Programming!

[Apex]

Hey all! (of all.)

As much as I like my current job teaching, it's not financially stable enough to support a family. So I'm in the market for a new job, and a new skill. Having used computers for my entire life, I figure I should pursue programming!

I'm currently 2 months into my venture, and have sweeped through CodeAcademy.com's lessons over Javascript, HTML/CSS, and partially went through Angular JS, and JQuery. (I plan to finish them)

However, now I'm trying to learn C# (it's one of the two primary languages Unity uses, along with Javascript.) and to be completely honest, it's pretty tough. I've been through a few interactive tutorial websites, and have completed a few lessons throughout the internet, but I'm having a tough time.

I've installed Visual Studio Community 2015, and I'm using the MSDN site tutorials to learn the ropes, and so far it's a lot of fun. (Shockingly, learning is fun when you aren't doing it for grades.)

So, here's the big question:

Can you program?

If so...

• What languages do you know?
• How'd you learn them?
• What's your recommendation?
• Are you employed using those skills?

I'm not necessarily asking for help or anything, I'm just curious given the nature of this site, and the nature of our shared hobby/interest in RPGMaker.

[Prpl_Mage]

I did learn the basics in upper secondary school but haven't really used it much. C+, C# and some java mostly. The logic behind the code is still there, I can read code and get a pretty good understanding of what is happenign and why. But I've forgotten the language so to speak, when you don't use a language you forget phrases and some grammar. Doesn't get any better when you get some of them confused.

[Grandy]

* Can you program?

Yep.

* What languages do you know?

HTML/CSS, JS, Java and C#.

* How'd you learn them?

Took a programming class last year. I've got a document saying I'm smert and everything.

* What's your recommendation?

That depends.

Javascript is the easiest and most widely used language because it's relatively simple, but it's also the most finnicky and prone to crashing, again, because it is simpler.

C# is the most 'professional' language, as in, you're more likely to find a job if you know that one.

Java is the weird middle term that is neither easy nor will get you a job.

HTML/CSS is like, the basics, so it's both easy and something every employer will just assume you know how to use.

And while not a language rec, I'd say Brackets is an easier tool to use than Visual Studio.

* Are you employed using those skills?

Maybe. I took an interview just today, in fact, and am waiting for an answer.

That said, I'm 90% sure I failed miserably at it, because they wanted someone who knew advanced math on top of programming, and I haven't done a simple division calculation in over 6 years, let alone sin and cosin stuff. I know I failed the math part of the test they gave me, but there's still a small chance they could hire me despite that.

* I'm not necessarily asking for help or anything,

Well, if I can help, feel free to ask.

Keep in mind my method of programming is "throw codes at Unity and see if it sticks". I don't exactly plan what I'm doing, so in the end everything is an unoptimized mess.

[Prpl_Mage]

HTML/CSS is like, the basics, so it's both easy and something every employer will just assume you know how to use.

Oh yeah, I knew that too, but have even less recollection of certain lines, but it's pretty easy once you get into it. Not as advanced, the advanced stuff is usualyl javascripts after all

[Grandy]

have even less recollection of certain lines,

Oh, I forget lines all the time. Whenever I program I need to have w3schools on tab just to check "how did I make arrays again... o right it's []"

[Momeka]

Well depends on what you want to work with, web developer stick with html/css, javascript and all that jazz, software or gamedeveloper I'd probably focus on learning C++ as it's the most commonly used language. That said once you learned the principle of programming it's pretty easy to get into new languages.

I've programmed in, C#, C, C++, html5 + javascript, flash, various scripting languages. Went to school for three years with focus on game programming, learned the basics there. Now I run a gamedev company with a friend so I keep programming everyday and I learned the most from that.

I'd say the best way to learn is to do something you enjoy, following some site tutorial making small website or hello world applications is pretty dull (for me at least). I don't know how much you already know but maybe picking up Pico 8 could be a good place to start. It's based on lua scripting but should teach you the basics (program structure, variables, for loops etc). It also has a pretty active community if you need help and you can look in to the source codes of other peoples games, see how they done things.
Once you gotten hang of that you can move on to some bigger language such as C++ or C#.

[Apex]

Hey, I'm totally kicking this dead topic with an update:

About four months ago I got a job as a web developer using my game DoorSquare as my resume. I now work for a company that develops websites as a backend/front end developer. I work daily with PHP, (Apache, and NGINX) Javascript (AngularJS/React), HTML, CSS, SQL and Mongo Databases, as well as Unix command to interface with digital servers.

I started in August, and this topic was from last August. So, in a years time, I went from not knowing any programming, to making and releasing a video game, to being employed as a programmer.

It can be done with some time and patience using tools provided for free online, so if you're interested in starting a career doing it, I'd recommend to stick with it! I'll point you to the resources I've used.

[Prpl_Mage]

A true success story!

[Moosetroop11]

Wicked

I sometimes consider this myself... I'm a tester but sometimes I want to hop over the fence and join in with the dev...

[Momeka]

That's awesome. Congratulation!

[zuhane]

I know bits of Java, JavaScript, ActionScript, HTML, C++, HTML and some shading languages, but my main has to be C#.

C# is lovely because, for me at least, it's such a perfect middle ground because the raw power of something like C++ and
the simplicity of something like ActionScript. It's generally considered the "industry standard" and basically just gives you
an insane amount of versatility and optimization, without having to worry about memory management, etc.

I use C# for all of my game programming, and I'd say it's possible to create games that look "next gen" at the cost of maybe 10-30%
overhead. If I were you, I'd stick to C#, and if it feels a bit daunting, read around C++, C and Haskell, and when you return to C# you
will realise just how easy it really is in comparison. If you can code in C#, you can pretty much code in any object-oriented language which
makes the world your oyster. Again, after doing C++, C# is an absolute breath of fresh air in comparison, and SO MUCH easier.

The best resource I've ever come across was the one given to me straight away as I joined University a few years ago. It's referred to as the "C# Yellow Book" and teaches you C# as if you've never even touched a PC before. For me, it is the absolute definitive guide to learning C#, and I've never found anything remotely close to it in terms of simplicity and readability. It's also littered with jokes, diagrams and examples to really take the edge off the daunting task of learning a new language. You can download the PDF completely free and legally here:

http://www.csharpcourse.com/

I'd absolutely recommend learning C# as a whole before even contemplating game programming in C#. Programming video games (in my experience) is absolutely the most difficult form of programming I've ever come across (including rendering, shaders, 3D, physics and AI), as it includes a mixture of all of them, and also requires you to strictly contract, clean and constantly organise your code, as even the tiniest games will generate mountains of tangled and messy code in no time. If you feel that you have a good grasp of C#, and would like to shift to game programming using C#, I would recommended THIS website:

http://rbwhitaker.wikidot.com/xna-tutorials

This website teaches you to program using the XNA Framework, which basically is the same as the MonoGame framework, and also puts you in a position of being able to pick up Unity in a matter of minutes with the experience you'll have. Once you've given these a good and thorough reading, you should have a  good enough grasp of C# to be able to start thinking on your own feet and experimenting with proper projects. Hope that helps!