Where can I start learning programming? Lots of people say start

YouTube. Just pick any and start watching guides

>I want to be a great programmer.
You're going to have to learn C sooner or later. You're not necessarily going to use it, but you'll have to understand it.

Python or C# might be better for noobs to get a feel for programing though. Depending if you like to take a top down or bottom up approach.

C++ or C# if you're just going to learn one language of those.

>>17992722
>Depending if you like to take a top down or bottom up approach.

what do you mean?

>>17992785
C is closer to how the hardware actually works.
Python is on a higher abstraction level.

You can either start at a high abstraction level and work your way downward, or you start at a lower abstraction level and build yourself upward.

>>17992816
So, like python is easy to program and stuff, but c and the like is a bit harder to program?

Which way is easier -> harder?

>>17992698
don't start with c++ . I've been programming for like 3 years and it still scares the shit out of me.

you could start with c if you want to be a purist.

the easiest thing to do though, is just write some JavaScript and run it in your browser. JavaScript can be a pretty spooky language under the hood but it has the lowest barrier to entry , and you can learn all your loops and conditional logic and data structures without worrying about development environments and compilers and such

>>17992820
Python is pretty disconnected from other languages , it behaves pretty differently than most but I hear a lot of schools start with it now so it could be okay for learning. the thing with c and c++ is that you need to manage the computer's memory manually. so you're deciding how to work with bytes and where to store them and how to point to them. it can be overwhelming when you just want to get a grasp of the basics.

>>17992832
That's certainly true for C, but you can get pretty far with the C++ standard library with worrying too much about memory, so i feel that's a bad argument against C++ as a newbie language.

Java and C++ are pretty similar.

Python is where must universities seem to start.

Ruby is pretty simple and contrarian

>>17992851
No, not really.
Java and C# are similar.

OP here. So I guess i'll go Java -> c++

how's that?

>>17992917
Only thing Java is good for is as a training wheels language, so i guess that works.

>>17992933
dam. what did java ever do to you?

>>17992933

don't make comments about things you don't understand

>>17992933
>This language that is widely used for enterprise scale applications around the world is only good as a training wheels language
Here have your (You)

>>17992698
What do you want to do?

>>17992917
Java is alright, but learning g c++ after will trip you up. Too many things that are named the same but act subtly different.

It won't be the most common course, but I'd recommend Java or JavaScript -> a brief stint in C# to learn a very similar and familiar language -> C to get the basics of C family languages -> C++ as an end goal

It's how I taught my brother to program, and every step was important in making him as good as he is now (he does gamedev and hobbyist OSdev)

>>17993560
I want to make games.

>>17993571
Sounds good, but what do you mean by a brief stint of c#? When should I know when to stop?

>>17994232
if you want to make games, download unity and learn c#. there's billions of great documentation and tutorials for that. just start out with the official unity tutorials. they start at 0 and do everything step by step. after that, you'll already have a basic idea of what it means to program a game plus a good basic understanding of c#.

>1) Are you Autistic?

If yes, progress to the next stage
If no, you are not cut out to be a programmer. Go and do something else with your life.

>2) What language should I learn first?

Doesn't really matter. Java or Python are the ones most commonly studied in Academia. C is very low level and pretty hard going for a noob. But then if you are Autistic, this shouldn't really matter.

tl;dr - C#

>>17993571
>Java or JavaScript -> a brief stint in C# to learn a very similar and familiar language -> C to get the basics of C family languages -> C++ as an end goal

What is the quickest route would you recommend for a guy with strong math background to get the most out of computer programming? - say, first year grad school, decent in analysis and algebra, knows famous algorithms, adept at numerical analysis and convergence, I feel these are probably unrelated to programming but how should I know, I have little serious programming experience (only basic loops and logic are needed for algorithms that i know of). Took an intro course to C ages ago. Never touched Java or anything, most of my current programming is done with Matlab or Mathematica.

If you have no experience with CS you should definitely start with Harvard's CS50 course (https://cs50.harvard.edu/). Watch the lectures and the shorts and the the problem sets. It will take you through the basic concepts of CS and a multitude of languages. After you finish it you can decide what language you want to focus on.

If for some reason you decide against it I suggest you start with C. It's quite a "primitive" language and it's closer to the hardware. This means that learning it is harder than something like java, because you don't have as many "tools" and you'll have to create them yourself. But it also means that learning it will offer a better, more in-depth understanding of the underlying principles of programming.

If you want to make PC games you should focus on the Cs.

>>17992698
>I want to be a great programmer.
so theres mostly a couple different ways to go about this...
1: study the fuck out of math and apply it in computer science
2: study the fuck out of a development environment and library and get the hang of it that way

File: 1471588015206.jpg (589KB, 2380x1752px) Image search: [Google]

589KB, 2380x1752px

>>17994360
I've looked through CS50
Very nice learning environment there, the problems the students were asked to solve on the spot in some weeks weren't trivial either. So that made me curious about how well Harvard is doing in the competitive scene.

It's kinda ironic that their well presented, interactive approach to teaching doesn't seem to help them win the most prestigious programming competition at uni level (ICPC) sponsored by IBM . Since 1997, all big names US universities participated in ICPC but none has come first or second place, it's always the Russian and the Chinese competing with each other.
And I have looked at the problems, they are not heavy on technical implementation, so we can't say those Chinese and Russian guys are better because they are trained more as code monkeys, rather it's the exact same thing taught in courses like CS50! a mix between math and algorithms.
For example, this problem is pretty much pure math (no team solved it)

>>17992933
I don't know the difference between java and javascript: the post.

>>17994247
Seconding this. You don't want to learn computer science, you want to program for the sole purpose of making games. Unity tutorials will teach you the necessary data structures and how to navigate the UI so you can hit the ground running.

If you actually are interested in computer science and not just games, I'd start elsewhere.

>>17994270
This is simply not true. Plenty of normal, well adjusted people are becoming software engineers these days. It's not the 80s anymore.

>>17994540
I hope that time limit of 20 seconds refers to how fast the algorithm has to be, not how much time they had to solve the problem. That would take hours.

>>17995140
OP here, I think your right. I just want to get down to it, making games and all.

but i feel like i need some sort of IT job to help me out while creating my game. i guess thats why im so adamant on learning it all... i want a better job than i have now. (i work at a supermarket)

eh..

>>17995409
you could look for a college program with internships . I'm in a 3 year program, spend the first two years learning basic programming, and working as a developer at banks and stuff, now I'm in my last year working on a game as major group project .

definitely avoid "game design" programs though IMO, as they'll only teach you to be a glorified idea guy

>>17995418
im in a community college, going for a game "programming" degree. there was game design as well, but I wanted to be the one programming games, so i decided go for that.

i think it's a bit late for me to change majors now, but when i go to a university, maybe ill change then? i dont think game programming is continued in many other colleges, only like full sail or something, but I dont plan on going there.