Learning programming

Well all I can recommend is that you search through Google and the likes.

In regards to creating an RSS Reader for instance, I typed into Google - creating RSS Readers - and got back a bunch of links on doing just that in PHP etc...

So do your research on the search engines. There is a lot of information out there.
Just add a lot of time and you should be fine..

Cheers
Tim

The way I understand it, you'd be hard pressed to find information that specific and suitable for newbies without needing to cover the more general territory of php itself. You'd have to go through learning variables, arrays, functions, and so on in order for you to be able to apply this to the task of, say, creating an rss reader, for instance.

Pretty much like internet marketing, I think. I'd be hard pressed to find information out there that can provide for me a 'money making website' without my needing to go through understanding things like affiliate programs, CPC, CPA, Adsense, Wordpress, plugins, and so on.

Another analogy: it would be hard for me to go from total zero knowledge of guitar playing to being able to perform a Beatles song well on my own without having to learn about strumming, maybe plucking, guitar chords, learning how to read a tablature, and so on.

To get to the specific grove of trees you're after, you kind of have to navigate your way through the bigger forest, and getting to know that forest is, I detect, the hard part of learning programming that you're trying to avoid. Maybe it just can't be done, pretty much like becoming an IM millionaire without even logging in into the internet.

But nobody says you can't try.

As for terminology, just describe whatever it is you're after even in plain and simple English, and G would find pages for you that contain that which you seek.

Hope that helps.

Hi, You could google "Visual Studio 2008 Express" Edition - you can learn either C# or VB.NET - both very simple but VB.NET can be easier to learn - after that I suggest you spend a lot of time playing with the code and get a book on VS.NET & your chosen language - you will be up and writing submitters and rss apps in no time.

I wish you good fortune - but remember you do need to put some time into it.

When you go the desktop application route I would also look into VB.NET of C#. Or you can go the online applcation way and learn php

Edwin

I highly recommend the ANSI C programming language to beginners. Sure, ANSI C is a procedural (not object-oriented) language that's mostly for command prompt programs, but it gives you a strong foundation for other languages like C++, C#, and Java. Once you have a strong foundation in C, and grasp object-oriented concepts, you can learn almost any high-level programming or scripting language quickly and easily.

If you're a beginner, I would stay away from interpreted languages like Visual Basic (VB). Visual Basic was the first language I learned, and I paid for it later when I moved to languages like C/C++. It's easy to develop bad programming practices with VB.

Here are a few ANSI C books I recommend:

1. C Programming Language (2nd Edition) by Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie
2. Teach Yourself C In 21 Days (4th Edition) by Peter Aitken & Bradley L. Jones (Usually, I wouldn't touch one of the "Teach Yourself [X] in [X] Days" books with a ten foot pole, but this is an exceptional book.)

After you feel confident in C, I would recommend C++ or Java.

Here are a few good Java books:

1. Core Java, Volume I--Fundamentals (8th Edition) by Cay S. Horstmann and Gary Cornell
2. Core Java, Volume 2--Advanced Features (8th Edition) by Cay S. Horstmann and Gary Cornell

Once you get through these books, you can learn PHP easily by going through the PHP Language Reference:
PHP: Language Reference - Manual

Remember, you won't become a proficient programmer overnight. It takes A LOT of hard work.

But there's nothing like seeing "Hello World" appear on the screen for the first time...

I forgot to tell you...

You'll need an ANSI C compiler to work through the books.

Here is a free one:
LCC-Win32: A free compiler system for Windows Operating Systems by Jacob Navia

I think you should start from VB or C# if you are complete noob - because .NET/Mono platform and managed languages are the future for developing apps - it's like it was back in the 80's when people were switching from assembly lang to C/C++ and Pascal.

Hours and hours of programming and you will learn the ins and outs. Programming is a hands on language, you need to learn the basics by practicing and making the code, not reading a book.

When you've got the basics down you can read some books to learn the harder stuff.

for desktop applications you can use C#, VB or Java and for web based applications u can use PHP or ASP.NET

If you wanna learn you might want to read on some ebooks. There's a lot of free ebooks out there to learn these stuff.

Hello Wealthyclark, I don't think this is the right place to ask more advanced programming question.
As @Tim suggested, I'd recommend you use Google to carry out your own research. There are millions of resources available online, if you can't run a simple search for yourself, then any advice given in this forum is wasted.

Help yourself a bit.

No need to buy literature, you have free resources on internet.

For server side software, PHP is a easy language to start for beginner.

For desktop application, try C#. The Microsoft Visual C# express edition is a free download and is an excellent platform to learn how to write windows software.

PHP would be the easiest way to go. go with what you are looking to create. it sounds like you want to do more web based type applications, so PHP/MySQL, maybe Ruby on Rails for that.