How do you write programs?

  • Thread starter Thread starter mistersmitty
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mistersmitty

With all the programs this group provides for free I was wondering how
one actually writes a software program.Is there any sites for
assistance / guidance or explanation?I have a few idea's for a program
and would like to give it a shot.
Is there some way (software) that allows someone to look at a
program's inner workings.
TIA
 
Depends on what you want to use;

VB
VB.NET
C
C#
C++
Fortran
Delphi
Java

etc etc etc

--
Regards

Steven Burn
Ur I.T. Mate Group
www.it-mate.co.uk

Keeping it FREE!

Disclaimer:
I know I'm probably wrong, I just like taking part ;o)
 
VB and VB.NET are IDE's + API libraries for slightly extended BASIC
rather than languages. The same thing with Delphi: it is RAD tool for
well-known Pascal.

Alex
 
Alex said:
VB and VB.NET are IDE's + API libraries for slightly extended BASIC
rather than languages. The same thing with Delphi: it is RAD tool for
well-known Pascal.

Alex
Click to expand...
</snip>

BASIC and Pascal....... knew I'd forgotten something ;o)

I already personally knew about the relationships but, thanks for mentioning
it anyway (told myself off for not mentioning it myself in the first place).

--
Regards

Steven Burn
Ur I.T. Mate Group
www.it-mate.co.uk

Keeping it FREE!

Disclaimer:
I know I'm probably wrong, I just like taking part ;o)
 
With all the programs this group provides for free I was wondering how
one actually writes a software program.Is there any sites for
assistance / guidance or explanation?I have a few idea's for a program
and would like to give it a shot.
Is there some way (software) that allows someone to look at a
program's inner workings.
TIA
Click to expand...


you do have to start *somewhere* and walk before running. it would be help
if you said, roughly, what it is you are trying to do.

gui4cli could be a good place to start. it is easy to create windows,
buttons, tabs with gui4cli. see www.gui4cli.com. there is a yahoo group for
it that will give you help when you get stuck.

if your program does not need lots of buttons and tabs, autoit at
www.hiddensoft.com may do what you want and it have an extremely helpful
yahoo group.


jack
It's not the despair - I can stand the despair. It's the hope!
 
mistersmitty said:
With all the programs this group provides for free I was wondering how
one actually writes a software program.Is there any sites for
assistance / guidance or explanation?I have a few idea's for a program
and would like to give it a shot.
Is there some way (software) that allows someone to look at a
program's inner workings.
TIA
Click to expand...

Decompilers do exist, which turn binary code into assembly. However,
from your point of view, the answer is "no".

If you have Microsoft Excel then you could try programmming in VBA
(Visual Basic for Applications).

What is it you want your program to do, anyway?
 
</snip>

BASIC and Pascal....... knew I'd forgotten something ;o)

I already personally knew about the relationships but, thanks for mentioning
it anyway (told myself off for not mentioning it myself in the first place).
Click to expand...

Assembly (for the die-hard - not me) qb71 for me
 
With all the programs this group provides for free I was wondering how
one actually writes a software program.Is there any sites for
assistance / guidance or explanation?I have a few idea's for a program
and would like to give it a shot.
Is there some way (software) that allows someone to look at a
program's inner workings.
TIA
Click to expand...

http://delphi.about.com/library/weekly/aa020202a.htm

http://www.angelfire.com/sd/kias/C/learn1.htm

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=3946

http://www.perl.org/

http://www.uow.edu.au/~nabg/ABC/ABC.html

And on and on...! ;-)
 
mistersmitty said:
With all the programs this group provides for free I was wondering how
one actually writes a software program.Is there any sites for
assistance / guidance or explanation?I have a few idea's for a program
and would like to give it a shot.
Click to expand...

Python might be a good place to start. http://www.python.org/
Free and comparatively accessible.

http://www.livewires.org.uk/python/ is a good beginners course. It uses the
pygame modules http://pygame.org/ which is also worth a look for tutorials.

It has the advantage of being used by a lot of free programs for scripting,
(e.g. The Gimp, Blender, Rekall) so if you get on with it you can also use
it to extend existing programs.
Is there some way (software) that allows someone to look at a
program's inner workings.
TIA
Click to expand...

For examples I would look first at the worked examples in tutorials
(available for all languages) but source code for any GPL program is
available to examine (e.g. The Gimp, Blender, Rekall).
 
mistersmitty said:
With all the programs this group provides for free I was wondering how
one actually writes a software program.Is there any sites for
assistance / guidance or explanation?I have a few idea's for a program
and would like to give it a shot.
Is there some way (software) that allows someone to look at a
program's inner workings.
TIA
Click to expand...

Take a look at Leopard - a program to write programs which has some
examples.
http://www.leopardprogramming.com

===

Frank Bohan
¶ Does seven days running make one weak?
 
