Hello! Learning to C program.

[XxoBitoxX]

Learning C for now and doing magical wonders with games eventually? What is the limit of this code? I am having guess's that C# is the way to go for this. But I am not certain and would like to obtain a certain amount of information about these subjects to understand this new world more. Pardon me, as I am tierd and only had to 8 cups o' essspresso today.

[Sychotix]

C is a fine language, and I find to be a good language to start with if you want to REALLY understand how things work. That being said, learning and object oriented programming (OOP) language is more likely to be useful to you.

[d3rrial]

C is basically limitless, but if you want to code games, or for games, you would have to do a LOT of heavy lifting yourself. As Sychotix said you best go for an object oriented language, preferably C++. C++ is used by most game developers and in most game engines, because there are an incredible amount of libraries to use with an all in all quite powerful language.

In my opinion C++ is very easy to learn and comprehend, when you go into the basic stuff, like memory management or multi-threading. But when you go for advanced stuff, like some of those libraries (for example Boost) stuff gets trickier.

What I can tell you is that you should stay very clear of Java if you want to code something with games.

C# works in this regard to some degree, but you're not going to code immensly elaborate games with this, unless you have a whole lot of time and ressources to waste to reinvent the wheel.

If you just want to code some hacks tho, go for C# or C++ (just not Java).

In my professional opinion I would say go for C++, there's no limit to what it can do if wielded properly and there are some great guides / tutorials / books about it to learn it.

[karnkore]

C++ or C# is my advice once you know C++ you pretty much know C anyway.

[Willy]

As the posters above me suggests I would suggest C# or C++. But lets go over why:

Starting with C, it's the most powerful of all the languages (the other ones requiresare actually built on it).
But it's hard to learn since you're going to have to reinvent the wheel pretty much.
And while object oriented programming is possible... Well just don't.
Conclusion: Dont start with C. But when mastered you can do pretty much anything.

C++:
The second most "strong" language. Built on C, does pretty much everything C does but easier to program in.
Object oriented.
Conclusion: Since it's easier to program in I would rather start with C++ than C, but if you're still interested in the low level programming and optimizing I would continue on to C.
Game programming? Go with C++.

C#:
Strong language, just like C and C++. Developed by microsoft and therefor windows only!
Very easy to learn compared to C and C++! (Note that this is my personal experiance).
Conclusion: I would totally consider going with C# first since it's much easier to learn than the other two. Especially if you're more into hacking games rather than creating them.

Java:
Easy to learn. What it does is basically that it runs a virtual machine on your computer that your code runs in and therefor limits the "damage" you can do. In pure Java that is, you can still program certain modules other languages and then run them from your main thread! Based on C++.
Conclusion: Java is great if you're looking for a language that supports almost all platforms (especially android!). But not if you want to hack games! Creating games is still possible (Minecraft is a great example) but if you're going to create a large game Java will only slow you down.


This is how I myselft learned programming;
I started with Java in school, got tierd of it. Taught myself Perl, then Python, C# and last C++.

What Im trying to say is that you can start with any language and then go on to the next. You'll always learn something! But don't jump on to another language until you feel comfortable with your first one!

Last, you need to be ready to spend much time if you want to master the art of coding.

P.S. I hope I didn't do more harm than good.

[Xandy12]

I've been a enthusiastic hobbyist programmer for over 20 years. You started in the right place as far as I'm concerned. Caffeine, bull semen, Monster, wherever you get your fix. Then sit down and stare at the monitor code for 20 to 120 minutes brain storming how you are going to make all your code systems work together to produce a result. When you get a solid lead, stand up and spastically shake your fists, kinda like an excited school girl. You are going to need to do this every so often to stay in shape.

I started in BASIC when I was 9 years old. We laughed and cried together, but I hate that son of a bitch now. While in tech school they introduced me to a compiler and C++. I learned to include SDL libraries in C++.

You can pretty much code Path of Exile from there. Not that I'm that good, and you certainly need a team.
To become the best programmer, you murder all programmers.