18 replies to this topic

[abdulrauf]

:)A person having no prior programming experience and he is interested in learning programming but he confused which language should he learn first Java or C++ or any other programming language what will be the best way? kindly give your valuable comments. Thanks in advance to anyone who gives their attention here.

[WingedPanther]

Short answer: it doesn't really matter.

Long answer: it depends on his goals. If you want to make web applets, then Java. If device drivers, C or C++. It really all depends on the long-term goals. For web programming, maybe PHP would be better.

[DarkLordofthePenguins]

C++ teaches you how to program. Java speeds up programming by providing a $hitload of classes. Learn to program before you learn to program quickly. In addition I would suggest you start by learning how algorithms, data structures, and dynamic memory management are implemented before you jump into GUI programming with a framework. Some people only learn to rely on a framework for programming, thus failing to prepare themselves for more advanced work that requires a deeper understanding of software.

[lethalwire]

Quote

C++ teaches you how to program. Java speeds up programming by providing a $hitload of classes.

In java, the programmer can easily restrict the usage of any of these classes. They aren't required to use the classes provided.

[iceman4154]

lethalwire said:

In java, the programmer can easily restrict the usage of any of these classes. They aren't required to use the classes provided.

True but I say someone that has not prior programming experience should start with something understandable but that will prepare them for later tasks. Honestly, in today's technology field, you would probably like to get started with C#. It's easy to understand, reliable and you still learn some of the basic C type syntax. This is coming from a C biased programmer, if you start with C, you have a higher chance of getting frustrated and quitting before you actually learn what you are trying to learn. I know some people will say C# is **** and I agree to a certain degree but for beginners with no prior knowledge, C# is more likely than not, your best choice.

Ryan

Edited by iceman4154, 18 February 2011 - 08:45 AM.
Forgot an "r" in "you" lol

[lethalwire]

I haven't studied C# but it seems like they slapped the best worlds of C++ and Java together. So yea, C# is probably another good language to learn. :)
I plan to learn it.

[ZekeDragon]

DarkLordofthePenguins said:

C++ teaches you how to program. Java speeds up programming by providing a $hitload of classes.

I disagree. C++ teaches you how to hate programming. C not so much, since it is clearly and unabashedly a pretty low-level language, but it certainly proves to you that a computer can't think on it's own, as well as forces you to learn how the underlying computer structure works (how data is represented in memory and such).

iceman4154 said:

Honestly, in today's technology field, you would probably like to get started with C#. It's easy to understand, reliable and you still learn some of the basic C type syntax.

I disagree. C#'s syntax is only superficially similar to C's, and it's semantics are in another world. While I can't say whether or not C# is a good language to learn from in itself, seeing as I've never used it, I can say that I learned the most of my programming not from bracketed languages like C and C#, but from Python, which is what I'd suggest the OP look into.

[RhetoricalRuvim]

I think it depends on how that person wants to learn things. That person might start learning high-level and gradually learn more low-level stuff and learn how a computer works. Or that person might first want to learn how a computer works, along with the processor and memory, and then learn very low-level things (such as assembly language or machine code) and then go up by programming language levels. It's probably the person's choice of how that person wants to learn programming. (When I first started learning programming I thought there was only one language, so I searched, in Google, something like "the programming language" and got some Ruby tutorials link, so Ruby was the first actual programming language I tried.)

[dargueta]

C, Java, then C++ in my opinion.

[grisha]

C, C++, Java.

I'd recommend that order because in my opinion it's good to start with procedural programming. Moving (quite easy) from C to C++ to learn the differences between procedural and Object Oriented Programming, and then hit to Java or C# for "fully" Object Oriented environment.

[DarkLordofthePenguins]

Is that you, Grisha, from the aspie forum?

[rocketboy9000]

Go for Perl, C and then C++ or C# or Java (those three are identical IMO.)