million $ question

[wafflehammer]

Okay, I'm going to be like one of the other 139048129034718234 people that ask how to learn to program.


I plain to be doing this stuff in college so I thought I'd get a head start on it. I've always wanted to learn but I've never had the willpower(until now, i've noticed i'm getting better at sitting down and learning things recently lol).

All I require is a bit of information on some basics.

Preferably these:

C++
C#
Java
something easy to start out with
and maybe html(I know a few bits n pieces..and I know this isn't the same category as C..but i'd still like to learn it)

Thanks in advance. I'm sure doing a quick google search would be good enough. But I'm sure you well seasoned people will know other ways of getting a nice foundation at this stuff.

 

[CrazeD]

For HTML, there is nothing better than XHTML Tutorial

For programming... what language you start with is dependent on what you want to program. If you want to start with some basic command line stuff, I'd say C++ is a good one. If you want to jump into GUI, then I'd go with C#. Java can also do GUI pretty easy with NetBeans, and is also cross-platform unlike C#.

All in all, all three languages are syntactically and logically quite similar.

 

[wafflehammer]

thanks a lot for the link. I'll look into it tomorrow. Is xhtml used the same as html would be? or are they totally not compatible with each other?

 

[S0ULphIRE]

xhtml is much more 'rule orrientated' and consequently more powerful than just simple html.

XHTML vs HTML

 

[Puddle Jumper]

As far as programing either c++ or java is a good place to start. Java is easier because it automatically handles some stuff that you have to do manually in C++ . Java also is completely object oriented so you are forced to learn oo programing which is very handy for working on larger projects. You can also run java programs on any os or platform.

C++ while being more difficult is also lets you be a little more hands on. While that's a good thing it also means there are more things that can go wrong and you can run into problems like memory leaks which aren't always easy to spot. C++'s main advantage is performance, because it doesn't have to go through an interpreter like java.

The syntax between the two is very similar so I would start with java since it's easier. If you decide to move to C++ later it shouldn't be to hard of a transition.

 

[CrazeD]

thanks a lot for the link. I'll look into it tomorrow. Is xhtml used the same as html would be? or are they totally not compatible with each other?

xhtml is the same as HTML, but it has more rules and standards. Since it follows a more strict set of standards, it is more compatible with more browsers and devices.

The link I gave you says it all:

The Most Important Differences:

* XHTML elements must be properly nested
* XHTML elements must always be closed
* XHTML elements must be in lowercase
* XHTML documents must have one root element

 

[oldskool]

Also just know that HTML and XHTML are different from programming languages, they are markup languages - they are the basis of "rendering" web pages, but by definition are not programming languages, such as the others mentioned (C++, Java, etc.).