.

Cool brova...

Am a currently studying Visual Basic & Pascal, they are the basic programing softwares and I recoment Visual Basic, its more easear...

Besides, everything is becoming more complecated to me... Because at the same time I study flash 4, thats web developement, altogther I am a secondary school student at SS3... I've exams infront of me (WAEC & NECO)...

My bloody brain cant carry them all, I wish i could... Anyway, you just have to do this all at your leasure brova... Maybe we can learn together... What do you think? Please PM me

Brova = Brother

Thanks rufaai.guess u r gud.well, which version of visual basic do u av.i av a book on visual basic 6 but i dont av the software to develop programs.is there a way u can upload it on d net for me to use.

if you're interested in web programming, infact software development as a whole, i advise you to learn one of the OO languages like Java or C-Sharp. For web-development, go for a scripting language like PHP.

learning BASIC might seem easy and it'll give you a good start but u'll also pick up bad programming habits. personally i hate BASIC and OO.
i've used Java in the past but not extensively and I know i'll definitely have to use C-sharp in the future. I'm a C/C++ programmer at the moment. C rocks!

Well starting with web design... i will recommend that you u learn HTML,CSS,XML...
www.w3schools.com gives you all free.


Advancing to web development; PHP is very good and easy to learn www.php.net best info there. u might also like www.zend.com those sites are the founder of PHP.

If u will like to learn asp ; www.w3schools.com/asp or a friend's site www.learnasp.com good source to learn also.


software development : C/c ++ is good though but i think C++ is modern since it take the OOP style of programming. Java is very good to start with . It has a very bright future and u will enjoy.Also its an OOP language.

If you're leaning towards Microsoft development tools then I would suggest you learn ASP.NET and VB.NET rather than VB. VB is slowly but surely being phased out so I would advise beginners to go for the .NET.
You can get a free ASP.NET Developemnt tool here http://www.asp.net/WebMatrix
Tutorials: http://www.asp.net/tutorials/quickstart.aspx

I recommend html, java, xml, and for starters, u can use some WYSIWYG programmes like Microsoft publisher

well , good points stated by all. but computer programing has its meaning and also web design and applications have its meaning, not quite sure which you are looking for.

for example java can be used for the web and also to develop applications that companies can use to met a specific need.

if for webdesign , after you start you done with basic html and xml and them rest you might wanna look at flash , because that is what out there now.

yeah , i forgot, sql and databases is also an important thing you will want to put in ur list of things to do.

My recommendation, since you're primarily interested in website design and development: Learn HTML, PHP, MySQL, maybe Dreamweaver, and you'll be ready for some practical website design and development!

Some Useful Links:
- Introduction to HTML
- PHP Manual in English
- MySQL Reference Manuals
- Macromedia Dreamweaver
- Search Google for other free materials!

When I was younger, I used to pride myself in understanding C/C++/Java and one of my friends focussed on just PHP. Now he has become a guru in programming because he gets a lot of Jobs while I have had to start afresh in a different field. PHP and MySQL will make you productive, more than any other language.

If you want power and control, go 4 C/C++.

Regards,
Emmanuel

wale4x35:

If you want power and control, go 4 C/C++.

Regards,
Emmanuel

not exactly my guy. as much i as i hate to admit it, C-sharp is gaining fast ground. well it also depends on whether the guy wants to program for a living. if yes then c/c++ isn't for you as long as you dey naija.

c0dec:

well it also depends on whether the guy wants to program for a living. if yes then c/c++ isn't for you as long as you dey Nigeria.

Why?!!!!

because no software dev. company (the bigger ones) in nigeria use C/C++. it's all full-blown OOP, java, C-sharp and even delphi. C++ is rarely used. C is totally out of it.

c0dec:

because no software dev. company (the bigger ones) in nigeria use C/C++. it's all full-blown OOP, java, C-sharp and even delphi. C++ is rarely used. C is totally out of it.

That's interesting! But how come they don't use it? I thought C++ was the best language for software dev.?

IAH:

That's interesting! But how come they don't use it? I thought C++ was the best language for software dev.?

no doubt C++ rocks. but when it comes to maintaining large programs, java and c-sharp are better.

i'm still a C++ fan though. C/C++ is the most used language in the world but in nigeria, it ain't.

