Getting into Computer Programming

The programming section has been dead since I left these guys >: Well, that and all other good guys went inactive :\

As for C++ , I can tell this Book is very good for beginners, you don't even have to bring any knowledge with you to be successful in getting started:
Author: Brian Overland
Title: C++ Without Fear: A Beginner's Guide That Makes You Feel Smart

Your way to be a successful programmer is to understand the key elements of a programming langauge, with that,
you can move on to any other langauge like Java, C# etc.
I do recommend to learn C++ first, and leave C behind (it may only get interesting in things like programming compilers, but thats another story),
In C++ for example there are a lot of things you have to know to understand documentation, tutorials, how-tos, so that book
covers all these basics you have to learn. Things like that:
- Get started with any IDE you are comfortable with
I recommend installing Visual C++ Express 2010
- Once, you started writing your first programs, try to mess around with your code, change things, and see what it does, try to understand what it changed.
- Begin with writing your first console applications ( there's a ton of youtube videos how to make a hello world in a windows console)

Once you finished your book, you gotta look out that you now understand things like:
- variables, constants, #include, #define, #pragma once, function calling, modifier, parameters, class constuktor, class destructor, objects,
object members, pointers, dereferencing pointers, arrays, the list can go on with things like polymorphism.
In Java for example all these things are quite the same, except for pointers and all that interpreter stuff (#include..)
So my advice for you,
start little, with console apps, try programming stuff like a small text-based game.

I had to learn that programming games is a pain in the *** when it comes to the actual rendering ( I program with SDL)

SDL is library for C++ (it supports other langauges as well), it is kind of a "plugin" (sorry to all coders out there :P) which gives you drawing functions with sprites and bitmaps, so SDL is a 2D rendering library kinda.

So if you are then still motivated enough to continue your journey, have a look at (google it , it's on the first page) "lazyfoo's SDL tutorials",
but they expect you to be comfortable with object oriented programming.
But the results you will be getting with SDL are really impressive.

As for web-based programming, I recommend you to have a look at PHP, then you may use PHPmyadmin (which is really good to start with),
with both give you already the opportunity to create your own website (hardcoded without website builders).
You can even combine it with JavaScript (I hope it's right), and JavaScript can play Java programs.

If you have any further questions, I am looking forward to it.

Source: Studying computer science.

Cheers

You should always wonder
what stuff does, if he says "cout << "Hello" << endl; prints Hello into the console you should have a look, what
cout does , why "Hello" and not Hello, and what endl; is, for exampe Hello is kind of a String which has to be written like this "Hello",
if you are going to print an int you do it like this cout << INTPLACEHOLDER << endl; All that #include <iostream> is called
a header file which gives you the cout << functions, there are a lot of other header which give functions, for a calculator,
you could use the math functions for example, you dont have to code them on your own (only if you are advanced with math of course).

What do you mean "c+p" ?

That book is focused on teaching you object oriented programming, that is, you will be able to understand classes, constructors, functions, pointers and so on, just give it a try, you can find on amazon a preview if you are not sure about it.

Exactly, PHP and JavaScript do support functions ( I dunno how it is with HTML) but
if you want to have advanced funtions, you have to use PHP, you can program in PHP a lot of stuff, calculators, too. But
I do not recommend you to try everything at once, you should first learn C++ and learn the basics properly.

Do not do that again, you will be more successful with spending $100 for three different books and learning from them, than from
a source code, or online course.

---------- Post added at 12:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:22 PM ----------

Hell_Demon, I am an experienced computer science student, I will help out in that sections, specially in C++ and Java where I can, looking forward to it.