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[woggie]

I was in a conversation with tylik and it occurred to me I should ask this of the group at large:

"As for coding, I've made the attempt to learn coding a couple of times, but it all seems to boil down to the same problem: I don't honestly know how to learn the info I need to solve the problem

Comments

[herbmcsidhe]

It's been a long, long time since I wrote any code, but I started out in COBOL and Fortran - which should give you an idea of just HOW LONG it's been. :)

I think the last time I actually wrote any code was in Basic for the Commodore 64. I haven't a clue when folks are discussing programming languages these days, and wouldn't recognise the difference between C, C+, C++ or F-. As for the API's, well, I know what the acronym means, and that's about it.

[woggie]

COBOL fills me with both fear and loathing. On one hand I fear trying to learn it because I'm not sure enough graph paper exists in the world for me to map out my keystrokes with. On the other hand I loathe it because I've seen COBOL code, and it looks like someone designed it to be verbose, and I'm just not that much of a typist.

FORTRAN just worries me, since I'm not good with math, and never have been.

You have my sympathy. :)

[tylik]

My first language was BASIC (hey, I was five or so) my second was FORTRAN. The first my father taught me, the second I more or less taught myself by playing with code written by my dad's grad students. (Mostly I was their mascot. Sometimes I was the bane of their existence. Um... sometimes I worry if there is some cache of karma that's going to get me now that I'm a grad student

[woggie]

My first language was BASIC, and I haven't really learned C or C++ yet. Honestly, I could probably pick up BASIC again, but I've forgotten much of it, so I'd probably just have to start over again.

I tried going to school to learn C, but school was in many ways a train wreck, which is one reason I don't go to school to learn this stuff. I don't think I'm well-disposed to school tactics. It kinda beat me down trying to figure out how I best learn.

I wanted to learn C and then C++ because there seemed to be a lot of code written for it, and a lot of my friends were using it, so I figured I'd have people to talk to. I found Dev-C++ for coding in. I found something about C++ in "The Secret Guide to Computers", which seems a little too brief. I got "Teach Yourself C++ in 10 Minutes" and "C/C++ Programmer's Reference" to try to nursemaid my way through it. I'm told there's "The C++ Programming Language", but I was only able to find the one for C, so I'm confused about whether I can use that book or not. I fear I've fallen into a pattern

[tylik]

Stroustrup's "The C++ Programming Language" is *the* book. (Design and Evolution is more... philosophical, really.) It's the best reference, and the best one I know of to learn from. (OTOH, I can't stand most beginning language books. Or most writing of computer books. And I adore Stroustrup. So I might be a little biased.)

I'm using g++ and a text editor right now. I'm a bit biased towards starting that way and using more involved dev environments later on if you have need. Don't worry about learning OS specific APIs at first. Don't worry about learning a particular environment - start with the core language, and go from there.

[woggie]

What do you use for a debugger? Do you use a debugger?

Of course, this probably exposes my basic ignorance of g++.