What (computer) language should i learn to make learning C++ easier to understand?

Question

Im 17 and ive been trying to learn some kind of coding programing in about a year or two from now I'll be going to collage to get a bachelors in computer programing. I'd like to get a head start and learn as much as i can. I am a beginner i know the basics of HTML and thats about it. Any and all programing languages, that can be programed using Windows XP, I have a beter than average knowledge of computers and what things mean. In advance, thanks.

Answer 1

If C++ is too complex to jump straight into, you can start with C. Most of what you learn in C (and just about all of the language syntax) will apply to C++ as well.

Java, even though it too is based on C syntax, is too different to be terribly useful to learning C++.

You might also consider one of the esoteric OO languages (like Smalltalk or Ruby) which will really help crystallize object-oriented concepts.

There's a saying that "you can write Fortran in any language," meaning that one can ignore the good structured features and write poor code. C++ is a little more prone to that issue than other OO languages (like C# and Java), so having a good foundation in OO concepts will make you a more effective coder in C++.

Answer 2

The easiest programming language to learn actually depends on you and what you want to learn for. Programming is a fairly demanding activity requiring concentration, discipline, the ability to make and execute a plan, attention to detail and patience. It doesn't matter which language you're using none of them will take any of those demands away. I hate answering a question with a question, but what is it you want to do with your program? Then let that guide you to the best language for you. Learning the first language is the hardest, by the time you come to the fifth or the sixth you'll have so much experience from the other languages that the differences don't seem so great any more. The debates on the merits of different languages have been on the internet since its inception. The difference between an interpreted language and a compiled language are negligible most of the time and for a beginner I'd be tempted just to ignore it. For web programming try something like PHP. You can mix HTML and PHP quite comfortably on the page and you can get a satisfying result quite quickly. For an application my personal preference would be either Java or Python. They both have their ardent advocates and, better yet, they both have large libraries of code that can help you get what you want. For text processing it's hard to beat Perl, but it can turn round and bite you at times. For games either Java or C#, but be warned I don't think that anyone on here would call C easy for a complete novice. For a compiler, operating system, real-time programming or a computationally difficult task, C# or C++ is the only game in town, but your first few programs will have a lot of debugging time attached. If you don't really know what you want to do with the program then probably Python or Java are your best bets. They're both powerful languages and they won't bog you down with memory management or complex pointer stuff, they're both relatively readable without too much strange-looking punctuation marks and as I said they have large libraries that can help with almost anything you can think of.

Answer 3

Where I went to school you had to have another language before C++, C was taught only as a 'second' language.

Most of what you learn in programming is the same in any language. There are languages invented especially for learning, like BASIC, Pascal and Python.

Pascal would be my choice. When you write a program you first design it, you lay out the logic in 'pseudocode'. Pseudocode is very similar to Pascal. Pascal was designed to skip that step, to be able to design the program in a top-down fashion in the actual language.

Visual BASIC is also very good, and very powerful. But it's a Windows language so you need to learn Windows as well as BASIC, so the learning curve is a little steeper. But Visual BASIC is actually a professional language, you can get jobs in it. And it is second in popularity only to C. If you get a handle on programming in Visual BASIC, then transition to Visual C++, you will be able to take along all you learned about the graphic environment, the Windows toolkits, all that stuff.

Programming is really fun! Some people find it downright addictive. Good luck!

Answer 4

Hi:

I would recommend Java because it's free, object-oriented, and a lot of the syntax is similar to C. C wouldn't be bad to learn either, and Visual Basic is a snap. Probably one of the main things to get up to speed on is object-oriented issues. You might try to access some community college sites, and browsing their computer classes to see what textbooks are used and maybe you can check those out on Amazon and get some hints for good books to learn from. When I took an online Java class from a community college a few years ago, we used one of the older "Java How to Program" book iterations from the Dietels. We went through several chapters for the introductory class, and normally had to partially complete the questions at the end of each chapter. For the advanced class, we did the remaining chapters of the book and the same for the end of each chapter.

Hope this helps and good luck on your pursuits!

Answer 5

You ask what language you should learn to make learning C++ easier to understand?

The answer is the C programming language. Apparently, to many of the respondents, my answer may seem somewhat counter-intuitive. Hmmm... Go figure!

C++ is C plus objects. C++ also has an extended library and templates. C++ is used for system programming—like C—but allows larger project, or applications.

C is a popular language, especially in game programming, because it doesn't have the extra packaging of the object-oriented C++. Programmers use C because it makes programs slightly faster and smaller than programs written in C++.

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Answer 6

C++ isn't that hard to learn, and actually, if you learn C++, a lot of other languages become easy to pick up.

I recommend getting some beginner C++ books and taking a shot at it.

Answer 7

i started with the old Pascal...it's easy, you can allmost say in english to the program what you want it to do

Answer 8

maybe you shouldnt go to collage for that... Must people already know all the laungegs when there there heck i am in middle school and i have my own website and i know css html javascript hhow to make layouts..