Where should I go from here?

S

SaLiVa

New member
Okay, I'm 15, is that a good age to start programming? I've already studied how to code Hello World and ask the user for input and use operators to handle the input the way you want it. I've gone past typedef, but now I'm stuck....

I guess its the structure that scared me also, the amount of work needed to type all those commands :|

I've got a couple of books on C++ these helped me along the way, but I found if I flipped through the pages, more mathematics is involved that I have not yet learned... The fuzzy logic unit scares me! Everything here is really pointing to the question - Am I too young and which section should I practise on now?

Thank you for your time :)
 
15 too young? Heck no! Though I find the idea of learning to program with C++ rather crazy. . . I started with BASIC when I was about 10 and went to Pascal at 14-15 before I finally got to learning C++ a couple years ago (I'm 21, now).

What mathematics are you refering to? Mostly you just have to be concerned with logic statements ("if" statements and the like), early on. . .
 
Ostsol said:
15 too young? Heck no!
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Got that right!

Here's a little of my computer history (a bit over simplified):

1984 - Born
1985 - 1 - Yeah, I started using a computer back then ;)
1986 - 2
1987 - 3
1988 - 4
1989 - 5 - Started messing with Pascal on old Apple Macintosh
1990 - 6 - ""
1991 - 7 - ""
1992 - 8 - Started doing BASIC and ASM on old 8088 IBM PC
1993 - 9 - ""
1994 - 10 - Started doing C on 486
1995 - 11 - ""
1996 - 12 - Started doing C++
1997 - 13 - ""
1998 - 14 - Upgraded to a Celeron 333MHz system, started doing OpenGL stuff with an ATI Rage Pro Turbo (later a 3Dfx Banshee)
1999 - 15 - ""
2000 - 16 - Upgraded to an Celeron 850MHz system, nVidia TNT2 (later a Radeon), started making demos
2001 - 17 - Upgraded to an Athlon 900MHz system, got Radeon 8500, started making demos for that
2002 - 18 - ""

I did a little Visual BASIC inbetween '94 and '96, but I don't like to count that. :)
 
CLxyz said:
Hell, ASM @ 8, thats impressive
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Nothing major though. I did make a little (very little) drawing program that used the mouse and couldn't save. ;) I think it was about 18 bytes...
 
SaLiVa,

I think maybe the programs you're trying to write may be trying to solve mathematical problems and you should look for other programs to try writing. When I taught a lab of Freshman when I was in college, I made the mistake of making their homework always very mathematical such as finding the angles between things or performing basic geometry tasks. What I found was that some of them got hung up on the problem they were trying to solve rather than the programming skills I was trying to teach them. I switched to more general problems (working with data, like student records IIRC) and they were much more comfortable and successful. Perhaps concentrating on trying to write different kinds of programs will help you.

I expect that you'll find most professional programmers started before they were 15 (I was 8), so I don't think that's the issue. Can you take some classes in school or at a local college? Know any gurus who might help you out in their spare time? I think working on your programming skills in person with someone or in a structured classroom setting will help a lot.

-Jason
 
Thanks guys, I think I should try find a programming guru around over here. Very difficult though, especially since my college computer teacher doesn't know a thing (I teach the class how to do things most of the time) And the syllabus doesn't help either, though it did force us to learn QBASIC (Got bored easily)

I guess I haven't got a proper aim yet, nor do I have any inspiration. NitroGL - heh Almost like Bill Gates eehh? Thanks for the reply... Just going to think over what I should start programming, and what kind of problems need to be solved...

Ohh yeah, before I go, did you all have to read a 1000+ page book somewhere in between programming and being teached?
 
SaLiVa said:
Thanks guys, I think I should try find a programming guru around over here. Very difficult though, especially since my college computer teacher doesn't know a thing (I teach the class how to do things most of the time) And the syllabus doesn't help either, though it did force us to learn QBASIC (Got bored easily)

I guess I haven't got a proper aim yet, nor do I have any inspiration. NitroGL - heh Almost like Bill Gates eehh? Thanks for the reply... Just going to think over what I should start programming, and what kind of problems need to be solved...

Ohh yeah, before I go, did you all have to read a 1000+ page book somewhere in between programming and being teached?
Click to expand...

Well, I don't know about everyone else, but I've never read through a programming book in my life. I study other people's code and then look up in the books anything I don't understand.
 
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