Complete Noob learning first language and have some questions.

[akareem27]

I'm a complete noob at programing period just to throw that out first.I've started basically learning html/css thru a book(Head First labs html/xhtml css) thats good imo.I really want to make programs,games and apps.I understand that I have to take steps to get to want I want to do.So to the ?'s.

1.Do i need to learn html first to begin to understand game/app dev. coding?
2.I understand there are different coding languages,and i was told that i should program in C# because it's new and better than C/C++,but all i see is everybody talking about C++.So what language should i start in?
3.What's a good book to start with or good tutorial to use to get me started?

[Xitherun]

HTML has nothing to do with game programming.
HTML is just for websites, and whatnot.

as far as I know, C++ is the best for game program.

there are many websites for learning C++, or you could pick up a book.

here are just a few.
http://www.cprogramming.com/
http://www.cplusplus.com/
http://www.sysprog.net/cplus.html

[akareem27]

Thanks for the quick response. thanks again and ill check those sites.

[Charlzz93]

C++ is the gaming industry's standard, so if you want to program game as a career then you MUST learn C++.
however this is a very difficult language to start off with. i suggest that you keep learning html/css and when your done with them learn javascript (not the same as java!). this is a good language to start with as it will teach you the basic structure of software in any language.

after this is think you should learn perl/ruby/python. these are eaasy yet powerful languages.

if your only interested in game programming then i suggest that you learn darkbasic professional. this is incredibly easy to learn and very powerful. it was made only for game programming. a game that was written in this is mercinaries2!

[ThievingSix]

Aside from gaming as a specific, stay away from .net programming languages(I.E. VB.NET, C#, etc).

Some highly used and useful languages are:

Visual Basic
C/C++
D
Object Pascal

They all are different in terms of the syntax you use to compile into an executable. Easiest being Visual Basic and C++ being hardest to learn.

Now onto gaming, the first language you learn entirely depends on you. If you get frustrated easily, but can adapt well: Start with Visual Basic and eventually move to C++. If your patient and can learn well on your own it's best to just start with C++. For most people going from one coding language to another can be difficult and bring bad habits.

[ZiNgABuRgA]

C++ is the de-facto standard for serious game programming, no question. As for where to start, yes, if you can nose dive in, go C and C++.

If you are finding it difficult, I suggest actually starting off with something like Game Maker - play around, then get used to the scripting system. It's extremely basic, but does give you a good high level interpretation of how you should go about constructing things.
C++ is a relatively low level language. High level concepts are simply built upon these lower level ones. When you build something with Game Maker, you don't have to reinvent a lot of things (that you would have to with C++), which means you get a working game out quicker (which probably stimulates your interest more as well).
Once you do get used to the Game Maker script, jumping to C++ should be much easier (concepts like control flow, variables etc will be familiar to you at that point) - all you have to do then is bridge the gap between low and high level programming.

[akareem27]

I'm trying to learn from cplusplus.com and the first.chap went in good i think i understand ,I'm like this aint that hard and boom, next chap talking bout variables,indentifiers, blah blah blah and the page turns into that green matrix screen when i look at it(joke).It started to lose me with all that talk.

[akareem27]

i just played with gamemaker for a lil while and it ok but i dont feel like i'm learning anything because it doesn't explain what why this is doing what it's doing.

[ThievingSix]

I completely forgot about game maker! I love that thing. (Goes to download) <3 zinga

[pspjoke]

game maker... gonna have to check it out. (using DarkGDK for my pc game Dev'ing) C# is slower then C but is "portable." C++ is compiled to machine code specifically for a certain processor and os. C++ is fast because of this. C# has to be interpreted by its interpreter program just like java, making it slower then C++ but, whatever you program in C# u can carry over to anything that has a C# interpreter.. i forgot what its called... but w/e i don't use C# anyway. basically, use C/C++ and DON'T USE PASCAL!!!! (@rain, lol.)