What book to start with?

[Chrono Archangel]

Ok, well i want to learn a little about programming just to get started. I curently know nothing about programming. So I went to my library and took two books. One is named : "Visual Basic 4 for Windows for Dummies" and the other one is : "Borland C++ for Dummies". Well aniway i know there old book but thats all they had. the most recent were already taken. Aniway i was wondering which one should i start reading first. If any programmers out there can give me there advice it would be grately appreciated. Thx ^^

[Shiori]

Try to grab one of those SAMS books that teach you to program "in 21 days".

[Chrono Archangel]

those were all taken:mad:

[Kane]

In that case, go for C++. Learning Visual Basic will stunt your growth :lol:

[Mohd]

I think C and C++ language is good to start at.

Anyway do you know a book that good for PHP Language

(I don't want to start a new topic)

[ammoQ]

C and/or C++ means leaning it the _hard_ way. These languages hide the (idea/essence/basic concept/...) of programing behind a lot of neccessary-but-confusing details.

[Quatro]

yah it's hard at first (remind me of my C++ class)... but once you get the hang of it, it is a very useful language in programming(esp. games and programs)

[Skye]

Originally posted by Lord Kane
In that case, go for C++. Learning Visual Basic will stunt your growth :lol:

So will Pascal:dots:

[Florindel]

Originally posted by Lord Kane
In that case, go for C++. Learning Visual Basic will stunt your growth :lol:
Why do always people say C++ and not C? C++ is a C complement and for a beginner, C++ is useless (you begin with C).

[ammoQ]

Originally posted by Florindel

Why do always people say C++ and not C? C++ is a C complement and for a beginner, C++ is useless (you begin with C).
I don´t see it that way. When you are experienced in C before you start with C++, your C++-programs will look much like C-programs with some Classes attached. It might be better, althought harder, to start with C++, so you don´t get too used with the C programming style. Anyway, I suggest to start with Java, since it is easier and more beautiful. After that, you can got for C++ to gain more performance.

[Florindel]

Originally posted by ammoQ

Anyway, I suggest to start with Java, since it is easier and more beautiful. After that, you can got for C++ to gain more performance.
Well..too late for me...
Anyways, what're Java's advantages?

[M.I.K.e7]

Accordung to Bjarne Stroustrup (the guy who invented C++) you are probably a better C++ programmer when you don't know C, because otherwise you'll tend to use more C tricks than might be healthy for the object-oriented approach.

But I still think that C has its importance, especially for emulation, because most emulators are written in ANSI C and not C++ or any other language.
C++ fan don't like to hear it, but it cerainly has some overhead, which makes it slower for some solutions, one of which are emulators.

Java's advantage is that some parts are cleaner defined than in C++, but they also made some faults, and Java doesn't really generate the fastest applications (not really that ideal for emulators), and as with C++ object-oriented programming isn't the best solution for all problems, especially for small programs the overhead is too large in comparision.

[ammoQ]

Yeah, Java programs are slower than C or C++ programs since they are not compiled to native code. Especially the GUI-operations are remarkable sluggish. Proably not a good choice for emu programming. The advantage for a beginner is that it is "more" object oriented, so you get the point of OO; it´s much easier than C++, so you learn what´s programming all about. Once you master it, you would go for another language if you want to write emus. But I think this is not a disadvantage because a programmer should learn more than one language, probably half a dozen or more, so he can distinguish between "what a computer does" and "what a certain language does".