such as C++.

Is working with pascal worth while, or should I be directing my efforts at other languages that are more current and will make me a more marketable programmer when I am experienced enough to get a programmer job.

I have one more question. How do you get ideas for programs while learning the ropes. I tend to think of big, complex ideas that end up making me frustrated and quit.

[WingedPanther]

Pascal has been replaced by object-pascal (used in Delphi and Lazarus). Delphi is a mature language that is still used, but C++ is also mature and used. Object-Pascal, C++, and Java are all good for learning OOP.

As for programming ideas, find a website with programming challenges and solve them. Start easy, and work your way up.

[G_Morgan]

It doesn't matter which language you learn OOP in. You are better off picking the language where you can get answers to your questions quickly. So if a mate, family member or so on knows an OOP language you are probably better off picking the same. Moving from language to language is trivial once you understand the principles.

I don't agree with your work mate on Pascal. The most robust language available is Ada and that is a pig to work in as well. Pascal is safer than C but is also more difficult to work in because it has significant weaknesses on a language level (especially the way it types arrays, int[5] is of a different type to int[4]. Makes generality difficult). The major reason not to use Pascal though is the lack of resources around the language. There are few libraries and tutorials available. Comparatively C has libraries for just about anything you can imagine. Neither are OOP though.

If you want a recommendation on a specific OOP language, the ones that have the most resources available are Java and C++. C# and VB.Net come in behind them. C++ exposes you to a lot of low level issues like manual memory management which are worth learning to handle but aren't part of OOP as such. It is, however, the most efficient OOP language available.

As for getting big ideas. Try to find concepts you can start off small with and advance through small changes. Nobody writes big software. Everyone writes smaller stuff and incrementally add to it over a long time. There aren't many projects that cannot provide value with only 5% of the work done.

[kruegs35]

Thanks for the help. I am using Delphi and I think I have found enough tutorials to keep me going for a while. Also, I do have my coworker, who is more than willing to give me a hand when needed. I just didn't want to devote a lot of time to a language that by the time I was proficient, it would be obsolete.

My coworkers big agrument for pascal was that he does not have to build an install package and it will run on any computer.

[G_Morgan]

kruegs35 said:

Thanks for the help. I am using Delphi and I think I have found enough tutorials to keep me going for a while. Also, I do have my coworker, who is more than willing to give me a hand when needed. I just didn't want to devote a lot of time to a language that by the time I was proficient, it would be obsolete.

My coworkers big agrument for pascal was that he does not have to build an install package and it will run on any computer.

Deployment shouldn't be a big issue for any language. I certainly wouldn't pick a language on that basis. I'm not sure what he means by 'run on any computer'. I can't see how that is possible since it compiles either to .NET or native Windows code. Neither will run on a Mac or Linux machine without some serious hacking (there is Mono but it isn't close to complete).

Delphi is a bit funny. It has it's community but it certainly isn't immensely popular.