New to writing code...brain is melting......
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Hello all.... Great web site. Love the info and suggestions I can get here. So, I have been doing IT work for over 25 years (servers, networks, hardware, etc...) and never delved into the development field. I now have the opportunity to learn writing and modifying code, but I am having a hard time making this logic click. I have several beginner books on Visual Studio (2005,2010,2012)and have done the training classes offered by a local business. I am focusing on Visual Basic as my language of choice because the company I work for uses this only. Any suggestions on how I can make all this info click? I understand the concepts, but just could not write the code behind a app i lay out in VS Designer to save my life. EDIT: Thanks all for the great advice. I sort of suspected I was trying to bite off more than I could chew. Going to go back simple and work my way up.
http://www.codecademy.com/[^] http://blog.ted.com/2013/01/29/10-places-where-anyone-can-learn-to-code/[^] http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/find-by-topic/[^], Engineering -> Computer Science MSDN has a lot of stuff, videos etc. Try YouTube? Chhose some thing that interests you to practice with, someone suggested one above, or how about a Mandelbrot drawing desktop app (something of a rite of passage) or make a basic calculator.
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Marco Bertschi wrote:
Adress management app
Two methods? "On" and "Off"? :laugh:
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
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Marco Bertschi wrote:
Adress management app
Two methods? "On" and "Off"? :laugh:
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
Dammit, I tripped into one of these traps fo non-native english speakers :rolleyes: No, I thought something where you can manage contacts (real people, not electronic contacts). Every contact has a surname, last name, street name & number, postal code, phone number and email address. Creating, editing, deleting and displaying them should be a good start. Afterwards he can add the possibility to save them when the application is closed and load them when the app is started and learns about file handling this way.
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haha...maybe a Old n00b... I have read that once you have a language down, it makes learning other languages easier. Vb and VB.Net are what our dev guy uses here, so I need to get this to assist. C# is on my list as well as Java for personal enrichment. Any suggestions on a n00b learning C# and Java (as well as VB)? Don't seem to have a issue with the tools to design apps, just making it do what I want.
ITWino wrote:
I have read that once you have a language down, it makes learning other languages easier...
This is indeed true to a certain extent. I know about 100 computer languages, and at least in the early days, it was all really just syntax. I was usually able to learn a new language by reading the language reference. There were several exceptions to this (assembly, APL, C). Nowadays that is not quite so true. What is more important to grasp is the concepts and programming paradigms involved: [assembly], object oriented programming, functional programming, web, templates, lambdas, ... Next to that is frameworks and environment: MFC, WTL, CLR, unix/linux, ... Finally: Concurrency Each of these is a separate skill, and shifting from one language to another is a much smaller step if you understand the paradigms involved.
-- Harvey
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Hello all.... Great web site. Love the info and suggestions I can get here. So, I have been doing IT work for over 25 years (servers, networks, hardware, etc...) and never delved into the development field. I now have the opportunity to learn writing and modifying code, but I am having a hard time making this logic click. I have several beginner books on Visual Studio (2005,2010,2012)and have done the training classes offered by a local business. I am focusing on Visual Basic as my language of choice because the company I work for uses this only. Any suggestions on how I can make all this info click? I understand the concepts, but just could not write the code behind a app i lay out in VS Designer to save my life. EDIT: Thanks all for the great advice. I sort of suspected I was trying to bite off more than I could chew. Going to go back simple and work my way up.
Welcome to the dark side, where an odd sense of humor is a necessary tool of the trade. ;) Everyone else is correct, start simple, also creating an application for something that has meaning for you to hold your interest. Visual Basic is a fine language to start with, there isn't that much difference between VB and C#. If you are getting paid to write in VB, you write VB. It's a Ford vs. Chevy vs. Audi vs. BMW thing. Yes they all have different performance parameters and feature sets. Some people invest a lot into their choice, and defend their decision of choice, sometimes a little too aggressively. :) Good luck! :thumbsup:
It was broke, so I fixed it.
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My memory space isn't 64 bits, let alone 64Kb! :laugh: I think I have a 5 item stack for a memory. Ask me to remember a sixth thing and...<splash>...in the bit bucket!
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
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My memory space isn't 64 bits, let alone 64Kb! :laugh: I think I have a 5 item stack for a memory. Ask me to remember a sixth thing and...<splash>...in the bit bucket!
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
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Dammit, I tripped into one of these traps fo non-native english speakers :rolleyes: No, I thought something where you can manage contacts (real people, not electronic contacts). Every contact has a surname, last name, street name & number, postal code, phone number and email address. Creating, editing, deleting and displaying them should be a good start. Afterwards he can add the possibility to save them when the application is closed and load them when the app is started and learns about file handling this way.