C++ is rubbish for rapid development of programs, hence why java and visual basic are the favoured ones.
Also I find connecting to DB's much easier in VB

Hunter:

C++ is rubbish for rapid development of programs

what the hell do u mean? anything can be coded in C/C++ in no time. unless u only program web stuff (the boring stuff). the significant apps on the planet are all coded in C/C++.

Yes but in terms of speed of writing code, it takes less time to get a java/visual basic app up and going comapred to a C++.

I won't agree that Java is better than C++. Before choosing to learn C++, I read in different places that Java is actually slower.

Yes, indeed Java is a little bit slower than C++, but it's much faster to code in. Think of it this way: if you have to choose between using 10% of your computer's capacity and 2 weeks of your time or 20% of your computer's capacity and 1 week of your time, which would you choose? The second one is what I'll chose, because my time is more valuable than the computer's time!

So if my computer has 90% of it's capacity unused, why not use some of this extra capacity and save myself some time? And for web applications, PHP is much faster to code in than Java, and the speed is not an issue. I mean, do you think nairaland will be faster if it was coded in C++? If that were so, why not go a step further and use assembly language?

Hunter:

Yes but in terms of speed of writing code, it takes less time to get a java/visual basic app up and going comapred to a C++.

yeah, you're right. but that's just because java is ready-made with all kinds of classes and libraries. on the other hand u can't do much with ANSI C/C++. but if you've got the right libraries, you can.

as per visual basic, i think it's a crappy language for kids. it's one language that deceives people - making them think they're good at something.

Depends on what you're doing with visual basic, though I do agree with what you're saying about visual basic. Alot of people that are no good at programming think that they're the next bill gates because they can do a counting program.
Though there are some people that are very good at visual basic and can do just the same amount of stuff in visual basic as you can in C++.

I would suggest you start with C and graduate to C++. Delphi is also not a bad a language to learn for web development. For those recomending .Net and visual basic. You must understand that those languages are used sorely for the purpose of developing windows applications. C++ is it for a programmer who is worth his onion. Not only does it give you versatility, it is also the mother of all languages. Think about it.

yeah thats right. learning VB means you're tied to M$. that means you can't program on linux, symbian or any other exotic platform. you'll belong to Mr. Gates who is even concentrating more on his C-sharp. so VB IMO isn't a good choice.

Real programmers program in C/C++

Thanks guys, i have read all your post.i av decided to start small while thinking big.i am learning to use macromedia dreamweaver now with reference to html at www.w3schools.com, concerning programming, i av decided to learn C, C++.where do i start from.i need the software development kit.do u guys have any suggestions?.

I have decided to learn C, C++

And while you're at it, why don't you learn assembly language too?

And by the way, the person that said Java is 20 times slower than C++ was lying. Java is as fast as C++ or 50% of the speed depending on what you're doing with it.

java can never compete with C++ in terms of speed. nobody develops full time desktop apps with java without putting in some C/C++ or any other language. why? because java is slow.

Well, gbengaijot. C++ is a good choice but if you're going to want to make a living as a coder in Nigeria, it'll be best to learn C-sharp or Java later. as per resources, there are plenty on the web. if you don't have Microsoft's Visual Studio, you can download free compilers from the net. just go to any C++ site and you'll find plenty resources, tutorials and links to help get you started. elbaron has also got some tutorials here on Nairaland.   I'm sure he'll put up some links.

ps: you can download ms Visual C++ compiler from microsoft.com but you don't get the IDE.

Guys,
I don't usually recommend C/C++ as a programming language of choice to newbies. In fact, I know of 2 people who back-pedalled to learning VB.

C++ is a strongly type language. It's a language that assumes a solid background in maths and logic.
I have written many activex and COM servers for some of my VB developers.

Ask VB developers, they will tell you how they hate interacting with Windows APIs.

If VB was written in C++ and Java tends to be like C/C++, then I would agree to the fact that C/C++ is the mother of them all.

Like I said earlier, if you want speed,power and control over hardware and/or peripherals, if you want to know when to RTS to a device attached to RS-232 port without activex and the likes, then go 4 C/C++.

Regards,
Emmanuel.

See also: http://members.aol.com/aprilnotafool/ebooks/

does anyone know how to program using BlueJ? or any other OOP?

HELP NEEDED FAST

THANX IN ADVANCE.

BlueJ is an integrated development environment (IDE) for java you can learn about, and download it at http://www.bluej.org.