Ive wanted to learn C programming for a really long time. Every time I try reading a book on it i get through a couple of chapters then just get completely lost. Right now I think I have the motivation to do it. Im a Junior in highschool, and I think I need a better way of understanding it. So to those who have learned C at my age, how did you do it? I dont really understand why I cant seem to do it, my best subjects are mathematics and calculus. Any recommendations on a book could help, or a web tutorial.

Start by writing some programs. Just take some time and figure out how to get them working. I would possible start off with an "easier" language... Such as Visual Basic. Then once you get a grasp on how programming works, then I bet reading that book will make a lot more sense.

What about Java? Im a mac user so visual basic would do nothing for me.

Learning something on your own, just for the sake of knoledge, hardly ever works out. You have to really want to learn something, or have a reason to learn something, for you to be successful. Maybe you could take a class at school, or at a community college?
That being said, try some of the tutorials here. Once you read some code, and get the basic syntax down, you can start reading about the different functions.

Java is a pretty good language to start off learning, it's what I did. The best thing about Java is that it's Object-Oriented.

Well, taking a class at my highschool is out of the question. I dont know about community college, how much would a class be there?

Probably several thousand. Maybe you'll be lucky and it'll be like $800

It varies from school to school, but when I was 16 I took an introduction to programming course in dallas, and it was $90 per semester. But it was a tiny little community college, so I would guess it would be a little bit more where you might go.

edit: Also, I should add it wasn't a class that counted toward college credits, it was a 'continuing education' class for adults.

This post has been edited by the_d: Jul 25 2005, 07:52 PM

Well, my mom actually works for a community college and she might be able to get me in there for free. Shes gonna check tomorrow for any java/C classes soon.

Well you nay what to look in to learing a languge called, Objective-C this is what most Mac apps are wirtten in, and it is really not that hard to learn.

It is a object oreanted supperset of C, simmiler to C++ but very diffrent I think it is a very enjoyabul languge to wrok in.

They best book to learn is one called "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X" by Aaron Hillegass ISBN: 0-321-21314-9

Also if you want to learn that I am here to anch any questions you may have.

If you do programming on the Mac, make sure to use XCode 2.1, so you can compile universal binaries for your programs (you don't have to do this unless you really want to).

Yea, I know about Xcode 2.1. I remember it in steves keynote. Where you just check the box and all you have to do is check the box and it runs on intel (inside joke for those who have seen the keynote and have seen the part with the mathmatica developer).

Yes I am a software engineer at Apple, I do know about XCode 2.1

I started programming C at the ripe old age of 12 I learned from mostly reading over open source code. Get a C referance manual and use it as you read over an application you find interesting.

As for Java

http://imbolc.ucc.ie/~pflynn/humour/java.html
http://www.panix.com/~jdw/javasucks.html

lol read those before you get into java so you realize the problems and can be surprised by the good features. Although I have programmed in Java it is not a language I enjoy using. Then again we all have our choices and this is not to say Java is all bad.

As for what CX said ....big deal several languages are object orianted. I recommend learning python as a first language but any language is fine to start with if you have determination (VB .net and any BASIC varient being an exception IMO)

Objective-C is something I'm playing with right now and enjoying.

Typical C programmer.

Cyberaxe: just start browsing planet source code or devx and related sites for source code and start experimenting.

This post has been edited by Thequestion: Jul 26 2005, 09:54 AM