Learn programing

[test84]

I think Visual Basic 6 is perfect for beginners.

 

[vhunter]

I think Ill start with visual basic (while im learning alot of math) to start.

Now I need to know how to learn it. I've seen alot of books in bookstores and computer stores, its that a good option?

 

[psycoblaster]

I started with TI BASIC (fun to play around with XD)
and then I went into Visual Basic... it was an easy programming language, and if you have an objective, then you'll quickly make that program true- if you just mess around with the functions, you can do almost everything

Then I went into Flash Actionscript... (you'll start to notice many functions are similar to other coding languages)
Build some easy flash games such as pong...

 

[Issac]

I guess there are visual basic books there for you, which can be useful. but online documentations are also very good (which is usually free).
I dont know how well a book can teach you programming though, I think it'd be much more easy talking to people (or have a teacher).

But try to get a book which uses a well written language and tries to explain things thoroughly, not just "use a wysiwyg-tool of your choice, and then drag that icon five times there and you get an application". That type of book wouldn't teach you anything really. Get one which explain what a variable is etc. (even if you know, the chanses are high that the rest of the book will be of much higher quality than others).

Also, do some researching on amazon.com for some books, and look at the user reviews

always good.

As for the language you choose: I have no experience with it, so I can't help you with book recommendations, syntaxes, "think of these things..." etc.

@CockroachMan: Well, NASA uses it, Swedish SAAB uses it for their JAS airplanes. many of these "THIS CAN'T CRASH UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANSES OMG OMG OMG!"-applications / machine programming is written in ADA.
The program is not dead in that sense, but to the common user, it is. no one would make a game in ADA, etc. BUT the syntax is useful for learning, because it doesn't use any {}'s

just "begin" and "end"

CODEbegin loop parameters
do something
end loop
like that

really basic, but easy to understand

EDIT:
[edit]

I wouldn't recommend ActionScript to anyone.. maybe my most hated enemy, but no one else. I find that language completely incoherent, using one type of functions there, another one here, using parameters in a weird way some times, and over all it's all very random if things work.
With ADA, C, C++, Java, MatLab, and Action Script, which I've learnt 'em all.... Action Script is the worst piece of shit ever! but that's just MY oppinion, just so you know

[/edit]

 

[CockroachMan]

I wouldn't recommend ActionScript to anyone.. maybe my most hated enemy, but no one else. I find that language completely incoherent, using one type of functions there, another one here, using parameters in a weird way some times, and over all it's all very random if things work.
With ADA, C, C++, Java, MatLab, and Action Script, which I've learnt 'em all.... Action Script is the worst piece of shit ever! but that's just MY oppinion, just so you know

Indeed.. Actionscript is very "random".. you can use ; at the end of statements, but if you don't use.. it's fine! You can declare variables stating a type, or just declare it or don't declare at all! Also, Flash lets you put code in almost every thing.. some times it's hard to find where the code is! Anyway, the language is based on JavaScript which is also random like that.. ActionScript 3.0 has corrected most of those weird things, it's a lot more solid language now

 

[Issac]

I wouldn't recommend ActionScript to anyone.. maybe my most hated enemy, but no one else. I find that language completely incoherent, using one type of functions there, another one here, using parameters in a weird way some times, and over all it's all very random if things work.
With ADA, C, C++, Java, MatLab, and Action Script, which I've learnt 'em all.... Action Script is the worst piece of shit ever! but that's just MY oppinion, just so you know

Indeed.. Actionscript is very "random".. you can use ; at the end of statements, but if you don't use.. it's fine! You can declare variables stating a type, or just declare it or don't declare at all! Also, Flash lets you put code in almost every thing.. some times it's hard to find where the code is! Anyway, the language is based on JavaScript which is also random like that.. ActionScript 3.0 has corrected most of those weird things, it's a lot more solid language now

This is part 2 of my "hate action script"-thing... They updated it all, so with my long forgotten skills of action script failed me, when I sat down with a newer version of flash in school. things didn't work the way they used before, and things like that makes me sick

I know this happens all the time, but when the most basic things that we learned all are reworked, then you get a little bit mad sometimes

 

[The Teej]

I personally can't say where you should start off from, seen as I did 4 years of desktop programming before I moved onto games. Java and C++ have similar syntax, the whole idea of .java vs. .cpp & .h (where basically in java all of the variables and methods are called and used in the same source file, where as with "proper" C++ programming, all of the variables and methods are called in the .h (header) file while all of the actual code execution is done in the cpp file) can be kind of weird if you start off in Java game development and then move to C++.

Most game developers use C++ anyway, Java is only good for crappy mobile and internet games anyway, and even mobiles are starting to get OpenGL now thanks to steps forward like the iPhone.

 

[Helmut]

ADA is recommended as a first programming language by many school and teacher around the world. It's a very good language to learn algorithm basics and it is quite powerful. And NO, it is absolutly not obsolete. It's a language that evolve often, the last standard has been made in 2005. It has been created by the Defense Departement of USA and is still in use by the NASA.
Scripting language can be a good choise to. Like PHP which is really straighfoward and extremely documented (and funny because of the instant feedback). Python & Ruby are a little bit more complicated.

Then, I would recommend C in order to learn what a pointer is and understanding how computer memory management work. And then, C++ to learn everything about object oriented programmation and generic stuff.

I DON'T recommend Java & C# as a first or second language because:
- they are purely object oriented, not a good start to begin algorithm
- they are managed, so there's not really pointer gymnastic, and it's the best way to be a bad developper who don't mind about what is allocated or not (and then code memory ungry application).

In my every day job, I see programmers that started with Java, and when I look at their code, I'm quite disapointed...

C# is a very great language, it is starting to replace Java in most of the software industry. But like Java, I really recommend to come from the C++ before, in order to be a good developper.
C# also starts to have a not so small market share in the game industry, and I don't speak about web or phone games. Most of the Xbox Live Arcade games are made in C#.

And well, forgot about all the Basic & Delphi/Pascal thing, they are really deprecated since Microsoft started C#.

ASM is very good to know how a computer works (very important to code really well), but could be very difficult to learn, and very useless today.

 

[Sors]

I'd say learn C++, after learning that cheecky language, most others will seem easy to learn if you need them, the other way round C++ will always confuse you until you put very much time into it (like you could do by starting with it)
When i started it was very difficult to find a good free IDE and tutorials, but DevC++ from Bloodshed should be all you need at first, and as tutorial http://www.gametutorials.com/gtstore/c-3-c-tutorials.aspx was the most helpful to me (wow i really wonder google helped me to find those again).
After that grab some low level api (like SDL) and make some simple tech/graphic demos, should be easy to do, it's fun and very rewarding.
For the next Step get a higher level api (like ClanLib or Irrlicht, not DirectX) and try to program a small game.
And as a general, stay away from all microsoft code and apis as long as you haven't gotten a personal solid programming style, because microsoft code is very unstructured and illstyled which shouldnt take over to you

oh and a last tip, learn to use google, it will be your most helpful tool all the time, almost more important than your compiler

 

[Helmut]

And as a general, stay away from all microsoft code and apis as long as you haven't gotten a personal solid programming style, because microsoft code is very unstructured and illstyled which shouldnt take over to you

Could you argue?


SDL is a high lvl lib, and DirectX is a lower one (SDL make internaly use of directDraw on a win system for non accelerated 2D graphics).

 

[Hit]

Visual Basic 6!