Question to programmers

Is programming like mathematics where there is only "one answer"?
If so what are some good websites you can recommend for a newbie programmer?

I want to get a good head-start before I start college.

I think I will need java, vbasic and c or c++ info...

All programming boils down to a tradeoff between time and space. Understand the intricacies of this and you are set.

dont believe the "theory" you have to be good at math. thats an old fallacy from the 70's. sure it helps but isnt essential.

remember the 4 simple rules.
1. good overall code structure
2. well commented code
3. ?????
4. profit

logic is more important than math. java, js, vb and other OO scripts are a good place to start. ASM or Cobol if you want your head to explode- if u can do ASM/Cobol without said explosion though you can do anything.

best place to start is script sites (such as http://www.hotscripts.com). the worst thing you'll find is "what do i want to do?" - inspiration is a harsh mistress...

P.S. oh and there's more than 1 answer in programming. many ways to do things but 1 will always be more efficient than the others.

too bad most lecturers and professors dont know this. if you come across these types just do it their way for now cos in 10yrs time they'll still be there say the same old shit while you've movied up in the world...

Start with Python so the forced indentation makes you write somewhat pretty code. Or else you'll end up like >>3, writing shitty scripts and using shitty English.  (I kid! I kid! About the Python part, that is.)

>>5
screw shitty english. my compiler fixes my errors :P lulz

>>3
"best place to start is script sites (such as http://www.hotscripts.com). the worst thing you'll find is "what do i want to do?" - inspiration is a harsh mistress..."

Learn your fucking idioms. That makes no sense.

>>3
People like you ruin lives.

>>2
People like me ruin the lives of {>>3}s.

>>1
Look:
To understand maths you need logic.
To understand computers you need logic
Logic is not something that you are born with
If you want to learn programming, forgot about VB, forgot about Java.
Those languages are toys, literally.
Get a book on C (i suggest K&R) and read it.
If you don't understand something don't go further, experiment and read the book over and over until you understand it.
Be patient. To learn C, one has to spend at least 3-4 years.
To master C; one has to spend his entire life with computers.
And remember, to learn C means to understand the computer.

>>7
oh i'm sorry. you use other ppls idioms do you then?

fuck that. i'm unique muthafucka

P.S.
Start with basic. cos if you cant learn that in less than 6months you should look for other areas to eventually work in dude...

>>1
Yes, Python and Haskell are the answer to all! J/k. Read:

1. At least have a clue about maths. You don't directly need Maths (unless working with, say, geometry), but maths and programming have two very important skill requirements in common: logic and abstraction.
2. If you come from a maths background, read SICP. Then you can come here and say "I've read SICP" in various ways. If not, but you still consider yourself somewhat hardcore, start with K&R. If you're scared, start with Pascal (simpler than C, not shitty like VB), but DON'T learn much of it, just the basics.
3. Now you have a tool to play around. Practice. Reading others' code is easy, and implementing algorithms is mostly easy. What you may have trouble with is coming up with an algorithm to do something. Be sure you can more or less solve any problem you're presented, all on your own, without copypasting or looking up others' code.
4. Learn Python or Ruby, discover dynamic languages and their advantages. Discover OO using these languages object models, which are decent. DON'T learn Java or C++ or you'll be spoiled with their shittyness.
5. If you haven't read SICP, read SICP.
6. Now you're set. You can go and learn Java if you want to hate programming but get a job for sure (though an ugly one), you can go and learn C++ if you want to waste your time (though there are some job positions for this one as well), or keep learning Python/Ruby/Haskell/Lisp and achieve satori.

>>13
What the fuck are you talking about, being "spoiled with their shittyness"? That may be true to an extent with Java, but it most certainly is not at all with C++.

OO is shit, C++ is slow and bloated, Java is a joke, java programmers are clowns, the programming industry is ridiculous.
If you want to learn REAL programming, learn C and assembly.
After mastering C (i doubt it) learn lisp.
After that, the whole world is yours you can literally code in every sane programming language simply because you are an expert programmer.

>>14
C++ is static-typed, non-reflexive and nurupo-prone among other things, and more importantly, it doesn't come with a standard garbage collector. It's a quite shitty language for OO. Little better than C, in fact, and with an XBOX HUEG feature set few know entirely, making code harder to read to others who settle for a slightly different feature subset than the writer.

And Java? Java is utterly shitty. It's the worst OO language I know. Doing OO in many non-OO languages is better than Java. Too many reasons, and too many times already posted everywhere.

>>16
C++ has its quirks, but only bad programmers need garbage collectors and good programmers know how to exploit the C++ quirks to their advantage. C++ is touring complete, whereas C is not. C++ is a powerful language to someone who really knows how to use it; and, concisely implemented, it needn't be much slower than C at all.

You'll get no disagreement with me on Java.

>>17
whereas C is not.
Explain yourself at once.

>>17
Hahaha. C is not "touring" complete. That's fucking awesome. Even brainfuck is turing complete, and you can write a brainfuck interpreter in like three lines of C.

Go take a university course on automata or computability theory before talking about "touring" completeness.

>>19
not an EXPERT PROGRAMMER

C++ is like your mom, she will yell at you for not doing things the way you're supposed to and forgetting to say "please", but she does it for your own good. 

If she didn't nag at you in the beginning that you didn't declare that variable that you mistyped and assumed you wanted a new variable initialized to zero, thus ruining your increment logic, you would spend 5 hours running through the debugger until you finally found your typo.

>>21
It sounds like the only languages you've ever used are C++ and PHP.

>>22
C++, perl, basic, verilog, VHDL, NQL, SQL, and (ugh) darkbasic

>>23
>>22 was Just my way to say "It sounds like you've only used seriously crappy languages and think that basic sanity checking is  something exclusive to C++."

>>17
only bad programmers need garbage collectors
Naive. Good programmers who don't want to waste their time because they've matured enough to realize their time is far more valuable than new hardware use garbage collectors too.

C++ is touring complete, whereas C is not.
WTF? C++, C, Basic and SBN for that matter are all Turing-complete.

>>21
Try Python.

Is Gran Turismo Touring-complete?

(´∀｀) SICP (,,ﾟДﾟ)

>>25
Try Python.
Not touring-complete.

LISP

>>14progress they have made any mistakes i   posted the source   for this on   the proggit pastebin.

35 Name: Anonymous 2011-02-03 8:36

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