I have had no problem moving from basic to c++. As a matter of fact, I feel that my knowledge of basic before c++ hellped me ultimately rather then hindering me. Greg On Tue, Mar 12, 2002 at 06:57:37AM -0500, Brian Borowski wrote: > I agree with Jim. Many of the basic programmers I know, have never been > able to move on comfortably even to C, and have often therefore, remained > with basic, and all the bad ideas that it brings along, besides, most > implementations of that language aren't free, anyway, so why bother if > there are so many other good free implementations of better languages out > there. > > You really need good documentation like a book, or some of the excellent > documentation that accompanies some of the free distributions of > programming languages. > > You could start with java, if your into object oriented languages, and want > to structure your life that way, and get the book Exploring Java, from > O'rielly; java is available for Windows as well as all the better Os's. > > You could just learn C, Cygnus for Win or the wonderful gnu stuff for > linux, and get a good book; check out empowermentzone. > > You could get perl, there is ActiveState's perl for Win, and of course the > default stuff that comes with linux; and the book Learning Perl from > O'reilly, or again, empowermentzone has a few. > > There's so much choice, but the real thing is, you've got to have some > commitment and initiative to see the thing through; this is really the > important part of the whole thing. > > In my opinion, C is the ultimate, I like perl and java, (java when I need > to), but as someone else has said, the technique, not the language is > important. The skills like algorithm design and its implementation are > what you really have to learn, then you use the language to express your > ideas in something the machine can understand and work with. > > Brian Borowski > > > On Mon, 11 Mar 2002 jwantz at hpcc2.hpcc.noaa.gov wrote: > > > Hi Greg, > > I definitely disagree. BASIC teaches bad programming habits like > > FORTRAN i.e. non-structured programming. The problem with C is not the > > language, but that most people learning C start by reading Kernighan and > > Richie. I have been programming in C since 1986 but it took me almost > > half of that time to unlearn bad habits I picked up from BASIC and > > FORTRAN. Now, one could make a case for Pascal as your first language > > but I really think BASIC is a bad idea. Sure, you might be able to > > accomplish certain tasks easier in BASIC than in C, but the time you > > spend in learning C will make you a much better programmer in the long > > run. > > Jim Wantz > > On Sun, 10 Mar 2002, Gregory Nowak wrote: > > > > > Since we're on opinions, in my opinion c or c++ are not good languages to begin with. I believe from personal experience that it is best to start with something like basic, and then move on to languages like c or c++ where the concepts you learned from BASIC will help you advance in higher languages faster. > > > Greg > > > > > > > > > On Sun, Mar 10, 2002 at 06:48:35PM -0500, jwantz at hpcc2.hpcc.noaa.gov wrote: > > > > Hi Alex, > > > > While BASIC sounds like a good starting language in my opinion it is > > > > not. First, it is very non-standard (no two BASIC interpreters or > > > > compilers are alike). Second, file i/o in most BASICs is really rather > > > > painful. As far as I know, the only BASIC widely used in WINDOWS is > > > > Visual BASIC which is hardly free! > > > > > > > > Jim Wantz > > > > n Sun, 10 Mar 2002, Alex Snow wrote: > > > > > > > > > I would use, and want to learn, basic, if there was a free Compiler and/or > > > > > IDE for basic under winblows. > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > > > > From: "Gregory Nowak" <gnowak1 at uic.edu> > > > > > To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca> > > > > > Sent: Sunday, March 10, 2002 2:56 PM > > > > > Subject: Re: free programming language > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > How about BASIC? > > > > > > Greg > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On Sun, Mar 10, 2002 at 01:25:38PM -0500, Alex Snow wrote: > > > > > > > Hi. > > > > > > > I am looking for a programming language for windows that is both free > > > > > and easy to learn for a beginning programmer. Does such a language exist? > > > > > > > > > > > > > > --- > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > > > Speakup mailing list > > > > > > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > > > > > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > > Speakup mailing list > > > > > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > > > > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > Speakup mailing list > > > > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > > > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Speakup mailing list > > > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Speakup mailing list > > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
