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Looking to learn a new programming language

Asked by Andrew Lyle,

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Andrew Lyle Global Moderator

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I want to learn something that is fairly easy to pick up, but do what I want it to do.

Right now I am taking a course of VB in college, but it is only covering the very basics, such as change font colour, add fields together etc etc.

I am looking for a language to help my business grow by creating a program to interact with my web site, and get data from the MySql database. I am sure all languages can do this one way or another, but what is the easy way to do this, using the easiest language possible

Edited by lylesback2

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Grand Master

Andrew Lyle Global Moderator

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I know PHP :p I want a real programming language (GUI) interface language that can help me reach my database. I programmed my entire web site (in PHP), but now I want to moderate it from my PC without using a browser.

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Pupik

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I came here in mind that you were talking about real languages (spoken) based on the title, and wanted to say that you should learn which you need the most and not just learn one for the kicks of it, but I guess the same could be said about programming languages. Too bad I just know noting about them (programing languages), so I'm not much of a help.

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Andrew Lyle Global Moderator

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I came here in mind that you were talking about real languages (spoken) based on the title, and wanted to say that you should learn which you need the most and not just learn one for the kicks of it, but I guess the same could be said about programming languages. Too bad I just know noting about them (programing languages), so I'm not much of a help.

Boy you guys are strict :p

Okay, changed my title, and no I am not looking to learn another language.. i'm busy learning Japanese at the moment.

I want to learn a new programming language, on top of what I know. PHP, HTML, JavaScript, (Some asp)

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Xahid

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I know PHP :p I want a real programming language (GUI) interface language that can help me reach my database. I programmed my entire web site (in PHP), but now I want to moderate it from my PC without using a browser.

Then VB is nice choice, but if you want to learn good language, chose C# (C sharp) !

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Bazenga

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I vote for C# as it'll help you achieve what you want. It also helps that you know java and you're currently taking VB. You already have a big advantage, take a step forward and eat C# books. I would personally recommend:

-Apress - Beginning C# 2008 from novice to professional

-Wrox - Professional C# 2008

Happy reading, learning, thinking, drinking a lot of coffee.

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rpgfan

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MySQL GUI Tools

C# or C++ would work best IMHO. I personally prefer programming in unmanaged C++, but sometimes .NET makes things a lot easier and a lot faster. It's just a matter of preference.

FWIW, C# is a lot like Java as far as the syntax. It seems like it takes the best of C++ and uses Java syntax and ideals. For example, in Java, you have packages, whereas in C++ and C#, you have namespaces. In C++, things don't need to be in a class. In Java and C#, everything belongs to a class. In C++, the return value of the main() function determines the exit status of the program. C# and Java return nothing because the .NET framework or JRE contains the real main function that is used to determine exit status; if an exception is uncaught then the exit status is most certainly not 0, the magic number representing the absence of runtime errors.

Of course, the .NET library is incomparable to that of the Java APIs, and vanilla C++ only has the STL that is designed to provide basic, yet useful, cross-platform functionality. If you went with Visual C++, then you'd be able to take advantage of the .NET library. If Visual J# is still developed and you used that, you could take advantage of some Java functionality, hence the 'J' in "J#", while also leveraging the power of the .NET library.

MySQL also has what are known as "connectors" for different programming languages (and stuff). Check them out here.

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tmahmood

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Just go with Python. You can do any kind of programming with it. Python is very easy to learn and have a very good language structure. its very fun to do programming with python.

But I suggest strongly that you learn C/C++. You should learn C/C++ first if you really want to learn programming, if you have a good basic with C/C++, learning other languages are like walk in the park.

For web development learn Python with Django or Google App engine and its far better then PHP. You can try Ruby too. Its python like and Ruby on the Rails framework is very popular at this moment. or as you already know VB.Net you can go for ASP.Net base development.

But I strongly suggest don't go with VB or PHP now. VB or PHP is not good as a starting programming language and PHP is not even a programming language.

Edited by tmahmood
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Andrew Lyle Global Moderator

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wow, some of you guys didn't read the full topic.

I already know PHP, and I am not looking to relearn that, nor did I ever call it a programming language. I want to develop a program that can help monitor my web site from my desktop. I have everything stored inside a MySql database, and simply want to recall the data, so I can display it.

I was just looking to see what the easiest programming language out there was to help complete this task. I wanted to generally learn more and more of the language, and help expand on the project over the years.

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rpgfan

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Everybody is 100% correct about Python. It really is easy to learn. Ruby is easy when you first start, but I'm not sure how it is when you get more advanced because I just couldn't bear to leave Python for Ruby. I finished going through a rather long Ruby tutorial and created some programs, and then I created those same programs in Python. In the end, Python just felt better, and it seemed faster too when I ran a Fibonacci generator that did its work recursively. Of course, the speed in PHP is poor compared to those two. Normally PHP has a lot of different resources to load at once (they're libraries, so loading the library slows things down...) whereas Python just loads its built-ins by default, and you load whatever else you want explicitly. :p

As for VB, I don't have any personal experience with it, so I can't say whether it is good or bad. I will note that if you already know it, and you can work with ASP.NET, then it'll save a lot of time since you won't be learning a completely new language. I do know that C and C++ programmers complain about VB developers a lot though... I've heard things like "VB programmers are just script kiddies that know how to use an IDE and compile programs". To get an idea of what I mean, check out this page and this page. VB programmers have a horrible reputation...

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Malisk

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wow, some of you guys didn't read the full topic.

I already know PHP, and I am not looking to relearn that, nor did I ever call it a programming language. I want to develop a program that can help monitor my web site from my desktop. I have everything stored inside a MySql database, and simply want to recall the data, so I can display it.

I was just looking to see what the easiest programming language out there was to help complete this task. I wanted to generally learn more and more of the language, and help expand on the project over the years.

Look, I have the perfect language for this... How about this... PHP! It's great! :D

Haha, just kidding. C# with ADO.NET is pretty straightforward for database work, and you'd then interface with your MySQL db with a MySQL OLEDB driver, like this one. And that site includes sample code too, but you should perhaps first learn C# reasonably well, and next ADO.NET, from some sort of tutorial.

Of course, C# is no requirement. This is .NET we're talking about. VB.NET will do just as fine. The major differences are just in syntax, not in the API's. As for your project here, the choice between C# and VB.NET will not matter in terms of capabilities. You'd just pick C# if you wanted to learn something new, not because it's "better" for this task, because it really isn't. It's equally good.

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Grand Master

Malisk

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Posted (edited)

Oh, and if I was to pick a web development oriented language, I think I'd go for Python too. :) I'm personally interested in learning that one. And if you really want to do desktop development, there are things like wxPython, and you'll perhaps even go cross-platform in the process with that solution. MySQL bindings with Python is also no problem at all. But it's probably more cumbersome to set up than just start coding away in C# and the designer.

Edited by Jugalator
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