Where's the best place to start learning programming?

Question

I just graduated high school and I am hoping to pursue a degree in Computer Science. I have always loved computers since Windows 3.1

Now I want to get some background in on programming because it seems like it would be a lot of fun for me. I'm taking a year off before college so I want to learn as much as I can before I start. Hopefully I'll be able to take some AP exams and just get credit for the course without having to take it.

Now I have some background in C . Mostly from some of the dummies books. But there is nothing I can find that teaches me how to apply it. I know basic syntax, I know what pointers, functions, ect are. But I'm just looking to start over fresh.

So what do you guys suggest I look into?

Answer 1

Try http://www.w3schools.com/ , it's recommended a lot and is helpful!

Answer 2

You can start learning C++ with these video tutorials:

http://xoax.net/comp/cpp/console/index.p...

They are perfect for beginners. This one can get you started by showing you how to install a free compiler:

http://xoax.net/comp/cpp/console/Lesson0...

Here are some simple games with code downloads that you can use to get some ideas:

http://xoax.net/comp/cpp/console/Lesson9...

http://xoax.net/comp/cpp/console/Lesson2...

http://xoax.net/comp/cpp/console/Lesson2...

These tutorials can get you started with graphics programming in OpenGL:

http://xoax.net/comp/cpp/opengl/index.ph...

You can go through the tutorials and if you have questions on them or anything else in C++, please post to me here:

http://xoax.net/forum/

Best of luck!

Answer 3

It may seem silly, buy Javacript is actually a good way to start, since its pretty easy, it's really clear what's going on once you understand a few things, and you can see your programs outcome nearly instantly just by saving and refreshing the website its implemented on. Of course you would have to know HTML, but you could learn it's basics in minutes.

If you're not into that you could use perl which is very flexible and can be downloaded and installed from http://www.activeperl.com/. Since you already have a background in programming it shouldn't be too hard to learn a new one despite these being object oriented and C not.

A last language you could learn is Python, which is commonly recommended as a beginner language, but personally I never liked it much.

Answer 4

since you seem to have a little time on your hands and plenty of interest, then I suggest taking the time to check out a new operating system. Try installing and using linux. You can do this cheap and what you learn will really help out later when in college.  Try and get comfortable using the linux command line interface to browse the file system and do simple admin stuff like setting up passwords and checking out hard drive capacities. You can expand your knowledge of the linux (unix) command line then by learning simple unix shell scripting languages like BSH, CSH, or KSH.  Figure out what it means to 'pipe' unix commands and to apply 'filters' to command results.  This would all be good intro for beggining to learnin Perl.  The more you can learn to do with a command prompt and a simple text editor the better and the more you will truely understand what is really happening.  All the fancy GUI interfaces can be great short cuts, but can also really get in the way of understanding whats happining sometimes. While you got time try working without a GUI.  If you want to dive into Object Oriented design, try installing the latest Java compiler on you linux box and working with that from the command line and a simple text editor too for a while.  Learn to make your self simple shell scripts to automate some of the tedius typing stuff.  Have Fun!