where to start in programming

[Nghtmr9999]

Originally Posted by Tim

Right now the most marketable areas of development are:

Web based
Desktop based
Phone based

So keep that in mind with whatever you choose to learn.

If you decide to go web-based programming, you will start to really hate Internet Explorer. Crapernet Explorer will be your Achilles Heel because it is the odd man out for styling. It may work in Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari, but not IE.

Granted IE9 is slightly better for styling, but just barely.

</rant>

[Chamassa]

Originally Posted by Nghtmr9999

If you decide to go web-based programming, you will start to really hate Internet Explorer. Crapernet Explorer will be your Achilles Heel because it is the odd man out for styling. It may work in Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari, but not IE.

Granted IE9 is slightly better for styling, but just barely.

</rant>

Ie9 better? Maybe when it comes to basicl css, but random stuff not even loading, javascript STILL being years behind on rest(cough, ajax cough) and the usual security(in the wrong way) and add-in failure crap makes me want to uninstall it.
Ofcourse i can't since half this planet uses IE. Damn xD

[Nghtmr9999]

Half the world uses IE because most don't know how to switch browsers and/or they don't want to learn a new one XD

[Zub]

Before talking about idea and specific languages, do you have the basic knowledge of programming?
Do you know what an If statement is? a for loop? do you know the difference between compiled and interpreted?
There's a bit to understand before putting your hands in code.
If you're really beginning from scratch, i would suggest you simply get some simple sample html+javascript code from the web and play with it in your browser..
You can modify/try stuff directly in notepad,without having to learn an IDE on top of rest

[Nghtmr9999]

Originally Posted by Zub

Before talking about idea and specific languages, do you have the basic knowledge of programming?
Do you know what an If statement is? a for loop? do you know the difference between compiled and interpreted?
There's a bit to understand before putting your hands in code.
If you're really beginning from scratch, i would suggest you simply get some simple sample html+javascript code from the web and play with it in your browser..
You can modify/try stuff directly in notepad,without having to learn an IDE on top of rest

yup, building on top of that... if you know specifically what language you want to start with, get a program that will help you with compilation.

Visual Studio 2010 Express for Visual Basic/C++/C#
Eclipse for Java
Pretty much anything for web, but I use Microsoft Sharepoint Designer (formerly Frontpage)

once you have the program, start with the basics.

-Print "Hello, World" to the output window
-start learning decision structures: if/else, switch
-learn loops: for, while, do

once you get a feel for the basics, you can slowly expand into more advanced material.

[Tim]

About the browsers. Honestly, it doesn't matter what YOU think about browsers, it matters what your target audience uses

For gamers for example, it is all FF / Chrome.

For businesses, mid to large size, a large majority of them use IE. Especially when you start talking about browsers integrated into applications, IE dominates that, hard core.

So if you do webdev, make sure you include IE into your resume, it is more than likely going to be a very important area.

Personally, IE f*cking blows, but you need to keep your options open, and probably 50% of what you might do would involve IE

[Chamassa]

In the past i spend a LOT of time fighting against IE when doing webdev, but when i started using Jquery, half the issue solved itself.
CSS is still a royal pain in the behind, but since Jquery basicly restructures the exisiting javascript to work crossbrowser (having all the 'if browser, do x, if IE, do y' stuff worked into Jquery itself) it made my life A LOT easier.

[Zub]

yes Jquery is a godsend

[xartin]

Originally Posted by Tim

I'd actually stay far away from gnu c++ compiler and really anything *nix related simply due to feasibility of what is actually used. When it comes to career paths, you want a skill set experience specific to a marketable sect of business. I personally have a vast, vast unix background, but I also have large backgrounds in other areas.

Right now the most marketable areas of development are:

Web based
Desktop based
Phone based

So keep that in mind with whatever you choose to learn.

With most of the embedded devices currently available on the commercial market having been either directly or indirectly based on embedded linux tech learning open source programming methods can have very valuable and rewarding career options. I see jobs listed often for embedded systems engineers with direct linux experience very often with top dollar 5 to 6 figure salaries.

The android phone platform, iphone os and several other very well selling commercial offerings were only possible because of embedded linux or bsd unix.

With that in mind learning to program and use gcc gnu compiler and gnu c++ api's (Mingw is the gcc version that can directly build open source apps for windows from a linux environment) which supports far more hardware architectures than microsoft's offerings can open a lot of possibilities for extremely well paid gainful employment.

Here's just one example below from SiSystems, one of the premier IT systems engineering recruiters in north america. If you do an advanced search for embedded or linux numerous offerings are available. note the listed mandatory skills requiring experience with Linux and open source programming for the current job Software Programmer (Embedded C++)

The other currently open position is for an Intermediate to Senior Embedded JAVA Developer which can more than likely be for a major corporation developing software for the android platform requiting the following skillsets..

2+ years of embedded real-time software development using industry-standard software development processes (5 - 7 years)
Linux / UNIX / Java programming experience (5 - 7 years) <-- read need to learn gcc and gnu api's

http://www.sisystems.com/index.cfm?m...P7\1%2C\%20%0A

S.i. Systems Ltd - View Opportunities

[Nghtmr9999]

My next tip: make your life easier, go emacs