Pascal

I am a beginner in programming. I have quite a bit of computing knowledge but wanted to make a jump to making games and programs, but I am only 13 years old. Am I too young to start programming?
I have made a few programs in BASIC. I heard that it can teach some bad programming habits if you want to move on to some harder languages. Is this true?
I have about 3 languages in mind to move up to:C++(I have tried it a little), Java, and Pascal. If anyone could please give me some advice that would be great!!

Was Mozart too young to start playing the piano?

No one is ever "too young" to start something like this. In fact, I'd say you're at just the right age. Does your school offer any programming courses? If not, I'd suggest you start pushing the math classes harder. If you decide to go to uni later and want to do computer science, you'll get bombarded with a lot of higher level math courses (not because math is essential, but rather, because the subjects of math and cs both emphasize the same general logic capabilities which weeds out the illogical I suppose.. I actually don't see the logic in it.. but whatever ). If you want to start learning on your own now (which you might as well.. no sense in waiting to pay for the same thing in 5 years), pick a language and get to know it intimately. If you decide to go with C++, go ahead and get yourself a beginners programming book or a beginners C++ book. READ REVIEWS! Books are good, but sometimes bad programmers write well written books that teach bad techniques (a good example of that anamoly would be the entire "Visual Quickstart" series IMHO).

As for asking what language you should pick, it's up to you. Each has it's own strengths and weaknesses. I'd say go with C++ and Java if you want to focus on GUI apps and games. Java is in a bit of jam at the moment because of some wrangling and hand wringing over at Sun, plus Microsoft's idiotic attempt to kill it off by mangling it's implementation on the Windows platform. It's a good, solid, cross-platform language that's just been badly mishandled, so you may want to keep your distance from it at first and see what happens. In the meantime, you could always go with C++. It's a good, solid language for creating applications, but be warned. It's going to be a little tough to learn, and it gives you a lot of opportunities to hang yourself.

One final point... get a *nix distribution if you don't already have one so you have, or have access to, all of the tools you'll need. You'll get bogged down in tool-hunting expeditions if you try to learn on Windoze. If you're unfamiliar with Unix-like environments, go get Red Hat 8.0 from http://www.redhat.com/ . I downloaded the whole thing over dial up, so no excuses! Once you're more comfortable in the *nix way of doing things you can move into a "more serious" distribution such as Slackware or one of the BSD systems.

Good luck!

Thank you!! Your input means more than you can imagine.I have tried C++ for a while but then it got to be so hard that I just gave up. I was using the C++ for Dummies book. Should I try an online tutorial? Does Microsoft have a tutorial that I could use with Visual C++?

I'm a newbie too. I've asked about same question. One person suggested that i should start out with an easy language and move on to harder one. Beacause many simple languages are related to harder languages. Like Java to C++. PHP to both C++ and Perl. C++ is probably the hardest one out there. Maybe only the assembler is harder.

Hope this helps

For learning and tinkering, I prefer an interpreted language rather than a compiled one. The interaction you get, and the immediate error messages give feedback on syntax.

For this, I am now using Python. The language is part of the DevShed family, and there are many simple example snippets available. Python's nature enforces readability, because it relies on indentation white space to define the beginning and end of loops, for statments and the like.

Python also allows variables to be defined 'on-the-fly', rather than having them defined before use, and seems to have a comfortable (for me, at least) 'type'ing arrangement.

The basic logic loops are available for 'function' programming, but objects are basic to its nature. Both types of programming (function and object oriented) are important (i.e. - do you add 1 to 2, or tell 2 to add 1 to itself).

There are several IDE's for Python, but I often use EditPad or EditPad Pro for eciting. I like its color highlights for the language, and use it for the programming logic. For GUI developement, I've started using PythonCard, also part of the DevShed family.

No matter what environment you choose, I reccommend that you find an editor or IDE that you like, one that will support your chosen language with color highlighting of the syntax. It will help with the spelling and syntax.

Good luck! And remember, if you're not frustrated, you're not learning!

I like it!

Well, IMHO anyway, I think it would be best to plug away at a harder language and work you way to easier ones. Frankly, if you master C++, you can also read most (well-written) Perl code, PHP, Python, Pascal, JavaScript, Java, etc. That which you can't wiggle out a meaning for on your own, you can pick up pretty quickly. For example, I know Perl, and, although I've never read more than the first two or three pages of the manual/tutorial without getting bored and quitting, I can read most PHP code. However, hand me a C++ file and, largely, I'm clueless (though I'm studying that language at the moment).

Also, make sure you don't cut corners while you're learning the language. Perl is a nasty one for this. You can cut a lot of corners to make it easier to write Perl code early on, but man, if you get into the habit you will PAY and pay DEARLY for it later. (a good example of cutting corners would be not pre-defining your variables and letting the compiler do it on the fly... croscwa )

I have an idea - you could picture in your mind what your dream job would entail.. so in your case this would be games programming.. then search the job sites (monster, flipdog, newmonday, jobsearch etc) for such a job and see what skills they are looking for. It'll give you a good guide as to what you need

Good luck kid !

christo