macOS Want to start coding/programming, what should i learn?

[gusping]

Hi,
I want to start coding as its the summer hols and i have lots of spare time. But... i have no idea what language to learn. I don't really know what i would like to code, maybe a website to start with. preferebly one of the following: HTML 5, java or C ++ although i know they are each for different things.

Any knowledge would be appreciated, i'm a complete noob and don't know anything yet

Thanks

 

[ChristianVirtual]

What do you want to code ?

Maybe start with HTML5 and JavaScript is a good one; after some first success switch over to C and ObjectiveC as those are natural for Mac OSX and iOS programming; but heavy to start with.

Download XCode from AppStore and play with same sample projects gives a quick start.

 

[throAU]

+1 to HTML5 and javascript to start with.

You'll be able to get started with a small project and see instant results. With HTML5 + javascript you can also write web based "apps" for your iphone or whatever without needing to get code signing certificates, etc. No pointers or memory management to learn starting out, either.


Objective-C means learning Xcode as well, which is a little bit intimidating in its own right if you've never done any programming before. I've programmed in Basic, C, pascal and x86 assembly (pre-modern development IDEs), and Xcode was a lot to get my head around.

edit:

go here:
http://www.codecademy.com

 

[balamw]

Have a look at Apple's HTML5 programming pages: e.g. https://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/ if that's along the lines of what you want to do you can start there.

B

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

HTML, Java, C are good starts. Maybe even Python. I'm a CE major and before I started university, I took classes for HTML, Java, C, C++ and UNIX shell scripts. After learning all of those, I'd say HTML -> Java -> C -> C++ is a good foundation. From there on, you should start focusing on what type of programmer/developer you want to be. Web developers should go into PHP, SQL, Javascript, Ruby on Rails, CSS, etc. Computer programmers should dig into Objective-C, C#, etc. And mobile developers should delve into Objective-C and Java which are the main languages for iOS and Android respectively.

As you learn more languages and your coding projects become more complex, you should start learning how to use IDEs such as Xcode, Eclipse, Netbeans and Visual Studio. Xcode only runs on Macs and Visual Studio only on Windows. Eclipse and Netbeans are cross-platform.

 

[Pivs]

Here's a great tutorial for learning both C and some of the basics of Xcode.

http://masters-of-the-void.com/home.htm

It walks you through most of the basics.

 

[naples98]

CodeAcademy provides a pretty good online tutorial for learning Javascript.

http://www.codecademy.com/

 

[gusping]

What do you want to code ?

Maybe start with HTML5 and JavaScript is a good one; after some first success switch over to C and ObjectiveC as those are natural for Mac OSX and iOS programming; but heavy to start with.

Download XCode from AppStore and play with same sample projects gives a quick start.

Sorry to ask a stupid question but is Javascript and Java the same?

Thanks

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I may get non-upvoted for this but I'd highly suggest installing Microsoft's Visual C# Express. It's an all in one solution, so there's no messing with any configuration of command line stuff, which can be daunting for a noob. Also, it's visual (visual studio, heh), so you can really see what you're doing.

If you follow a tutorial like this one, you can have something running in minutes.

Really, it's that simple.

P.S. Java and Javascript are completely different, and Javascript was only named such because the developers of the language wanted to pull Java developers away from Java and towards Javascript.

 

[Cromulent]

I may get non-upvoted for this but I'd highly suggest installing Microsoft's Visual C# Express. It's an all in one solution, so there's no messing with any configuration of command line stuff, which can be daunting for a noob. Also, it's visual (visual studio, heh), so you can really see what you're doing.

If you follow a tutorial like this one, you can have something running in minutes.

Really, it's that simple.

Visual C# is good but there are other options that are available for the Mac directly. Specifically Mono and MonoDevelop. They let you develop C# code on the Mac in a nice IDE and are both free open source tools.

 

[Sayer]

Pick a language, any language and start with it. If you "get it" then you can move on to learn other things.

If you have an iPad look to this: Codify

For simple programming concepts to get started with. It doesn't have to be exactly what you want to make eventually, but is meant to get you into the mindset of programming.

If you don't "get it" then don't worry. There are ways to make web pages without having to know C++ or Java.

 

[ChristianVirtual]

Sorry to ask a stupid question but is Javascript and Java the same?

Thanks

it's not a stupid question. The answer is: totally different and the only common thing are those four characters J, A, V and A (again).

For more details https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript

Syntax of JS is inspired by C; of course there are many differences in the way of using it. Main use if the client-side manipulation of HTML pages. the Wikipedia above give some simple samples.