i now a little and...school or a book about it

just programming a computer, maybe making a game

This thread on GameFAQs lists a few places you can get started. In addition, the forum it's on might be useful if you have specific questions later on.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=210&topic=36933365

Good luck and happy coding! It's fun.

Also, if you can, take classes or get some good books. Some of the latter should be mentioned in my link.

Anyone who calls it "computer code" better be in middle school or something...

If you are a novice with programming languages, I would recomment picking up an AP computer science prep book which will give you a crash course in Java, one of the more modern and forgiving computer languages out there. Their graphics package is also easy to implement if you want to write a game.

Writing a whole game? Ambitious. That's good.

I would also recommend Java as a programming language. It's relatively simple to learn, syntax-wise, and object-oriented is definitely the way to go. Everything you need for development is free, more or less, and Java can be used on a wide variety of systems.

I first was introduced to Java through Beginning Programming with Java for Dummies, a surprisingly helpful recourse. Two college classes later, and I can code decently, though nothing astounding.

Here's the very basic development environment I use: Textpad.
http://www.textpad.com/download/index.html
You can download a trial version for free here. It doesn't have any real debugging tools, but it can compile and run all your basic .java programs (note: you'll need to save it as .java, not as .txt or anything else). I've been "evaluating" my copy for about 2 years now. Probably should get around to paying them for it...

And remember, the only way to learn how to code is to code.

I started programming with Perl when I was 15-16 years old. For beginners it has the major advantage over Java, C/ C++ and co that it doesn't have types (int, char*, double ...). That means you don't have to declare what your variables are before you use them.

Didactically though I think Haskel is the simplest language to teach programming strategies (like recursion, overloading) and data structures (stack, tree) with.

Although if you've got a project in mind, tell us about it in more detail perhaps I can point you to a more appropriate language.

Well then, I'm going to rock the boat and suggest learning C straight off. If you do then you'll be able to pick up almost any programming language you want and understand it in minutes.
However, Java's also a very good choice. I think its quite useful to start with a language that requires typecasting, because otherwise you get into bad habits and it can be hard to change.

If you want to write something powerful and interesting soon, go for Java

If you can't do a course somewhere then try one of the Dummies Guides. Perl is probably easier than anything else and is certainly a good place to start, but the more complex the language, the more power you'll be able to wield with it. Plan on switching to C# or Java once you're comfortable with Perl.

Before you tackle a game you need to be able to understand programming techniques, otherwise the game will die in frustration and so too may you programming ambitions. Start simple and build up. Try this

1. Print out all the numbers from one to 100.
2. As 1. but with all of the even numbers on the left of the screen and all of the odd numbers on the right.
3. Print out all of the Prime Numbers from 1 to 1000.
4. As 3, but write primes and non-primes to different .txt files.
5. Ask the user to enter several numbers between 1 and 1000 and to enter -1 when she wants to stop. Then print out the highest, lowest and average of those numbers.

Seems simple doesn't it. Making a program cope with bad data is a key skill. Experienced programmers do this without thinking about it.

6. Use your program from 5. but enter -1 as the first number. What happened? Enter just one number, what was the result? Enter 2 numbers that are the same. Result? Enter 10 numbers the same. Result? Now enter some out of range values (say 0 or 1001 or 10000000001). What happens? Did you even test the input to 5. to see if it was in range in the first place? Just because you told the user to do something doesn't mean they'll do it. This is really lesson one - when it comes to user input, think paranoid.

That's enough for now.

at school

well, i am 14, and i read a book that sugested that everyone try writing computer code, and i like computers, so I thought i'd try it.

@sceptic_ka: You started with Perl? Man I feel old. My first language was BASIC on a DEC PDP 9 and an Apple II back in 1981 when I was 15. I do it for a living now: Java, C# (.NET), ASP, Perl, PHP, T-SQL, and others.

I'd recommend "C++ Demystified" as a great book for beginners

Rather than choosing a language I'd choose a project or area that you're interested in. Sounds like that area is games, so I'd go with a basic game writing framework and get a book to go with it

Perhaps Delphi or something, and then start with Pong and move up through space invaders and pac-man and go from there (and don't be ambitious; it'll be a long time before you make anything fun)

I'd go with Java.

Your school is almost sure to teach it at a basic level, and as squidge said, learning programming "grammer" is very important.

It's simple and easy to learn, so why don't you try it out?!

For games, get Microsoft XNA and do your porgramming in C#. They include several sample games with the free download and you can look through the code to get an even better understanding of how events and threading and the like work.

