Programming Language for absolute beginner?

[joevennix]

VB = Pfff! I'd hate to say it's an excuse for a language, but that'd be Java.

>_>

<_<

SHUT UP ALREADY!!!

Java's not case-sensitive and OOP is kinda a female of the dog species, so at least give it that! XD

CTFan

Shhhhh sky, Java is super hard I don't know what you're talking about.

And CTF, Java is case-sensitive, I think that's what you meant. There's a difference between Int and int, for example.

Java and C++ are pretty similar, except Java is a ton slower since it runs in a virtual environment. Java was written for C++ coders to be able to hop right on it. It's good for writing embedded applications (for cellphones, etc.) but that's about it. I did some 3D graphics in Java, nothing complex, just the basic cubes and spheres, but it was really cool nonetheless. Someday this summer I'll probably spend a while writing a sort of graphics engine to display these shapes and give you the ability to walk through them.

I started in Java, but recently I've been coding in C++ on a Windows. It's a lot... less messy, and games are probably easier (I haven't done any GUI stuff yet however) and obviously much faster. The transition from Java to C++ was very easy.

If you're a beginner to programming though, and just want to try making games, check out Adobe Flash.

EDIT:

Oh ya, I forgot about DarkBASIC... get the DarkBASIC compiler and give it a shot, the trials free, and the programming is really... basic. Obviously, it has a lot of the same simple syntax as Basic, but it has 3D controls built right in.

Jeez read the first post JEEZ.

[Skyone]

C++ is really clean, yes. I love OOP for that reason, it's the only thing that keeps my coding safe from crap.

[Triton]

i would suggest FORTRAN or possibly COBOL just kidding, i dont know beans about programing beyond

Code: Select all

10 print "LOL BASIC"
20 goto 10
run

lol

[atari2600a]

The cool thing about most programming languages is that they all pretty much follow the same basic syntax, yet they never look the same! For example, in C, you'd write something like

Code: Select all

printf ("Death to Hal Turner \n");

...Whereas in C++ it would look like this.

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cout << "Chuck Norris is coming for you, Hal Turner" << endl;

...except in ASM, where the above code would be ~20 lines of code that loops a string of data (the text) into a buffer & the like while incrementing an index register, etc...

[Electric Rain]

Check out RPG Toolkit. It has it's own type of "mock" code called RPGcode... very easy to learn. It really helped give me a general understanding of all code, really. How to use parentheses, IF commands... real basic stuff like that. And, it makes it really easy to make your own RPG. Just check it out... you can jump right into it, and it's really well documented. It's so fun... I should get back into it...

[Sparkfist]

I just remembered that you can check out PHP online documents you can see if you like PHP. It's a nice language but not quite as easy to program as BASIC or VB. The syntax and programming style are more like that of C and it might be better to learn it as you can use it for online website development.

[Rellizate]

Well I'd learn with HTML first as it is probably the easiest language to learn and it runs even if there is an error. Then go on to PHP. Or at least that's what I did.

[timmeh87]

I guess im kinda late to the discussion, but i dont see what you guys have against Java. Its not very hard and its not really 'messy' as one person put it.

If you are starting from C I dont think its any harder to learn than C++. Plus it dosent have pointers and it has garbage collection, so no memory leaks.

It would be better if it wasnt interpreted, but hey - at least its ultra-portable. (and dont tell me that C is. it is in theory but in practice its a mess. Just ask the 10% I lost on my assignment cause it didnt compile in freaking Visual C++ (wrote it in borland))

[Unidentified Assilant]

Tonight i'm gonna try my hand at VB. Is XNA game studio any good at all?

O yeah, I have Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition, is that what I need?

[atari2600a]

HTML isn't a programming language, it's a Markup language. Either way, it's still probably a good idea to learn it.

[myuusmeow]

http://gamemaker.nl/

Game Maker is very good imo.
It has Drag and Drop for beginners.
GML is powerful and easy to learn.
It has a very forgiving syntax (D&D doesn't even have a syntax)
It's Object-oriented.
Built-in room editor so you don't need to do stuff like: create_instance(x,y,obj_A) for everything.

You'll need to pay $20 for the registered version for 3d.

[Kurt_]

That's for total n00bs. Although I did use it once and it was great. But it can't do EVERYTHING. Maybe to get started on game making, before you move to something more powerful.

[Electric Rain]

That's for total n00bs.

Exactly. Or, as he puts it, an "absolute beginner." Oh, and RPG Toolkit is 100% free, however. >.> Though I do want to check out GameMaker now... maybe I can "figure out a way" to get the full version. J/k... maybe... OR AM I???

[Skyone]

That's for total n00bs. Although I did use it once and it was great. But it can't do EVERYTHING. Maybe to get started on game making, before you move to something more powerful.

...

Game Maker is hardly for 'n00bs.' The programming (GML) is actually pretty advanced. It's an easy and powerful language, as myuusmeow said - you should see how intense some of it is.

[SavageLych]

Having tried every language out there I HIGHLY SUGGEST BlitzBasic for two reasons, its well documented (all the errors, ect) and is very simple. I made three or four games in Blitz and they all turned out good, also, there is a book you can get called "Game Programming For Teens".