Whats the best program(s) to use if I want to start writing my own programs?

	Whats the best program(s) to use if I want to start writing my own programs? I would like to write a couple of simple windows based programs in order to learn about programming. Where would be a good place to start? I did C++ at college about ten years ago so am hoping that might help a little when understanding coding plus I have built some HTML sites. Any advice would be great, thanks Asked By: Nacho-Nick - 11/16/2010

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1. Top 10 software skills in advertisements: http://www.jobadswatch.co.uk/jobstats/trends/topskills http://www.jobadswatch.co.uk/jobstats ( See below about C. I think that is still in demand because of the number of existing applications that use it, but not for new applications. ) 2. C# My recommendation is C#. This might be a bit basic, but here's a book for beginners, maybe you could skim it if you find it easy: Programming in the Key of C#: A Primer for Aspiring Programmers by Charles Petzold 'Compose your first software applications with programming maestro Charles Petzold.' http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/book.aspx?ID=6261&locale=en-us You can get a free development environment here for Windows: http://www.microsoft.com/express/Windows/ C# is pretty much the only development platform for Microsoft Windows Desktop and Web Servers. Don't do these, you'd be wasting your time: Pascal: barely used in industry now. Used to be used as an educational tool C, C++: not used for new development except in niche applications, there are already many skilled developers to fill those jobs; these two languages, especially C++, are more complicated than C#, and you could easily get lost, in fact that is why C++ is not used so much now - it's way too complicated! C# is a sensible simplification and is much more powerful. You don't need to learn C or C++ before you learn C#. Just go straight for C#. Visual Basic: A Microsoft competitor for C#, but nearly all serious programmers use C#. Not worth it if you can use C#. Others you could consider: Java: a very serious language, shoulder-to-shoulder with C#, based on Unix or Linux more than Windows. Python/Perl: Only if you're just scripting, but want something more powerful In summary, C# is Microsoft's strategic language for the next 10 years, at least, I would guess. It has one main development environment ( Visual Studio on Windows ) whereas with Java, there are a potentially confusing array of environments. You should learn a database as well: if you're going the C# route, use Microsoft's SQL Server, there is a free version: http://www.microsoft.com/express/Database/ At the end of the day, you have to make your own decision, and what I recommend based on my experience may not be suitable for you. Answered By: John Mason - 11/16/2010

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C++ is a good language to go with, due to its power and wide use. On windows, I like using Dev-C++ to compile my programs. http://www.bloodshed.net/devcpp.html Another good language for learning is python. It has a simple syntax, it's powerful, plus you have a command like interface where you can run a program line by line before compiling it. You can download everything you need for python from the official website http://www.python.org/ If you want to extend your web design skills beyond HTML, learn Java, Javascript, php, SQL (i prefer mySQL), and CSS. (just google it) Answered By: smatt454 - 11/16/2010

The easiet program ever is Borderland Delphi number 7 if you want to go into details. It is easy to build a gui from there and it has its own compiler, I earned 800 buck for 1 copy of one of my programs I wrote in it and 500 times four for four copies of another. If you are looking for something a bit more tricky you canb try java but Delphi contains everything, even html, flash, ado, and a whole lot more! Answered By: Tinus Green - 11/16/2010

It really depends on which platform you want to develop. But since you are already familiar with C++ concepts and constructs (OOP) I would suggest you to pick up C#. It already has its own IDE that will help you to start coding right away, dragging and dropping UI elements and codes are a dime a dozen in the web. Happy coding! Answered By: slim_naldy - 11/16/2010

U have to decide either desktop development or web development, C++ is very powerful language for building applications, i have used it for past five years; for web development since you have build many HTML websites; so starting PHP will be easy for you.....i recommend PHP because it's open source even though you have many choices like ASP.NET , ASP. JSP, Perl, Ruby..etc.....here's a link should help you in starting with PHP along with MySQL http://www.w3schools.com/php/default.asp http://www.w3schools.com/sql/default.asp good luck! Answered By: Ruudz - 11/16/2010

If you're just going to write for Windows, and you'll never want your programs to run on anything else, then C# is a great language. It's relatively easy to learn and not as finicky as C++. As the other poster said, there is a great future in C# jobs. The problem with C# is that Microsoft pretty much has a monopoly on the IDE, and if you want to do more than just very basic programming using their Express edition, you are going to have to shell out some money. (Delphi, as another poster mentioned, is also good for building Windows programs. However, there really isn't a lot of call for Delphi developers in the marketplace anymore (I got out of Delphi about 7 years ago because I was having trouble finding jobs).) Each platform has preferred languages which makes writing programs easier for that platform (Windows: C#, Linux: Python and Perl, Mac: Objective-C), but those languages don't translate well to other platforms. If you're going to want to go beyond Windows someday, you're best choice is C++. All platforms use C++ for the systems, servers, and other programs which make programs run -- although the standard libraries will differ. You won't be doing a lot of GUI with it, unless you find yourself working on some older, very mature programs that someone else has already written (such as a lot of great open source programs). Java is nice, but it tends to be kind of a niche. It's used more for corporate programming, as it's difficult to convince an end-user to install the JVM in order to run the programs. It's tough to find a cheap host which which provides JVM's on the server side for websites. It also has a reputation of being rather slow and bulky. One thing that people often forget about though is JavaScript. The future of application development is running more and more to web-based applications. Static websites should be designed to be usable with JavaScript disabled, but Web Apps (A web mail app, a web-based word processor, etc.) don't need to suffer from that limitation. The language is extremely flexible and quite powerful. It's actually possible to write a very modern application using JavaScript. You're just limited on the level of interaction with other software and data on the user's computer (and even some of these can be worked around under the right circumstances). In fact, you can even write desktop windows applications if you want to delve into the Mozilla (Firefox, Thunderbird) products a little (look for something called XUL on their developer sites). Answered By: clamshell - 11/16/2010

Python is a good, easy programming language to start with. The same is true of Perl as well as Ruby on Rails (Ruby is the programming language, and Rails a web framework.) Is is your goal to get into web programming, write software, games? Be more clear of what your goals are the next time you ask a question like this. W3 Schools is a good resource to START learning languages - it won't go into depth however. If you're specifically interested in Web Development and Design I recommend Nettuts: http://net.tutsplus.com/ I also recommend Doctype in which two guys make it funner than the main guy who does Nettuts: http://doctype.tv/ Source(s): Do you find my answer helpful? You could visit me on hub pages if you think I could offer you some more helpfulness: Intro to Unix: http://hubpages.com/hub/Unix-Forever PhP: http://hubpages.com/hub/PHP-The-Great However I haven't written much about computer science yet. Answered By: The Boss - 11/16/2010

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