Awww! You're no fun! An app that could remove a dress that quick would sell like hot cakes... ;)
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
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Awww! You're no fun! An app that could remove a dress that quick would sell like hot cakes... ;)
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
Maaan I always mess things up. Especially the address thing because it is "Adresse" in german :doh: . Edit:
OriginalGriff wrote:
An app that could remove a dress that quick would sell like hot cakes... ;)
Does already exist. Called scissors. If no scissors are available use anything else which can cut trough a dress.
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ITWino wrote:
I have read that once you have a language down, it makes learning other languages easier...
This is indeed true to a certain extent. I know about 100 computer languages, and at least in the early days, it was all really just syntax. I was usually able to learn a new language by reading the language reference. There were several exceptions to this (assembly, APL, C). Nowadays that is not quite so true. What is more important to grasp is the concepts and programming paradigms involved: [assembly], object oriented programming, functional programming, web, templates, lambdas, ... Next to that is frameworks and environment: MFC, WTL, CLR, unix/linux, ... Finally: Concurrency Each of these is a separate skill, and shifting from one language to another is a much smaller step if you understand the paradigms involved.
-- Harvey
If you are good with one assembly language, you will not have much trouble with another. Group all kinds of programing languages by their closeness to the hardware and their generations (also roughly equivalent to the prevailing programing model) and you get an accurate impression of how small or big the step from one to another may be. And in the end they all produce just a lot of bytes that the processor will try to execute as instructions.
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So you are one of the older models with 16 additional bones - mechanical brain. Sorry, could not resist...
I wish! Mine is steam powered... :sigh:
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
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Maaan I always mess things up. Especially the address thing because it is "Adresse" in german :doh: . Edit:
OriginalGriff wrote:
An app that could remove a dress that quick would sell like hot cakes... ;)
Does already exist. Called scissors. If no scissors are available use anything else which can cut trough a dress.
It is possible that Swiss ladies don't start running away and screaming for help when you approach them with scissors (or a large knife) and an evil glint in your eye, but British ones will either scream and run, or kick you where the pain starts...and IIRC aren't all Swiss tooled up? :laugh: An App would be a lot safer!
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
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It is possible that Swiss ladies don't start running away and screaming for help when you approach them with scissors (or a large knife) and an evil glint in your eye, but British ones will either scream and run, or kick you where the pain starts...and IIRC aren't all Swiss tooled up? :laugh: An App would be a lot safer!
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
OriginalGriff wrote:
IIRC aren't all Swiss tooled up? :laugh:
We are. But there is a set of different tools, see details here[^].
OriginalGriff wrote:
It is possible that Swiss ladies don't start running away and screaming for help when you approach them with scissors (or a large knife)
A colleague of mine stated it this way: Talk to her, hit her really hard and use the moment of surprise to put the chloroformed handkerchief on her mouth until she does not move anymore. I want to state clearly that a colleague of mine said this. I prefer to get women by good-looking and a nice personality . They stay longer with me than they would do with him (The a dress app is a good idea anyways) :laugh:.
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I wish! Mine is steam powered... :sigh:
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
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Hello all.... Great web site. Love the info and suggestions I can get here. So, I have been doing IT work for over 25 years (servers, networks, hardware, etc...) and never delved into the development field. I now have the opportunity to learn writing and modifying code, but I am having a hard time making this logic click. I have several beginner books on Visual Studio (2005,2010,2012)and have done the training classes offered by a local business. I am focusing on Visual Basic as my language of choice because the company I work for uses this only. Any suggestions on how I can make all this info click? I understand the concepts, but just could not write the code behind a app i lay out in VS Designer to save my life. EDIT: Thanks all for the great advice. I sort of suspected I was trying to bite off more than I could chew. Going to go back simple and work my way up.
I will re-iterate what Ennis said. Do not start with the IDE and trying to create a window's app. Start with a console window and a few simple things: 1. How to write "Hello World" 2. How to format a date 3. How to read an input 4. How to convert a string to a number and add two numbers 5. How to write and call a method (a static method!) 6. How to write and instantiate a class 7. How to call methods in a class 8. Learn about fields and properties of a class. 9. Learn about public/protected/private. 10. Learn about base classes and derived classes. Write a class that overrides a virtual method. 11. Learn about delegates. 12. Learn about events using delegates 13. Maybe, just maybe, you will be ready to then double click on a button in a form and write something useful in the button's event handler. 14. And then, throw out the "Microsoft IDE way" and learn about MVC and MVVM. Have fun! Mwahahaha! Marc
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Hello all.... Great web site. Love the info and suggestions I can get here. So, I have been doing IT work for over 25 years (servers, networks, hardware, etc...) and never delved into the development field. I now have the opportunity to learn writing and modifying code, but I am having a hard time making this logic click. I have several beginner books on Visual Studio (2005,2010,2012)and have done the training classes offered by a local business. I am focusing on Visual Basic as my language of choice because the company I work for uses this only. Any suggestions on how I can make all this info click? I understand the concepts, but just could not write the code behind a app i lay out in VS Designer to save my life. EDIT: Thanks all for the great advice. I sort of suspected I was trying to bite off more than I could chew. Going to go back simple and work my way up.
