Re: Quick questions...


earthlinkmail@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> ...you experienced programmers of C; did you start with C? What course
> of study did you pursue to get to where you are today? Would you
> suggest starting with REALbasic first for a n00b? I am completely new
> to programming and using a Mac and would like some input as to where to
> begin a career in programming. I know this is probably a somewhat
> undefined question, but would appreciate you input/advice. Thanks.

I started out with logo, moved onto gwbasic, pascal, and then C. But
even then, C is much trickier than it seems. Its a lot easier to 'shoot
yourself in the foot', and can get hard if really don't have a kick-ass
debugger.

So I would suggest something like scheme/python to get started with,
and if you are doing scheme get Dr.Scheme/PLTScheme, it has a decent
IDE, and comes with a bunch of mature libraries to get you doing some
nice stuff.

Though that might teach you what programming in C is like the way a
flight simulator teaches you what flying a f-14 is about. But when
doing C, you would have to worry about a lot more (things that you
shouldn't be worrying about without a very good reason, like say memory
management).

But thats still the tip of the iceberg, if you want a career in
programming you have to know a whole bunch of languages from purely
declarative ones like SQL to a bunch of domain specific languages that
no-one uses. Also you have to deal with monstrocities like standards
compliance, compiler issues, optimisiations, portability and friends..
So it ain't a bed of roses, but if you like the challenge, there ain't
anything that gives such a high as seeing your program working right
(and it lasts till you figure out that evantual bug, or worse, some one
else points it out).

So, with an ominous 'best of luck'.. welcome to programming.

Cheers
Vishnu

.

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