🚀 go-pugleaf

Francois wrote:

> Hi everybody,
>
> I am a computer musician, and having dabbled quite a bit with computers
> (including lots of diving under the bonnet) I got totally interested in
> computers as well as programming, and I'd like to get some advice from
> people in the programming business as to what would be the best thing to
> start with. I've never done any programming before and I am going to study
> it  from books at home on my spare time.
>
> So what's suppose to be the future? I know - "prediction is difficult,
> especially about the future", obviously the Internet is quite a
> hot area in the moment, with progammes like C, C++, Java, and others (I also
> heard that some of these programs were pretty tough to learn). Would there
> be a gradual route to follow? What should the first program to start with?
> Or is there another route than the internet? Any specific book along your
> recommendation?
>
> Thanks for your learned advice.
>
> Francois

Francois,

This is not the best place to mention this, but why not start with Visual Basic?
It's
incredibly simple, and most of the basic concepts it uses are used in every
other
object-based (which is what Visual Basic is) or object-oriented (which is what
C++, Java, and the like are) programming language.

For a beginner, I would not like to have to understand:

public class helloworld extends Applet implements ActionListener
{
.
.
.
}

With Visual Basic, and especially its IDE, you can drag form elements onto a
form,
get the computer to write the code for it. Then all you have to do is write the
code for each form element that needs it.

On the other hand, Java, in its pure form, like C++ (which is its closest
relative),
does not have an IDE. Thus, everything in Java must be done by hand-coding.
There are various Java IDEs like JBuilder or Visual J++ (using J++ means that
only
Windows can run the programs that are built using Java, and the point of
Java is cross-platform compatibility).

So, my advice - even though I am a beginner at Java, I've had experience with
other programming languages. And my experience (however limited) tells me that
Visual Basic is a very good starting place. If you can't get to grips with
Visual
Basic, then you're going to have a hell of a learning curve trying to understand

Java or C++.

From,
Ray.