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Hello all.... Great web site. Love the info and suggestions I can get here. So, I have been doing IT work for over 25 years (servers, networks, hardware, etc...) and never delved into the development field. I now have the opportunity to learn writing and modifying code, but I am having a hard time making this logic click. I have several beginner books on Visual Studio (2005,2010,2012)and have done the training classes offered by a local business. I am focusing on Visual Basic as my language of choice because the company I work for uses this only. Any suggestions on how I can make all this info click? I understand the concepts, but just could not write the code behind a app i lay out in VS Designer to save my life. EDIT: Thanks all for the great advice. I sort of suspected I was trying to bite off more than I could chew. Going to go back simple and work my way up.
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Hello all.... Great web site. Love the info and suggestions I can get here. So, I have been doing IT work for over 25 years (servers, networks, hardware, etc...) and never delved into the development field. I now have the opportunity to learn writing and modifying code, but I am having a hard time making this logic click. I have several beginner books on Visual Studio (2005,2010,2012)and have done the training classes offered by a local business. I am focusing on Visual Basic as my language of choice because the company I work for uses this only. Any suggestions on how I can make all this info click? I understand the concepts, but just could not write the code behind a app i lay out in VS Designer to save my life. EDIT: Thanks all for the great advice. I sort of suspected I was trying to bite off more than I could chew. Going to go back simple and work my way up.
I'm not a very experienced developer and I didn't learn how to develop software at school either. So my advice may not be too accurate, but then again... I know how you're feeling since I was feeling like that too exactly one year ago. This was for me the epiphany that helped me tremendously: Try to think about a software project in layers. I don't know anything about the project you're attempting to make, so the following is just an example of a common structure: Database, Handler, Controller, Application layer. Think of the Database as the bottom layer and the application layer as the top. For each feature you create, start to work at the bottom and then work your way up. You'll find it'll be a lot easier to figure out what to do next if you try to work in that order, especially at first. If you have to work on existing project, try to see if a similar structure is there (if not, then you're basically screwed). Always respect the flow of data in your project, the role of your namespaces/classes; never make any exceptions to your own rules, unless the rules were wrong. In this case: the Database stores and provides information, the handler controls database and puts data into objects to pass on to the controller, the controller handles all the logic and the application layer talks with the controller and only deals with how the interface looks like. For the rest, you shouldn't worry too much about writing bad code when you're coding. You should worry a lot about it when you're not coding, but when you're coding you should make stuff happen and don't get paralysed. Avoid copy pasting code and try to re-factor/reuse code instead. Finally, focus on the basic functionality first and worry about the details later. Oh, and don't re-invent the wheel. Most of the stuff, if not all, you're trying to do has been done before and you have the Google machine at your disposal.
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Hello all.... Great web site. Love the info and suggestions I can get here. So, I have been doing IT work for over 25 years (servers, networks, hardware, etc...) and never delved into the development field. I now have the opportunity to learn writing and modifying code, but I am having a hard time making this logic click. I have several beginner books on Visual Studio (2005,2010,2012)and have done the training classes offered by a local business. I am focusing on Visual Basic as my language of choice because the company I work for uses this only. Any suggestions on how I can make all this info click? I understand the concepts, but just could not write the code behind a app i lay out in VS Designer to save my life. EDIT: Thanks all for the great advice. I sort of suspected I was trying to bite off more than I could chew. Going to go back simple and work my way up.
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Hello all.... Great web site. Love the info and suggestions I can get here. So, I have been doing IT work for over 25 years (servers, networks, hardware, etc...) and never delved into the development field. I now have the opportunity to learn writing and modifying code, but I am having a hard time making this logic click. I have several beginner books on Visual Studio (2005,2010,2012)and have done the training classes offered by a local business. I am focusing on Visual Basic as my language of choice because the company I work for uses this only. Any suggestions on how I can make all this info click? I understand the concepts, but just could not write the code behind a app i lay out in VS Designer to save my life. EDIT: Thanks all for the great advice. I sort of suspected I was trying to bite off more than I could chew. Going to go back simple and work my way up.
Just go for it. In the “old days”, we started as “programmer trainees” and were expected to be “on-call” within 2 weeks; you had to go in for at least an hour when there was a problem and attempt to fix it before calling someone else for help. (And these were mission-critical systems). You first did “maintenance” before being given development. Ask a supervisor or co-worker for a small, non-critical, outstanding work request on an existing application and dive in (in your spare time, if necessary). You’ll be a lot more motivated than if you were writing trivial sample apps you have no real interest in. (At this stage, you will need to present any changes you propose before implementing them and also submit to a code review later).
