What should I learn first before getting into programming?

Question

I wanna start to learn programming in general.

What's the VERY first thing I need to learn, then after that, and after, etc etc.

10 POINTS!!!!!

Answer 1

It depends.

If you are intending to go into programming as a career you would be best focusing on C++, otherwise if you are just making simple things for your own amusement VB or similar will do.



Once you have chosen a language, google it and find a good tutorial.

READ IT ALL.



After that you can either read more tutorials or give it a try.



And that's about it.

Answer 2

There are all sorts of way to prepare for starting to begin to get ready to learn how to program.



1. Learn to play a musical instrument, sight-reading from sheet music, and to convert music learned "by ear" into sheet music.

2. Learn to cook and prepare recipes for others to use.

3. Figure out how to repair or mod something, and how to make instructions (like on instructables.com) for others to follow.

4. Learn math well enough to prove to somebody else that the pencil-and-paper method for long division actually works.

etc.



All of these are programming-like activities. But, you don't really learn to program until you start programming. You don't need advanced math to start programming. Most computing is done with just addition, subtraction, multiplication and division (with remainder) of whole numbers. Of course, you'll need extra math if your application is mathematical in nature. Or music if your application is musical, or accounting if you are writing yet another general ledger application, etc.



You do need to know how to use a computer and an editor, but since you posted the question, you're good there.



To actually get started, taking a class is best, if you can. If you need to do it on your own, then pick a language and get a book. I know there are websites, but these tend to be a string of unconnected lessons, rather than a cohesive plan to learn the language basics.



For the language, either Java or Python might be a good choice. I'd suggest Java because there is more material to choose from, both printed and online, for the beginner. I didn't learn Java as a beginner (it didn't exist back then), but some books that look good either of the two "For Dummies" books (both by Barry Burd) or the more comprehensive "Java: A Beginner's Guide" by Herbert Schildt.



Don't spend too much (Amazon is cheaper than Barnes&Noble, used on Craig's is cheaper than Amazon, but new where you can make your own markups is worth something), until you know that you're going to want to do this.



Make a point, in each section or chapter, to learn the vocabulary and to type in each example and get it running. It may not seem like it, but you learn more from typing it in than from reading it. Customize or tweak the samples after you get them working. If your tweak breaks an example, try to figure out why.



Try to find things that you can do with what you've learned. It will take some time before you can build a usable application. Focus on how to get data items inside a computer to represent and model things that are outside of the computer. That's an important part of doing something useful with a computer.

Answer 3

Nothing really. If anything mathematics helps a ton. Just start with a programming book or a tutorial online depending on which language you would like to learn. C or visual basic i suggest as good languages to start with.

Answer 4

Well... there are many types of programming, soooo... its hard to tell you where to start. Its like saying your want to race, but thats all you tell us... I mean, are you racing on foot? a boat? a plane?



You need to explain what exactly you need to learn.



Ok... so...



First you need to know what you want to do.



Then you need to learn what language is capable of doing what you want to do.



You need to make yourself aware of the documentation for the programming lanuage (like how to learn about functions, classes, syntaxes etc)



Before going crazy on a huge script, basically you need to write what is called a "Hello World!" which is basically just having the script say Hello World! to the user. You can have it just echo it at first but then you need to begin building onto it... Like making someone click something to say Hello World! just so you can learn the very basic syntax and know that you are able to make a script do that.



Once you write your Hello World! you need to begin learning syntax, which is basically how to write the language correctly... Its learning a whole new language... So you want to be as fluent as possible.



As you begin to build scripts you will automatically begin creating what I call "Libraries". Basically all the scripts you write in the program language you are learning name you as the author! So you can use exerpts from those different scripts as you progress, so basically you dont need to go back and write all the same scripts over and over again.



So now that you are getting pretty good, you need an actual project to work on... weither it be you just think something up you want to do, your neighbor or friend wants you to do something for them, or you got a request from someone to make something. Then you develop a real working piece of software.



Now you should be good...



But everything is online that you need. But im not really sure what you are trying to be able to do with what you want to learn.



Good Luck!

Answer 5

Well it honestly depends on what you want to do with programming.



If you want to learn web based then:



HTML/CSS

PHP

JavaScript



However if you want desktop programming:



I would personally start with Visual Basic ( easy but gives the concept of the programming)

Then move onto stuff such as C, C+, then more complex ones such as perl and that. However I would do online programming as its more popular unless you are intersted in developing your own program.

Answer 6

Discrete Mathematics is a good start, most colleges/universities start you there.



You can then learn a high level programming language like C++ or Java. I would recommend Java only because their website has decent tutorials http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/.

Answer 7

The paintings of programming is a ways greater considerable than any specific language. study the thank you to jot down classes, then study the thank you to jot down video games. C++ is a good language, besides the undeniable fact that it takes a while to evaluation programming with it. you will in all probability could spend a 300 and sixty 5 days or so of annoying study interior the straight forward recommendations of programming earlier you would be waiting for game progression. study approximately variables, circumstances, branches, loops, applications, and arrays. those are the straight forward programming systems in any language. as quickly as you have found out the fundamentals, pass onto game programming. study related to the sport / animation loop, a pictures library or 2, collision-detection, straight forward pass, common AI, enter mechanisms, and straight forward game information systems. i in my view decide directly to apply Python by way of fact the 1st language by way of fact it rather is a sprint easier to maintain on with than C++, and gets you into gaming extremely with out delay with the pygame library. Python and pygame are unfastened. inspect my internet internet site for hundreds of examples from one among my books on game programming in Python.

Answer 8

Depends on where you are.

If you are comfortable about logic and feel good about working your language of choice then...

Ready as many on line tutorials as possible like

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/getStarted/cupojava/index.html for Jave and similar for the language of choice.

Then try to understand the syntax of your language as much as possible,

Then my personal approach is to look out in the market like a place like http://www.guru.com and try to build some of the simpler requests and see where you need more info and try to search the internet to fill in your gaps in info.



Good luck,

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