I actually have spent the last year learning to program in several different languages. I've concluded the following:

1) Scripting languages are only superficially easier. They avoid all the trouble that C/C++/Java requires for creating variables and data structures. That's good for simple stuff because you don't need the power of real data structures anyway. However, those same, more complex, data structures and systems that C/C++/Java possess become a real asset if you want to do anything very complex. (I know that's not the current script party line, but there's a reason almost EVERY major program is written in C/C++/Java.

2) There is another class of programming language called functional programming that includes languages like Erlang, OCaml, Haskell, ML, F#, etc... that are currently gaining popularity with people because they offer new ways to program that gets around problems being predicted for the future--the major problem being how do you coordinate more than 5000 or so processes at the same time within a program. However, that's a specialty problem that you really should wait to address after you learn the basics. The MAJOR PROBLEM with going the functional route is that, right now, these languages are completely lacking in building easy GUIs and learning the predominant paradigm at the moment, which is object oriented programming. (Yes, I know, OCaml does this, but nobody is really pushing OCaml and it's books suck--everybody is either going Haskell or Erlang).

Having said that, functional programming is cool, but it should be language #3 or so.

3) There are also the lisp dialects. Lisp is really cool and has some great books. It's a multiparadigm language, which means it does functional (i.e. Haskell, Erlang), procedural (i.e C), Object Oriented (C++, Java), and even has elements like scripting languages. The lisp you should do, if you do this, is PLT Scheme, which has a nice interface for programming and plenty of peripherals for GUI development, however, lisp should really be language #3 or #4 to learn, and as far as what you want to do, forget about it.

4) What you should learn is Java. It's very fast, has a great integraded development environment called Netbeans, a great GUI interface called Swing, and can build programs that work at the server level, command line level, desktop level, and even in your browser--the infamous applet. Java has an ENORMOUS body of good literature out there, including some books that seem to get awesome reviews on amazon for game programming.

In addition, there are lots of beginner, stepping stone environments at Java's sight for people who want to ease into programming, and who have no experience at all in doing so.

My suggestion is this. Go to Java's website at sun here:
http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/young_dev_learning_path/

and read about programming Java. Then, download the Java Development Environment that suits you and have fun. They even start you off programming simple games using Greenfoot, though I haven't actually used that myself.

Good luck. Programming is fun!

CStuart: A bigger reason C & C++ is the language of choice for system level programs is speed. These languages are compiled and linked into executables and don't require a runtime environment, like Java, C#/VB, and the scripting languages. C#/VB and Java compile into byte code but still require a run time of some sort, whether it be the JRE and the browser for Java or .Net/Internet Explorer for .Net apps and ActiveX components. Basic scripting languages (VBScript, JavaScript, JScript) are the slowest because they are interpretted from the readable code every time they are executed.

What you should know, though, is that the scripting languages have advanced to be OO capable and Javascript has an extensive library for calling web services to do AJAX on the web, something my browser based applications use to great effect.

It's certainly true that C & C++ are the gold standard for speed, but benchmarks argue that Java, Steel Bank Common Lisp, and Haskall are also comparatively speedy, even if they use a bit more memory (though that's not so important when everybody is swimming in memory).

Some scripting languages (Python and Ruby) have good OO capabilities. I would argue that Perl's object model is fundamentally flawed because Perl flattens all lists, which means you essentially have to hack around Perl's basic structure to fake data structures using references.

It's also true that these languages are good for server side scripting and that Javascript is used for animating web browsers. However, that is all Javascript is used for, and it's a pretty herky-jerky system. Even there, most pro javascript is done using drop-in libraries like JQuery that act more like frameworks.

The point behind such libraries is that doing really complex javascript is so painful, people avoid it. However, the original poster wanted to learn how to program, so...why learn how to program in a format that is limited to only web browsers, is slow, and is painful. People rightfully brag about doing some in Javascript--that they could do much easier in other languages--because doing it in Javascript is more awkward.

I still believe that he'll get his most bang for his buck going Java first, and then a functional programming language second. If he wants to learn a scripting language, the very best one is to simply load up Linux on his computer (I suggest Mint Linux) and then learning how to do basic shells scripting.

I learned Python first, but the only scripting I really do now are shallow Bash scripts. For anything more, I'd rather use an industrial strength programming language which requires more investment initially, but then gives me a lot more bang for my buck down the line.

