Where to start?

D

DreadStarX

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 30, 2013
Posts
146
Location
Central/Southern Washington State
Hey Gents,

niemiro has suggest that I post in this section, in regards to a program I wanted to create. I've been wanting to get into programming for a long time. I started in college with Visual Basic .Net and understood quite a bit of it. It's been over 5 years, and there isn't much I remember with it. VB .Net isn't anything like what I want to learn, my question is; Where do I start?

Which language is easier to start with C, C# or C++? My end goal is to be fluent in C++ and to be able to code socket connections, and include real time updates for a side project I have with Ogre3D. I've been planning this project for over 9 years now, gathering ideas, giving massive descriptions about what it should or shouldn't do, but that is for another time.

My first program I want to work on is a tool set for Windows/Linux. I know that we don't do anything related to Linux here, so I won't ask too many questions relating to it, I have another forums for that.

I want to create a small toolset, a quick set of tools you can load via standalone. It would show things like;

1. MAC Address
2. NIC Activity
3. IP Address
4. Sub Net
5. Operating System
6. Max RAM
7. Sub Net Calculator
Useful information, things you don't have to click multiple times for. I know when I'm working on someones computer, I get incredibly annoyed with having to hunt for things or deal with the slowness of computers. I know there are plenty of tools out there, and probably some that do what I want, but I want to be able to say "I did this. I didn't copy someone elses work, I coded this myself."

I'm not even sure this is the right section. I'm hoping to start this tomorrow evening while I'm drinking beer and relaxing for the first time in 4 months. :)

- Thomas

P.S. I give out cookies for help ;)
 
Which is easiest? C# without a doubt. I don't see why this couldn't be achieved in C# though either. If you want rapid GUI development as well on top of that too, that would be another reason why I would suggest C#.
 
AceInfinity said:
Which is easiest? C# without a doubt. I don't see why this couldn't be achieved in C# though either. If you want rapid GUI development as well on top of that too, that would be another reason why I would suggest C#.
Click to expand...

I'm new to programming, so I don't even know where to start or how to organize it. I'm even wondering if this could be cross platform, but thats another task for another day.
 
It can be cross platform if you use Mono for C#. Otherwise, just because code is written in C or C++ doesn't guarantee it to be cross platform. You have to avoid all of Win32 for it to be compatible with other platform's. This doesn't mean Win32 methods can be in your code, you just have to check for Windows being defined. As for where to start, see where you're at. Just start a project and try making a calculator... Try simple projects first. And use MSDN for documentation.
 
x BlueRobot said:
C# is the easiest, but I feel that C/C++ provides you with more control.
Click to expand...

I'm sort of not so sure. Although I do use C++ as my primary language these days, I do actually like C# a lot, because there's a HUGE amount of power behind .net (it isn't just a framework which exposes the common stuff and fails on the rest, it exposes tons of stuff), and if you really need, there's always PInvoke. Personally I would recommend C# to the OP.
 
For C# you can do tons of things if you know the language well enough, and in most cases, there's no requirement to move to a language like C++. There are some things that .NET doesn't have though, such as inline asm.
 
Sorry for the late reply. Thank you for all the responses. I think I'm going to start with C#. It seems as if it is a good starting, and growing point. My goal is to be able to develop applications in C++. I would like to be able to develop applications for Linux, as well as windows. I'm an avid believer that if it exists for one, it should exist for all.


Now, to find a good book to buy!

- Thomas
 
If you start soon enough you can find something like this, which is my recommendation: Pro C# 5.0 and the .NET 4.5 Framework

I have the 4.0 version of this "series" I suppose you could call it, and it's very easy to understand, you get example sourcecode of the material, and it's very detailed about what it's trying to let the reader know about the language. Although 4.5 is the newest with lots of new methods and such within the framework, it does make simple, asynchronous programming, so you'll learn the easier way of doing this later on in the book most likely. Asynchronous programming for 4.0 and below is much more convoluted, and entails much more difficult models of asynchronous strategies.

If this is anything like the last book, and I assume it's probably even bigger, be ready to be reading a lot. It should be fun though because they will give you examples that you can run and test. You're not alone on reading the material and testing stuff that you've read. There is just a lot to this book. The one I have right now (among all of the other .NET books I own), has about 3 inches depth with blade thin pages. You'll be using this book for a while if you get it.

You don't need C++ however to develop for Linux. This book may, like the last, even tell you about Mono, which is a possible solution for a .NET programmer to make a program non-Windows specific.
 
Last edited:

Has Sysnative Forums helped you? Please consider donating to help us support the site!

Back
Top