How can I become a good programmer? And which programming language is the best to study?

Answer 1

Ask yourself:
Do you really need to learn it?
Do you really want to learn it?
What do I expect to gain from learning it?
How much effort am I prepared to invest?
Time
Full-time.
A day a week
A few hours a week
An hour a day
Money - how much is my time worth?

. Use the internet and computer magazines for resources. Use the online help for the tools that you use. Save money by using your local library (you may need to make a reservation or request an inter-library loan). Or try a local university. They might have a second hand book section.
Thrifty. Enough to buy one book a year. Start with a proper book for beginners. Don't automatically go for an all-in-one tutorial/reference. Use the online help for the moment and buy a reference book later. You'll have a better idea about which reference book(s) you'll want later. Go to the book's web site and print a copy of its errata.
Enough. Enough to buy books as and when they are needed.
Generous. Enough to buy more books than you can read thoroughly. Enough to broaden your horizons.
Lavish. Enough to pay for commercial training courses, attending conferences, paying for support contracts and/or consultants.
Do some preparation:
Are there any local experts that can help?
What are the resources available to me?
Books. Search ACCU book reviews. Ask for opinions.
Reference books. Everyone makes mistakes. Your best bet is a decent reference book that has its errors made public on its website.
Recommendations:
Beware of experts. They may have learnt the language years ago and recommend books that were good at the time but are now obsolete or out of print.
Beware of beginners. They may recommend books that are easy to read but are full of errors.
UseNet comp.lang. newgroups and their FAQs.
Magazines
Internet discussion
Mailing lists. ACCU has some.
Web site forums.
User groups such as ACCU.
Also : Tools, Training courses.
Seek advice:
Look for appropriate mailing lists or usenet newsgroups.
If the newsgroup has a FAQ read that before posting your question.
Be polite.
Be appropriate. If you're not sure you're in the right place, ask to be directed to a more suitable mailing list or newsgroup.
Offer to give more details about your problem. At best you'll deal with experts, most of which aren't psychic and don't know your current circumstances.
Questions, answers.
Which programming language do I learn?
It depends on what you want to achieve.
Its best to start off with a language that isn't too demanding and can be used to do things that you will find personally useful.
What is the BEST programming language?
To my knowledge there is no programming language called BEST.
What kinds of programming language are there?
Quite a variety. They can be categorised according to paradigm
Help! I can write simple programs... but whenever I do something tricky or complex, everything goes horribly wrong!
Are you trying to do something that is too difficult? Try solving a simpler problem.
Take a look at your design. Maybe that needs improving. Explain your design to someone else. They might suggest alternative approaches.
Maybe you need to improve your programming technique. Keep a note of your difficulties and how you fixed them. Is there a common theme?
Maybe you need to improve your design skills. Read, think and write about design.
What next?
Print this article and write your answers on it.
Take a look at the links on the ACCU's website. You should find something useful.
You'll need a tool (compiler, interpreter it depends on which language you've chosen). It might already be installed on your system (if you're using Linux ). You might need to buy the tool or it might be available for free download.
If you're learning...
C. Print our C page. Read the FAQs. Most C++ compilers have a C option. I suggest you use whatever your local experts suggest (or GNU C). Read "The C programming language" by Kernighan & Ritchie and consider other books. And read the comp.lang.c FAQ. And get to know the standard libary well - see "The Standard C library" by P.J. Plauger.
C++. Print our C++ page. Read the FAQs. Choose a C++ compiler. I suggest you use whatever your local experts suggest (or GNU C++, Free Borland or Open Watcom). For more involved work, you may want to use additional tools, maybe an IDE. I'd recommend reading a book like Accelerated C++ (Koenig & Moo), the C++ Primer (Lippman & Lajoie). And then reading the C++ Programing Language (Stroustrup). Then read stuff like "Effective C++", "More Effective C++" and visit Guru of the Week website.
Java. Print our Java page. I suggest you use the Java SDK. Read the Sun tutorials and consider books. For more involved work, you may want to use additional tools.
Perl. Take a look at our Perl links.
Python. Take a look at our Python links.
A different language. Take a look at our links for programming languages and obtain help from appropriate sources.

By the way HTML is not a true programming language as it does not need to be Compiled to work, one requirement of a true programming language.

Answer 2

If you are new to programming, then start with Microsoft Visual Basic 6

This can atleast show you some basics of programming. Although this language is machine depended and really easy, you can creat cool complex business or entertainment applications with it.

Then as you become a bit more professional, its time to leave the nest.
Start by learning JAVA rather than C++ as it is more powerful and ensures future survival and basically if you know JAVA you dont need to know C++ anymore. C++ becomes obsolete.

As you progress from JAVA, try fortran and pascal and at last learn ADA, which will virtually make you the KING as you wont have no more boundaries. DOD will be easy pickin

Answer 3

There is no best programming language to study. To become a good programmer, a proficient one, you have to study multiple languages. Try starting out with C and HTML.

Answer 4

Practice, practice, practice. That's how you get good at anything. Also, if you can, review other people's code to get new ideas and techniques.

For a language, I will have to go with what I know. Start with C or C++. Those will teach you all the basics. My C++ instructor said that Java is just a dumbed-down version of C++ after taking all the complicated stuff out.

After you learn how to write programs, you can expand out to special database programming, embedded programming, web design, or whatever you like.

Did I mention it's best to practice a lot?

Answer 5

Niklaus Wirth once defined programming as algorithms plus data structures. So to be a good programmer, you need to be able to construct good algorithms (i.e., find ways for computers to arrive to the result with the least amount of computation) and good data structures (i.e., find ways to store data in ways that makes it easily and quickly accessible).

As to "which programming language is the best to study", you should stop thinking in these terms. One of the essential skills of a good programmer is "meta-engineering", or the ability to pick the language most suitable for the task at hand. It means that you should be comfortable with MANY programming languages if you want to be a good programmer.

Answer 6

Becoming a good programmer is more than just learning how the commands of a language work (referred to as "syntax"). Also, you need to learn programming techniques, such as sorting algorythms, problem analysis, modular techniques, etc, etc.

I would recommend you start learning with Visual Basic, because it is very English-sounding. The "C" family of languages are somewhat cryptic to the new programmer, but they are more powerful. But with power comes responsibility, because you can actually overwrite part of your operating system using "C" (that would include C, C+ C++ and C#).

Answer 7

C#.NET is quickly becoming the new standard in programming. This, combined with Microsoft's Visual Studios, allows programmers to build almost anything from windows forms, web applications, servers, databases, web pages, and a crap load more.
I am in training for my MCAD and CIW at CentriqFoss in Kansas City. Find a school that is Microsoft Gold Certified, and has as many certifications as possible. It doesn't have to be accredited to be a better school for IT training.

Answer 8

Two questions, two answers.
1. Write, debug and analyze. Read and learn code written by professionals.
2. Does not matter. Pascal, FORTRAN, C, ... - any language is good. Do not mix programming languages with scripting languages as Perl. Avoid C# -- is is too close to scripting: i know several "also programmers" writing in C# for several years who can't imagine what's address in computer memory :-)

Answer 9

just think in step by step manner and start your learning from
'C' thats the best programming language it a complete world you can do any thing with it,
try to understand control flow of a program thats help you to learn programming,

after that go for any OOPs language( C++) ,
and learn VB 6.0 with that you can get know how an object perform Vb is an object based language the go for JAVA or some thing with you like ...

Answer 10

Go for anything object oriented. That's primarily what everything is now in the real world. The simplest language I have learned is VisualBasic, but the most beneficial to know would have to be Java.