Getting into programming

[beanhubbleday]

Hey,

 

I have some Python, HTML, CSS & some PHP experience.

 

I want to get into windows, android and iOS development - just focusing on windows applications at the minute though.

 

How can I start learning the basics?

 

I have visual studio 2013 and I can make the layout but I don't know any programming to link stuff and VS2013 is kinda confusing...

 

Any other GUI based applications to learn windows programming?

 

Any help would be ace?

 

Thanks

 

Jack

[vorticalbox]

learn c# you can make any of the things you said with it. Start with command line, make a tool or app maybe getting local weather, then create a GUI for it.

[pipnina]

22 minutes ago, JackHubbleday said:

Hey,

 

I have some Python, HTML, CSS & some PHP experience.

 

I want to get into windows, android and iOS development - just focusing on windows applications at the minute though.

 

How can I start learning the basics?

 

I have visual studio 2013 and I can make the layout but I don't know any programming to link stuff and VS2013 is kinda confusing...

 

Any other GUI based applications to learn windows programming?

 

Any help would be ace?

 

Thanks

 

Jack

C++ (or maybe C#) is the standard language you get taught at a university level. I would follow tutorials by Bucky Robberts (youtube: "Bucky C++") to learn the basics of C++. (from variables to functions to OOP & beyond) and from there you're basically on your own with online API documentation.

 

To make an application like chrome/steam you will need to use either a cross-platform library OR make your own using the windows api and whatever the linux & mac OS's have. To make a game with 2D/3D graphics, you will need to use a library for OpenGL/D3D/Vulkan.

 

(note, if you learn any OpenGL and find code using "GlBegin" run away, that function is from OpenGl1.4 and older)

 

I wish you well!

[beanhubbleday]

34 minutes ago, vorticalbox said:

learn c# you can make any of the things you said with it. Start with command line, make a tool or app maybe getting local weather, then create a GUI for it.

 

15 minutes ago, pipnina said:

C++ (or maybe C#) is the standard language you get taught at a university level. I would follow tutorials by Bucky Robberts (youtube: "Bucky C++") to learn the basics of C++. (from variables to functions to OOP & beyond) and from there you're basically on your own with online API documentation.

 

To make an application like chrome/steam you will need to use either a cross-platform library OR make your own using the windows api and whatever the linux & mac OS's have. To make a game with 2D/3D graphics, you will need to use a library for OpenGL/D3D/Vulkan.

 

(note, if you learn any OpenGL and find code using "GlBegin" run away, that function is from OpenGl1.4 and older)

 

I wish you well!

Thanks both, will take into consideration what you've said

[fizzlesticks]

24 minutes ago, pipnina said:

C++ (or maybe C#) is the standard language you get taught at a university level.

Both of those are fairly rare actually (at least in the US.) The most popular languages taught by far are Python and Java. C++ is typically only used for classes about games, graphics or intro to C++ classes.

[vorticalbox]

1 hour ago, pipnina said:

C++ (or maybe C#) is the standard language you get taught at a university level. I would follow tutorials by Bucky Robberts (youtube: "Bucky C++") to learn the basics of C++. (from variables to functions to OOP & beyond) and from there you're basically on your own with online API documentation.

 

To make an application like chrome/steam you will need to use either a cross-platform library OR make your own using the windows api and whatever the linux & mac OS's have. To make a game with 2D/3D graphics, you will need to use a library for OpenGL/D3D/Vulkan.

 

(note, if you learn any OpenGL and find code using "GlBegin" run away, that function is from OpenGl1.4 and older)

 

I wish you well!

Trust me in the UK the only language you're going to learn at degree level is visual basic.

[pipnina]

22 minutes ago, vorticalbox said:

Trust me in the UK the only language you're going to learn at degree level is visual basic.

1 hour ago, fizzlesticks said:

Both of those are fairly rare actually (at least in the US.) The most popular languages taught by far are Python and Java. C++ is typically only used for classes about games, graphics or intro to C++ classes.

I guess my uni course is the exception then, not the rule...

 

[vorticalbox]

19 minutes ago, pipnina said:

I guess my uni course is the exception then, not the rule...

 

maybe visual basic is used widely in uni. @Nuluvius will agree the rubbish they teach in uni is shocking.

[Mira Yurizaki]

3 hours ago, fizzlesticks said:

Both of those are fairly rare actually (at least in the US.) The most popular languages taught by far are Python and Java. C++ is typically only used for classes about games, graphics or intro to C++ classes.

I had classes in C, C++, and C#. I never touched Java or Python.

