Demonbuck

Hello all,

I am new to the programming and would love all the help that I can get on where to begin. I am unable to attend a regular schooling at this time and will be teaching myself... My interests are in simulation and game design..

Any and all help or direction will be greatly appreciated..

Demonbuck

dr.p

Hi, and welcome.

As for direction, here's my advice:

Start reading books and on-line material. Read forum threads, wherever you find them, about good books to read for game programming, and good links, etc. If you're ever unsure of what to read next, in order to continue in the direction you want to go, forum threads that ask "what should I read" are extremely valuable, and plentiful. On top of that, many coding forums have sticky resource threads devoted to providing links to resources.

Get used to using a search engine to find your answers. Most of them are out there, and pretty easy to find if you know how to word your search correctly.

GameDev.net is a favourite site of mine, and many others, for game programming resources.

~ Patrick

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stayscrisp

Hi Welcome,

Programming if the effort is afforded can most likely be self taught, but to be honest I would really recommend some kind of school, or maybes a home lecturer if thats really not an option, just learning from other peoples code is really not the way to go. This isnt like learning a piece of software, it requires dedication and a real logical way of thinking. Being a good programmer requires a very thorough understanding of your chosen language/languages, and years of dedication. But if you really insist on teaching yourself i would start with "Flash Actionscript" or "Java" each are very good languages to start with and flash has a very forgiving compiler, Actionscript 3.0 now has support for OOP programming as well so the step up to C++ if wanted wont be so daunting.

good luck anyway its worth it

Ooble

I'd recommend teaching yourself. It's more interesting, you can go at your own pace and if you can do it, you know it's something you'll stick with.

My recommendation would be to learn Python and get started on basic console applications. Write something interesting or useful (preferably both): by all means, start out writing basic Fahrenheit-to-Celsius converters and stuff, but try to find opportunities to write something you'll actually use on a regular basis. Should keep you interested, occupied and teach you a lot about coding stuff for long-term use.

Good luck. :-)

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BstrucT

Hi and Welcome!

You can teach yourself, all it takes is some self- dicipline and a genuine interest in the language you are working with.

For example: I started with C and found it very difficult and after teaching myself for 6 months and I could only write some prehistoric console app that sort off works like a calculator wasn't exactly a good payoff! (But a payoff none the less.) I got a kick out of it and often suprised myself by how the program executed through the code. And that, DemonBuck, is they key for me. C tought me how to observe code and follow execution line for line.

I moved over to C# recently as it was recommended to me by fellow PFO programmers,if I wanted to get into windows pps, and haven't looked back.

You have to decide what programs you would like to write, and then go after the language required.
Starting with a simple language could be a good option, as I learned the hard way, but learning C has made me understand the fundamentals of programming a lot better though.

Oh, and you can't go wrong with this forum, it has hepled me alot.

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BstrucT

(into windows pps, and)

Meant apps, sorry

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Kentski

i was just wondering. is python really a good start for newbies rather than c++?

coz i heard my friend he dropped our subjects on c++ and prefered to self-study using python. which i was really puzzled about.

so can anyone give me some details about python? or i would prefer giving me a link to python's website or anything that would allow me to see or even use the said language. thankz.

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Ooble

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Canis Major

Hello and Welcome!

It's good to find you planning to teach yourself programming. The good thing about that is, you can stay on one topic for as long as you want until you get the hang of it. And aside from that, you get to schedule when you will be able to do some exercises, or read up on it.

These days, the most common source of information might be the internet, when it comes to computer programming. Of course, this forum is part of it, and there are lots of information here for most well-known programming languages.

If you are interested in making simulations and designing games, well, the programming language I would recommend would be C++. Yeah, that sounds so old-schoolish, but believe it or not, it is still one of the most widely-used languages in simulations. In fact, last semester, I took a course on it, and the computer sim book made by Law and Kelton (forgot the name, but it's the 8th edition) still uses much C. That's different from C++, but still with some of the same concepts. C++ may be somewhat boring in the beginning, but usually this is the case, like Physics, for example, in which the more exciting aspects can be explored once you've grasped the more mundane parts.

Good luck, and enjoy programming!

ncvds

That's great I'm new also. Yeah Microsoft C++ or C# is your best choice for game design. Make sure you get Direct X SDK.

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Open Source is great.