Naethyn

[Lyion]

This article might interest you. I saw it linked on /.

http://www.devx.com/go-parallel/Article ... RSS_LATEST

[Naethyn]

I'm doing 100% of my development in VB.NET. Those are extensions for C++ (which is also in VS). I found this blog doing a google search. It uses many of the techniques I described to achieve multiprocessing, such as the background worker. I have yet to find a decent book on the subject.
http://blogs.msdn.com/greg_schechter/ar ... n-wpf.aspx


But on a side note I did recently buy a new video game book !
http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Game-Programming-Direct-9-0c/dp/1598220160/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/104-6022587-7391921?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191250345&sr=8-2

It has some good reviews. It's all done in C++ so I need to now find another book to teach me C++ lol. I really want to find out how to make video games. I found this XNA studio from microsoft. It is done in C#. Close to VB and I can read it, but I figured if I'm going to learn it right I mine as well do it in C++. Plus all the major video game companies out there want C++ game programmers. (Which is what I want to be). I just want to experience on job while I'm in college.... So I write vb lol.

[Lyion]

If you don't mind a suggestion, I'd start with the Kernighan & Richie C programming book first. Once you master base C, then you can code in anything. OOP is a small step from C.

http://www.amazon.com/C-Programming-Lan ... 0131103628

It's interesting so many people are still starting to code in basic. I started programming in Apple's form of basic back in the early 80s. I wrote portions of BBS software and helped a friend create his own multiplayer game based on the Phaze book series. While learning in basic was fun and easy, if you want to be a serious programmer then the K&R C book will help one take the next step. From what I've seen it's still the best way to go.

[Tikker]

if you want a fun way to get into making games, head over to GBADEV.org and learn how to code for the GBA and the DS

there's a ton of tutorials, walkthru's etc, and the hardware is very well documented

big homebrew community

[Arlos]

It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC; as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration. - Edsger Dijkstra

-Arlos

[Lyion]

Why are you quoting long dead Dutch dudes, Arlos?

Everyone who is anyone in codeland under 40 pretty much started by coding by basic.

Anyways, the best programmers have the knack, and do their own thing. The Academics think they know better, but those types generally never stray into the real world.

This reminds me of a Dilbert Cartoon from way back when:

Saint Dogbert enters the land of cubicles searching for demons of stupidity. Suddenly he finds an over-promoted computer guru spouting useless database concepts. "You'd be fools to ignore the boolean anti-binary least square approach." The monster is dispatched to the dark world by the sight of its most feared object. "Look! Actual Code!" ("Cool!")

[Diekan]

If you don't mind a suggestion, I'd start with the Kernighan & Richie C programming book first. Once you master base C, then you can code in anything. OOP is a small step from C.

http://www.amazon.com/C-Programming-Lan ... 0131103628

It's interesting so many people are still starting to code in basic. I started programming in Apple's form of basic back in the early 80s. I wrote portions of BBS software and helped a friend create his own multiplayer game based on the Phaze book series. While learning in basic was fun and easy, if you want to be a serious programmer then the K&R C book will help one take the next step. From what I've seen it's still the best way to go.

My undergrad alma mater still had students starting out with ADA... till a few years ago they switched to JAVA as their intro language. Well, don't quote me on that - I *think* their starting off with JAVA now, almost 90 percent sure.

[Lyion]

In college we started with Turbo Pascal, and moved to Fortran. Both were good for learning code, but worthless in the real world of business.

[Tossica]

In college we started with Turbo Pascal, and moved to Fortran. Both were good for learning code, but worthless in the real world of business.

I think things have changed quite a bit since the 1970's.

[Lyion]

Careful there, we're around the same age, Chief!

This was Cal Poly's curricula in 1987. Although to be fair 20 years ago seems like the stone age of technology compared to today. No Windows, and Apple ruled the roost.

[Naethyn]

Java was my first college programming language in the fall of '04.

[10sun]

I learned QBasic in middle school, C++ in high school(previous year it was Turbo Pascal), Visual C++, & Visual Basic my senior year of high school.

I went on to learn Perl before going to college.

Entry level course was in Java. I got bored and dropped the course the first week in.

Programming had left me.

-Adam

[Harrison]

I first was learning in C++, then taught myself visual basic, and then taught visual basic for a class while still in high school. Basically I got 8 credits for free because VB is fucking ridiculously stupid.

I don't remember jack squat since I decided writing code bored me to tears and haven't touched anything in over 5 years.

[Gidan]

We started using Pascal in college and switched over to c++. They were trying to move to Java as the into language but most of deans were fighting it. I think they eventually lost but after I left. They still didn't think perl, php or python were worth teaching while I was there.

[Tikker]

jeje, and perl is a big mainstay in my line of business

that and awk

[Lyion]

Perl & shell scripting are most of what I do as a DBA, although a knowledge of C <Pro C in my case> and Java also is a necessity.

Sadly, the people doing application coding for most large companies do not reside in North America.

Academia is generally clueless about the real world. Probably because so many of them have never BEEN there.

[Gidan]

I would be lost in a lot of my day to day work if I didn't have at least a minimal mount of experience with shell scripting. While I cant stand some perl code, there is some really cool stuff you can do with it, no the least of which is to write a program that looks so incredibly screwed up that to any non programmer it looks like gibberish. I probably do 90% of my code in either php or perl. One of these days I will look at ruby, just haven't had the time.

[Ouchyfish]

I always wanted to learn C so I could code MUDs and be a GOD.

[Ganzo]

I'm in Electronics and i have to take VB .Net and Java as prereqs for Assembly class