With all the programs this group provides for free I was wondering how
one actually writes a software program.Is there any sites for
assistance / guidance or explanation?I have a few idea's for a program
and would like to give it a shot.
Is there some way (software) that allows someone to look at a
program's inner workings.
TIA
Click to expand...

This is not a right newsgroup for the programming topic.
A place like comp.programming might give you a better advice :)

Nevertheless...

A lot depends on what you want to write. On your windows machine you
can use:

In an order of my personal preferences:
Smalltalk: http://squeak.org/ (good to learn OO, but is not suitable
for mainstream user applications). Smallest download.
Java http://java.sun.com/ - use eclipse.org IDE for java.

In no particular order:
C/C++: http://www.bloodshed.net/devcpp.html - has a reasonable
freeware IDE and links to programming tutorials. Start with it only
if you want a smallest size exe.
Ruby
Perl from: http://activeperl.com/ - don't try it unless you need shell
or CGI scripting.
C# and .NET - too complex for beginners.

Use command line if you like to do it the hard way :)
 
* techie Wrote in alt.comp.freeware, on 2004-01-25:
Ruby is more new-user-friendly, IMO. Among other things, it doesn't have
Python's nazi attitude towards indentation.
Click to expand...

That 'attitude' is what helps make python a good learning language as it
also teaches good habits.
 
* techie Wrote in alt.comp.freeware, on 2004-01-25:
Click to expand...

I forgot to mention for the OP, they have a very good online book at the
That 'attitude' is what helps make python a good learning language as it
also teaches good habits.
Click to expand...

The first good habit it should teach them is not to design a language that
breaks working code just because it's been edited on a different editor
with different tabwidth settings. :)

You may win all the points, but you won't win the argument. I have my own
way of formatting my code, and nobody's going to convince me that I'd be
better off with what works best for them rather than with what works best
for me.
 
Hi,

I get the impression that you are a *complete* newbie to programming and
that all the posts which have appeared above might not be helpful to the
complete novice. Let me try to give you a brief view of programming.

P.S. To all other people here, I know this is not the right newsgroup for
this kind of post, but I just want to help Mr. Smitty. If you you find this
post too off-topic or pedantic, just ignore it. Else, please feel free to
add, modify or correct the following:


1. About programming.

- Applications are written using special computer languages.
- Examples of programming languages were listed by Steven B. above and
others (e.g. Java, C++, Pascal...)
- Until the mid-90's, most (Commonwealth; not sure about US ones)
universities taught Pascal as introduction to programming. Now they teach
Java.
- Most programming languages you will come across use English keywords
(e.g. While, If, For...)
- Learning a programming language is not necessarily easy. Don't expect
to write *serious* applications before a couple of months.

2. Mechanics of programming.

- Program code is (usually) text-based and can be written using the
simplest text-editor (e.g. Notepad)
- An application is a set of instructions (written in a programming
language) which has been compiled.
- Compilation is (mainly) converting a programmer's code (English
keywords) into machine code (e.g. exe files).
- To create programs, one needs a compiler.
- Each computer language has its own compiler.
- Compiler are (usually) platform specific.

3. Rapid programming.

- Some programming languages offers rapid development by providing
components.
- Components are ready-made pieces of code which can be used as-is.
- Examples of components are text fields, clickable buttons, radion
buttons, checkboxes...
- Examples of languages with rapid development are Basic (VB, VB.NET -
not freeware), Pascal (Delphi - free personal edition available for
download), Java (Forte - free personal edition available for download) and
others mentioned in posts above.

4. What programming to learn?

- There is no *best* programming language. (Everyone has a preferred one.
Just read the posts above).
- Different programming languages are better suited to different tasks.
- Newbies (usually) are more comfortable with rapid development.
- As mentioned above, (Commonwealth) universities usually teach Java as
introduction.

5. Why I would recommend Java?

- I studied it at university :)
- Free downlodable compiler and tools from Sun Microsystems
(http://java.sun.com).
- Free downlodable documentation and complete tutorial from Sun
Microsystems.
- Numerous resources over the Internet for learning.
- Easy. Also supports rapid development through Forte (free downlodable
from Sun Microsystems).
- Several decompilers (revert compiled machine code back to English
keywords - warning about legal issues) available for download.
- Can be easily deployed both as executables and applets (over the Web).
- Fool-proof from newbie programming (garbage collector, inability to
damage system).
- Cross-platform development.
- Learn object-oriented programming.


Well, that's what I can think for now. If anyone else can add anything,
please do. Any questions are welcome.

Cheers,

Ravin.
 
Ravin said:
Hi,

I get the impression that you are a *complete* newbie to programming and
that all the posts which have appeared above might not be helpful to the
complete novice. Let me try to give you a brief view of programming.

