macOS Getting Started

[Macman1993]

Hey, what's a good programing language to start with? I have no prior knowledge of programming and want a good language for starting with, I'm aware of the time it will take and I take the time to do it, I just need someone to give me a good beginners language to start with.

 

[Eraserhead]

There are as many opinions on this as there are languages. Where are you aiming to go with this?

 

[Macman1993]

I'm not really sure how to explain it but I've always loved the abillity to customise things, I would want to build apps that would let you change the way the computer (or other electronic device i.e ipod touch/iphone) acts. Like maybe new themes and just stuff like that, I hope that narrowed it down alittle. So I'm guessing I need to know how to build apps and need to know the best ways to change things around on a computer.

 

[Eraserhead]

Sorry, my question was ambiguous, so do you want to do Mac/iPhone programming or Windows programming?

If you want to do semi-serious/serious Mac or iPhone/iPod Touch programming, you'll want to use Cocoa/Objective C. For them C or Java would be decent place to start, from them, you can move onto Objective C/Cocoa.

 

[mbpc2d.user]

I would suggest you start with C. Some people would disagree and say go with something like Python or Java even because they are a higher level languages, and they are less likely to turn you away from wanting to program. My reasoning for telling you to learn with C is specifically because it is lower language. When you start out with C you learn a lot more about what is actually going on in the structure of a program and how it interacts with the computer itself. and because languages like Python and Java are such high languages they take care of a bunch of very important tasks that you should really know how to do, like garbage collection and overall memory management. I say if you are serious about getting into programming C won't turn you away, C should be more exciting. Plus learning C will really prepare you for learning Objective-C and C++.

Sorry I rambled a bit, I hope you see what I am saying.

 

[Macman1993]

Alright I'll start working on learning C but a few more questions. Does anyone know a good online guide where I can learn if for free? And what do I type the code into, is there anything additional I have to install?

 

[lee1210]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/455936/

That thread had extensive discussion on this subject. I still contend that you will end up most versatile using vi and gcc from the terminal, but there are differing opinions expressed in the thread above that you should also consider.

All of the OS X development tools come either preinstalled, or are available on the OS X install DVDs. I am not sure if gcc is installed with OS X in the development tools are not installed.

-Lee

 

[jsolochek]

Not sure about doing it on the MAC, don't see why not though

You won't believe this but Microsoft has programming software along with training for people who have no knowledge of programming at all. BTW this is completely FREEE, No cost whatsoever
visit http://www.microsoft.com/express/download

Here you can learn Visual Basic, Visual c++, Visual Csharp, javascript plus a lot more

 

[Eraserhead]

All of the OS X development tools come either preinstalled, or are available on the OS X install DVDs. I am not sure if gcc is installed with OS X in the development tools are not installed.

-Lee

They are included on the DVD, and aren't installed by default. You might find an easier time using TextMate or Nedit as the text editor rather than vi as they have a GUI and aren't restricted to the command line.

You won't believe this but Microsoft has programming software along with training for people who have no knowledge of programming at all. BTW this is completely FREEE, No cost whatsoever

All of the stuff that has been suggested in this thread is completely free too. The Microsoft tools that you have suggested aren't really that great (yes I've used them). Also they use .NET and .NET itself is a total mess. Very little real software is actually written in .NET even on Windows.

 

[jsolochek]

Eraserhead, This is only your opinion

I have purchased a lot of software in the past that was created with .NET so I know that there is a lot out there that uses it. If you are truly unfamiliar with these software apps I can give you a long list of URL's where they can be found.

I used to program completely at command line using a text editor, Wordstar, for my COBOL, C++, BBX, etc.. For a beginner, comand line is not the way to go. Everything now has a GUI look at Windows, Mac US, and even Linux so if these OS's all incorporatyed the GUI why shouldn't someone who wants to learn to program not utilize the ease of programming with a GUI.

Yhe best way for a beginner is to learn the creatioin of app's that run in a browser so that they are accessible to everybody, MAC, Windows, Linux, BEOS, etc...

Another good place to learn would be the courses offered at http://www.vtc.com , for $30 per month you can take as many courses as you can handle.

Back to the person who made this original post, the question. I used to program without any GUI and it's hard for somebody with no experience or knowledge of programming. I started with Basic back in 1976. On my Radio Schack TRS80 Model 1 which by the way is the computer that runs our current space shuttle.

 

[stevento]

a language you can learn in a weekend is apple script if you just want to be able to say you know a computer language
do a spotlight search for script editor and open it and type the code right into there

first type this
display dialog "hello world"

 

[jsolochek]

A Deciding Factor

When programming without a GUI most of your time will be in debugging. In C I used to spend hours with this just because I missed something like a semicolon in my code.

I have seen a lot of the new stuff that has these great automatic debuggers which eliminates a lot of the time that used to be wasted with endless debugging. With BBX, thousands of lines of source code, this was a chore.


Now, my brother in law, on his Mac does some great coding with Python. In summary, for a new programmer, the visual interface will eliminate a lot of headaches and the time to learn is greatly accelerated. With a GUI they will be creating quality a lot sooner.