 

@JackHubbleday If you want to get into Windows, Android, and iOS programming, you need to learn the following:

• C# for Windows Applications (i.e., the "Metro Apps"), otherwise C/C++ for Win32 apps (the "normal" apps).
• For Android, Java if you're doing a basic application, C if you're doing something high performance.
• iOS you need to learn Objective-C and Swift (though Swift is rapidly replacing Objective-C)

EDIT: Actually I remembered Windows has another class of apps called .NET, which uses either C#, VisualBasic .NET, or some other thing Microsoft came up with.

[Gachr]

On 21.12.2016 at 0:36 AM, M.Yurizaki said:

I had classes in C, C++, and C#. I never touched Java or Python.

 

@JackHubbleday If you want to get into Windows, Android, and iOS programming, you need to learn the following:

• C# for Windows Applications (i.e., the "Metro Apps"), otherwise C/C++ for Win32 apps (the "normal" apps).
• For Android, Java if you're doing a basic application, C if you're doing something high performance.
• iOS you need to learn Objective-C and Swift (though Swift is rapidly replacing Objective-C)

EDIT: Actually I remembered Windows has another class of apps called .NET, which uses either C#, VisualBasic .NET, or some other thing Microsoft came up with.

Or, you can just use C# for everything thanks to Xamarin.

[Mira Yurizaki]

3 hours ago, Gachr said:

Or, you can just use C# for everything thanks to Xamarin.

I guess that works too.

[Sirgeorge]

C++ is a useful language all the less. I would recommend you learn it.

[Nuluvius]

On 20/12/2016 at 8:41 PM, vorticalbox said:

Trust me in the UK the only language you're going to learn at degree level is visual basic.

On 20/12/2016 at 9:05 PM, pipnina said:

I guess my uni course is the exception then, not the rule...

On 20/12/2016 at 9:27 PM, vorticalbox said:

maybe visual basic is used widely in uni. @Nuluvius will agree the rubbish they teach in uni is shocking.

If we are specifically talking about languages then I remember covering quite a few once I was on my degree itself. If I remember correctly I believe it was: Java, C, C++, Prolog, JavaScript and C#. Although at college it was certainly limited to Visual Basic.

 

Now the quality of the content on the other hand was another story entirely... Very little indeed was actually covered on design patterns and architecture, even less on any kind of principles and methodologies, less still on current technologies and frameworks and nothing at all on paradigms and workflows. Moreover the content was quite aged/out of date and mostly deprecated - this was often disguised as "oh well you'll need to know how things work on a fundamental level" in relation to avoiding topics such as generics and templates altogether. That itself being a valid principle it certainly didn't fit with the specific scenario as the lecturer's inexperience and obsolete knowledge was blatantly obvious as it glared right through the lie... as was the stench of the out of date curriculum and resources. Hell the use of classes wasn't even introduced until the latter part of the second year!

 

In my opinion this is a very poor way to prepare aspirants for entry into current industry. One essentially hands over thousands in the expectation to be ready for current industry only to instead be squirted out the other side with out of date knowledge, a poor understanding and appreciation of principles, patterns and methodologies... on the whole it's a sad story.

 

I suppose that it's not their fault really, for the most part they are stuck with having to make do with garbage government funding and lets face it, who the hell would actually choose to become a lecturer - with that kind of stress, long hours and garbage pay inherent to the majority of those positions; it's simply a privilege reserved for failed developers/engineers... those that simply couldn't cut it in professional industry - for the most part at least, sure one may find the occasional gem but they are few and far between.

 

To find the proof one has only to look around this very sub forum... the evidence is scattered everywhere.

[pipnina]

27 minutes ago, Nuluvius said:

Now the quality of the content on the other hand was another story entirely... Very little indeed was actually covered on design patterns and architecture, even less on any kind of principles and methodologies, less still on current technologies and frameworks and nothing at all on paradigms and workflows. Moreover the content was quite aged/out of date and mostly deprecated - this was often disguised as "oh well you'll need to know how things work on a fundamental level" in relation to avoiding topics such as generics and templates altogether. That itself being a valid principle it certainly didn't fit with the specific scenario as the lecturer's inexperience and obsolete knowledge was blatantly obvious as it glared right through the lie... as was the stench of the out of date curriculum and resources. Hell the use of classes wasn't even introduced until the latter part of the second year!

This... basically describes my lecturer in my "Server-side scripting" unit last year...

He taught us PHP. Except he taught us PHP that, when we went to look up how to do more than the sheets & examples he'd made, we found the PHP documentation website saying "This extension was deprecated in PHP 5.5.0, and it was removed in PHP 7.0.0".

 

I can't fault the lecturer for our programming units that year, though. He was from the industry, he knew what he was doing. He was still IN the industry as an indie with a small group (participated in a game-jam).

 

[Sirgeorge]

Visual studio 2015 is a good option.