P.S. To all other people here, I know this is not the right newsgroup for
this kind of post, but I just want to help Mr. Smitty. If you you find this
post too off-topic or pedantic, just ignore it. Else, please feel free to
add, modify or correct the following:

1. About programming.

- Applications are written using special computer languages.
- Examples of programming languages were listed by Steven B. above and
others (e.g. Java, C++, Pascal...)
- Until the mid-90's, most (Commonwealth; not sure about US ones)
universities taught Pascal as introduction to programming. Now they teach
Java.
- Most programming languages you will come across use English keywords
(e.g. While, If, For...)
- Learning a programming language is not necessarily easy. Don't expect
to write *serious* applications before a couple of months.

2. Mechanics of programming.

- Program code is (usually) text-based and can be written using the
simplest text-editor (e.g. Notepad)
- An application is a set of instructions (written in a programming
language) which has been compiled.
- Compilation is (mainly) converting a programmer's code (English
keywords) into machine code (e.g. exe files).
- To create programs, one needs a compiler.
- Each computer language has its own compiler.
- Compiler are (usually) platform specific.
Click to expand...

On some platforms like MS-DOS and IBM mainframes you will also need to
link your object module (output of compiler or assembler) to get an
executable program
 
With all the programs this group provides for free I was wondering how
one actually writes a software program.Is there any sites for
assistance / guidance or explanation?I have a few idea's for a program
and would like to give it a shot.
Click to expand...

Learning the "language" of programming is much the same as learning
any language. How quickly could you teach yourself German ? French ?
Or some other language that you don't currently know ?
Is there some way (software) that allows someone to look at a
program's inner workings.
TIA
Click to expand...

I have NOT looked at this, but you might like to :

Mortran

Mortran lets you learn some of the basics of computer programming by
giving a "robot mouse" instructions to go through mazes. Experiment
with some of the fundamentals of computer programming: sequences of
commands, conditional statements, and loops.

http://www.magictree.com/freestuff.htm

Regards, John.

--
****************************************************
,-._|\ (A.C.F FAQ) http://clients.net2000.com.au/~johnf/faq.html
/ Oz \ John Fitzsimons - Melbourne, Australia.
\_,--.x/ http://www.aspects.org.au/index.htm
v http://clients.net2000.com.au/~johnf/
 
John Fitzsimons scribebat:
Learning the "language" of programming is much the same as learning
any language. How quickly could you teach yourself German? French?
Or some other language that you don't currently know?
Click to expand...

Yet, programming has more to do with mathmatics than with normal
languages. But, if you liked learning Latin or old Greek, you will find
that similar to learning a programming language. ;)

bye,

Onno
 
We have seen some rather complicated answers about programming, and the
very easy but very limited Leopard language.

If you want some simple but really useful programming languages I have two
answers.

Rebol, http://www.rebol.com. It is free, it is simple to learn, and very
high level, which means you can achieve a lot with a minimum of
programming. Several free examples of programs you can use, study and
change for your own purposes.
It has a payware part if you need more features later.

A completely free programming language is RapidQ Basic.
http://g.yi.org/f.php?f=7306
It is not as easy to download and set up as rebol, but easy to use and
create all kinds of programs in.

It is like quickbasic plus visual elements which make it easy to create
professional looking programs.
There are thousands of example programs and the rapidq mailing lists are
very helpful. It is the Basic language which has most active users.

The last example program published was a spreadsheet program, so it can be
used for really useful programs.
 
We have seen some rather complicated answers about programming, and the
very easy but very limited Leopard language.

If you want some simple but really useful programming languages I have
two answers.

Rebol, http://www.rebol.com. It is free, it is simple to learn, and very
high level, which means you can achieve a lot with a minimum of
programming. Several free examples of programs you can use, study and
change for your own purposes.
It has a payware part if you need more features later.
Click to expand...

C, C++, Pascal, Modula-2, Ruby, python, Java, Ada, Perl, Tcl/Tk, Lisp,
Smalltalk, Prolog, and a whole host of others are free and not designed to
force you to buy a payware part later as your needs mature.
A completely free programming language is RapidQ Basic.
http://g.yi.org/f.php?f=7306
It is not as easy to download and set up as rebol, but easy to use and
create all kinds of programs in.

It is like quickbasic plus visual elements which make it easy to create
professional looking programs.
Click to expand...

A few years ago I would have highly recommended Visual Basic to someone
who just wanted to learn a little programming. But now, with Linux growing
so fast, it seems a serious mistake to get locked into a language that
will chain them to one platform. Whatever language is selected should be
multiplatform so that the skills they acquire and the programs they write
can go with them if they want to change operating systems later.
 
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