Hello everyone. I'm going to start a little tutorial series on here and to start with, before any real content is added, I'm going to discuss
the ups and downs of high-level languages and where you should start.
The Ups:
- Much less code has to be written
- The code is much easier to understand
- Manly complex functions can be dealt with easily
The Downs:
- Programs often use much more memory than they need
- Due to complexity there is a large chance of errors
What you may already knowMost people will have done an IT qualification at some time in their lives. From this you might know HTML. Unfortunately, it isn't actually a language. However, it does encourage good tabbing and code structure.
Some of you may have also learned VB. Having been forced to learn it myself, I would suggest that as soon as you are done with it that you throw it away forevermore. While it may be good for GUI programming and learning the basics, it teaches bad habits such as incorrect tabbing, lack of line endings, and has some quite strange and over-lengthy syntax. (As an example: in VB I would declare a variable by saying 'Dim var As Integer', whereas in other languages such as C, I would just type 'int var' and pone done with it.
If you have already learnt C, C++, C#, or JavaThen why are you even here? Go learn touse Objective-C, OpenGL, GTK+, and other such stuff!
Strong ReccomendationsI would suggest:
1. Learn to touch-type. It's worth the time and effort.
2. Learn good English. Whether it is not your first language, or you just can't spell, it's a good idea to learn good English because it will not only make your code clearer to others, but you will also be able to make good use of free code.
3. Consider getting Linux. I would suggest Ubuntu or Mint.
4. If on windows, get Notepad++. It's free, lightweight, and has syntax highlighting. What more could you want?
5. If on Linux, use any text editor with syntax highlight. I personally like gedit.
Part 1: PythonWhy Python?Python is a very easy to learn, powerful language. It's efficient, yet simple. While not the best language to write programs in, it is brilliant for prototyping due to the large amount of libraries, both included with the language, and community-written. It has a massive amount of support, and can be used on a variety of platforms.
Part 1: Download and Install Python[spoiler]
To Download Python, you will need to go to this page: http://python.org/download/
Make sure to download Python 3.2, as this is what the tutorial will cover.
NB: If you are using linux, Python may already be installed on your system. Please check in your package manager before downloading any of the above files.[/spoiler]
Part 2: Hello World![spoiler]
This is perhaps the simplest imaginable program you can write in Python.
print('Hello World')
input()
MORE COMING SOON[/color]
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