...im doing a class for college that uses VBA to write programmes for Excel and its certainly not the easiest way

I can't speak for Lisp or Haskall, but I'm a Sun Certified Java Developer and Java is NOT fast by any means on a trditional business PC. In Linux and Os X, yes, but the business world still uses Windows for the desktop/laptop. If I'm writing an application that needs speed to run on and end users machine, I'll do it in C# or C++.

However, I do agree that Java is a great learning language and makes it easy to move into the C#, Perl, PHP world and eventually C++. But if he wants to learn game programming specifically, Micro$ofts XNA Game Studio is really hard to beat. Tons of sample games with full source and lessons to enhance them make it very easy to learn hands on.

However, there is no substitution for taking a real programming course of study and learning how to develop well-formed, n-tier applications folowing the industry accepted standards for object and structure naming.

So I take it your a developer analyst as well, cstuart?

WhiteSammy - VBA... Be afraid. Be very afraid. Seriously, there is a free version of Visual Studio. If you want to learn VB, download the free version in the language of your choice (VB) to develop Windows Forms Apps.

Please ignore my crappy spelling and grammar above. It's late, I'm tired, and I just finished an afterwork coding session that has me cross-eyed.

I expect the next version of Office will use .NET, so it'll allow C#, VB.NET, etc

That's interesting to know Draugnar. So, do you mean that Java runs slow only in Windows?

I'm not being smart there, just seriously asking. My background is an enthusiast in computers. I always kind of programmed--took it in university to get out of math, etc...--but I only really started getting serious about 1.5 years ago.

Since then, I've basically read and learned as much as I could in a kind of whirlwind tour of different languages, their strengths, weaknesses, and the like.

What I found was that I experienced a HUGE initial boost in productivity when using scripting languages, followed by what seemed like a brick wall if I ever wanted to get serious (except for doing web stuff that topped out at forms). It's just HARD to make GUIs that are robust. You basically have to abandon the standard for all the languages (some form of TK) and go learn something that was really built for C or C++.

Except Java. Java, despite being the LONG favorite whipping boys on the internet of language design done wrong, really has the full package within the non-microsoft arena.

I should add that because I run linux, I didn't try any of the microsoft products (though I did some VB years ago), even though there are projects for running the .NET platform on Linux using Mono (and probably others I don't know about).

However, a quick look at TIOBE makes a pretty strong case for going Java or C first for industrial strength programming, as does a quick trip to the bookstore and thumbing through the available books.

I did actually spend quite a bit of time with lisp (mostly scheme) and came away thinking, huh, that's cool. But I can't imagine trying to really build something big in it.

Though again, I don't know anything about the microsoft product line. They do have a number of books out about game programming that seem to use (I think) microsoft products, but I always steered clear of them because they seemed specialized only for that.

my personal suggestion is to not start with java if you want to get into programming and have no real foundation. your best bet is to start with a simpler less complex language like visual basic (if you use the windows platform). its much easier to write programs, debug, etc and you have the added benefit of designing the user interface (GUI) without having to actually prepare the code for it. VB does a lot of the work up front.

the reason i suggest that you dont start with java is that java is such a versitile language it can kill a brain if youre not ready for it. a lot of people get into programming in college thinking its all fun and games until they get to java and its so hard for them that they give up.

my second suggestion is that you really study what it is you want out of what youre learning. programming is multi-faceted. theres so much more that goes into it than just writing code and thats particularly true for game designers. someone has to do the concept art, others have to design the framework, others never touch code themselves but simply design the flow of the program.

my final suggestion is that you go for a book to learn it only if youre the type that is a dedicated self-learner. if you cant teach yourself out of a book without some assistance then i suggest going to a technical college or university and dabbling in it before making a final choice.

I also have a suggestion. A friend of mine is actually an online Developer for a site Called byond.com In fave, that's how he got into programming in the first place. Take a look at some f the stuff on there, and if you think you can handle that kind of programming, go for it. Immersion is the best way to learn, y'know?

One of Java's big advantages is also its biggest problem for beginners: Libraries are needed to do even simple stuff like print to a cmd line [System.out.println("xx");] which make them hard for beginners to learn.
Ditto with C++, plus here you also have the added problem of no garbage collector.
If you just want to fool about with stuff perhaps you should install a LAMP (google it) and play with php, css, javascript...and perhaps phpdiplomacy. :-)

If you're after php then I suggest using 'xampp' - a very powerful setup for Apache, php and MySQL. Not quite so secure for web use, but very good for local testing