I like to learn computer science and programming, but i have no understanding.

Question

Hi all, I like to learn computer science and programming, but i don't know where and how to start. For the past two months, i have been researching on types of programming, i found my interest in desktop programming, and also found this subjects (discrete maths, logic, algorithms, data structures, artificial intelligence, simulation) said to be a most known (subjects). Well as a beginner, i have no understanding on what type of language or books that can cover all these subjects, or even how to write any code.

Secondly, am as young as you can guess and i need a language to start with that will be easy for me to understand, and books to read. Thank you.

Answer 1

I would start by getting this book:

Hello World

and this book:

Code

Answer 2

Theory is nice and also important, but my interest started with hands-on code. There is really nothing like making the computer do what you want. Ivor Horton seems to do a good job of introducing programming concepts with Java (see http://www.wrox.com/WileyCDA/WroxTitle/Ivor-Horton-s-Beginning-Java2-JDK-5-Edition.productCd-0764568744.html). PHP, Ruby or Python are also pretty good choices for your first programming language.

Answer 3

You might want to look at Python (python.org). If I were going to teach a programming language to beginners, I would probably teach Python.

Most of the software is free and open source -- you can download it from python.org, including several free integrated development environments (IDEs). About the only thing you might want to buy is a good book (maybe "Learning Python", by Mark Lutz).

Answer 4

If you want a great way to start learning web programming check out www.phpvideotutorials.com. His free videos are a really good starting point.

Also focus on getting cool stuff done that interests you. Don't worry about coding algorithms when you are starting out.

Answer 5

I'd say that it depends what kind of applications you want to write and possibly what OS you use. If you want to do Web programming you'll probably want to use different languages than if you want to do desktop apps. And if you use Linux you'll probably use different languages than if you're on Windows.

If you want to learn to write desktop apps for Windows I'd suggest VB.Net, partly because many people see it as a beginners language so I find that many tutorials for VB.Net starts at quite a basic level and it's usually easy to find easy information on google for it. You can download Visual Studio Express for VB.Net for free.

I've never read any beginners books for it so can't recommend any I'm afraid.

Answer 6

One of the BEST books I've read on learning Object-Oriented Programming is called "Objects First With Java" It uses an IDE called BlueJ which is designed solely to teach Object-Oriented Programming to newbies.

http://www.bluej.org/objects-first/

I don't write much in Java but it's very similar to any of the modern C-based languages.

If you want to learn OOP, I'd seriously recommend this book. Tied with the IDE (BlueJ), it's an excellent learning tool!

Answer 7

I suggest for you, a simple made and fast sadisfaction developing language, with a huge community, thousands examples and a lot of skilled people (also here on SO) and it's PHP.

PHP it's designed for web applications but it can also be used just as a console and it can help you to understand most of the basic concepts of like variables, operators, structures and it's very easygoing. After that you can move to another language with a little effort and you have the base of a very useful tool.

Starting it's very easy to, just download an installer and a text editor:

• Windows: EasyPHP as installer and PsPad as editor
• OSX: XAMPP as installer and Text Wrangler as editor
• Linux: Bluefish(Gnome) or Kate(KDE) as text editor and search your packet manager for "LAMP"

and follow the install instructions.

Now you are ready to go, just create your first file in the proper directory (refer to the installer documentation) and surf with your browser to http://localhost/ find a good tutorial for beginners or wannabe and use often the documentation on php.net it's very well written.