Ruby programming anyone?

[gasmansteve]

Hi Folks
I`ve quite fancied trying to learn programming for some time not that I`ve got the slightest clue what to program but just to get the grey matter working .
Many years ago I had a go at basic (who didn`t!) with an old bbc model b and quite enjoyed it at the time. I have been reading about Python and Ruby the latter has been recommended to me as a novice but I wondered if others in the group had any knowledge of it?.
Cheers
Steve

 

[Anonymous]

Steve

As a novice, i would recommend Visual basic. You can get a free copy form Microsoft's website called visual basic express edition.

I teach programming (amongst other things) and my students find Visual basic considerably easier to learn than other languages I teach

 

[gasmansteve]

Thanks for that Tony I`ll give VB a try. Maybe the languages I mentioned not quite suitable for me yet :? .
Cheers again
Steve

 

[bobscarle]

Steve

Visual Basic is a good place to start. It is also very similar to VB Script used for web page development. Another widely used language for web sites is PHP which is similar to C, although this could be a little cryptic for a begineer.

Bob

 

[mr]

I would suggest staying away from the Visual this and that from the msoft stable and looking at something like Perl or Python in the first instance - possibly ruby though it all depends what you want to do with it. You might also consider java or flex. Personally I'm planning on having a go at Flex as soon as I get some free time in the office. In fact I would suggest Flex or Python as a starting place.

If youre interested in web development then PHP is a must along with some form of SQL query language and Ruby (on Rails) could be useful and amusing.

Both Flex and Ruby on Rails are frameworks which might make them interesting for a beginner.


Cheers Mike

 

[bodgermatic]

As a professional software engineer, I also have to advise staying away from Visual Basic as a first language. Although it can be easier to learn, it will get you into some bad programming habits. I've been programming C, C++ and assembley language for years, and I taught myself Python a couple of weeks ago - I was impressed with it. Either Python or Ruby will be a good bet.

 

[Anonymous]

As a professional software engineer, I also have to advise staying away from Visual Basic as a first language. Although it can be easier to learn, it will get you into some bad programming habits. I've been programming C, C++ and assembley language for years, and I taught myself Python a couple of weeks ago - I was impressed with it. Either Python or Ruby will be a good bet.

I suspect that you have not used Visual Basic 2005? There is no real difference between programs written in VB or C++ these days (same compiler and code that runs at the same speed) if using Visual Studio 2005 - one just uses the language one likes and the end results are the same. VB has 'grown up' however, it is true that most large applications are written in C++ or C# and C is portable (up to a point :wink: ) whereas VB is not

Visual basic does not lead to bad practices - my VB students certainly don't engage in bad programming practices any more than the ones I teach C++ or assembler (my favorite) to. Structured programming and good design are applicable to any programming language

Personally I would very strongly recommend steering well clear of java, C++, Pearl a and whole host of other languages if one s a beginner learning on ones own


Steve
At the end of the day, it depends on what you want to code. Embedded systems (C or assembler)? small applications? (Visual basic (easiest), C, C++, C#), large applications with a view to becoming a professional programmer? ( C++ or more probably C# these days), web applications ? (Java or loads of others)

Java is also very good for image processing and this is the only time I program with it although I find it is very similar to C and easy to swap between the two

Interestingly more programs have been written in Visual Basic than any other language and VB 2005 supports most if not all that C++ does (yes, inheritance and polymorphism, not to mention strong typing etc. etc.), yet many developers still exhibit a form of snobbery and claim that Vb is not a 'real' language because it is not as 'hard' to code as C++ :roll:


Steve. Perhaps the final word should go to my students? I teach VB, assembler and C (others teach Matlab programming) to around 210 of Englands brightest students each year and every year they tell me that they hate learning C, hate Matlab but love Visual Basic.......

 

[Chris Knight]

[
Interestingly more programs have been written in Visual Basic than any other language

More than Fortran or Cobol?

 

[Newbie_Neil]

In the TIOBE index, Java is currently the number one programming language at 20.849%.

VB comes in third at 10.963%.

Cheers,
Neil

 

[GrahamH]

As a programmer (not a software engineer) I've found Java fairly easy to learn coming from a old VB background.

The resources for learning Java are quite freely available with two good free development enviroments available, Eclipse and Netbeans.

I would be hesitant recommending VB.Net as MS's language strategy seems to favour C#. Saying that the differences between Java, VB.Net and C# and not great and once you've learnt the basic programming conecpts in one switching between them is not that difficult.

Graham

 

[misterfish]

From my experience being involved in 'small systems' IT software development, programming and hardware support since the mid 80's, I would recommend you try and find a real 'problem' to solve - either for yourself or someone around you so that you can apply the information you are trying to learn. Without a practical application the theoretical learning can be difficult. It should be enjoyable to apply skills you acquire and to solve problems where the solution is not immediately obvious.

Also remember that if you have problems that there are excellent web resources where others will be only too pleased to help you solve any problems.

It is a good feeling to complete a neat piece of programming that fulfills the requirements specified.

I can only recommend you have a go. Unless you are planning on marketing the skill then the actual language(s) you choose are less important. The intellectual challenge, thought processes and sense of achievement are more important.

My last (fairly simple) project (now that I've retired) was to write a cryptogram program for SWMBO - she enjoys solving these and gets through published puzzle books quickly. I managed to find a large list of quotations on the web that I imported into SQL Server (as I knew a bit about that). I then used Visual Basic along with Microsoft Access to process the information to produce the encoded text and then print the crypograms and the answer sheets.

Go for it.

Misterfish

 

[gasmansteve]

Hi
Interesting what you say about `finding a real problem to solve`. Thats what makes the net so useful - if you have a problem it only takes a few clicks on Google and problem solved (usually) :roll: .I wonder if programming will just become a handy pastime before long as most applications will simply evolve as and when needed (so who will rewrite the evolving software then??) but heh! what do I know!.
Regards
Steve

 

[misterfish]

Hi
Interesting what you say about `finding a real problem to solve`. Thats what makes the net so useful - if you have a problem it only takes a few clicks on Google and problem solved (usually) :roll: .I wonder if programming will just become a handy pastime before long as most applications will simply evolve as and when needed (so who will rewrite the evolving software then??) but heh! what do I know!.
Regards
Steve

Often the overall function of the software you need is not available and you end up writing the necessary programming/code etc to fulfil the requirement. What I find is that there are some things that I need to do in the programming and that I can't work out and it is here that others on the internet can help. For example a while ago I had to have a number of different systems automatically check if an external ZIP drive was attached, if so what it's drive letter was, whether there was a correctly configured disk in the drive etc - via the internet I was given info on undocumented features that helped solve the problem, something I would never have worked out in a month of Sundays. Despite this help I still had the intellectual challenge of designing, programming and integrating the entire package for over 100 geographically dispersed users most of who had only basic IT skills and needed a simple system that would help them through any problems they encountered. I used to think of this as a bit like an iceberg with a small apparently simple bit that the user could see with all the complex routines hidden.

Misterfish