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Programming getting back into it

By Orion Blastar (Tue Oct 04, 2011 at 04:07:05 AM EST) programming, visual basic, vb.net, c#, c++, ansi, help, ask husi (all tags)

I've been out of work since 2002. I've been trying to keep up with computer advancements and technology. I used to write very good Visual BASIC 6.0 code with MS SQL Server databases.

I have schzioaffective disorder and have good days and bad days. I have physical illnesses as well and got too sick to work and ended up on disability. Then became that blastard Internet kook you all know and love. I'm trying to get better, that means the right medications, eating the right foods, and studying meditation and other stuff.

The other Scoop site Kuro5hin has Michael Crawford trying to teach me ANSI ISO C++ in HaikuOS. I have to run it in Virtual Box and it crashes a lot being an alpha test. Del Griffith found OpenWATCOM C++ for Windows, DOS, OS/2 development which I guess helps. Someone has to use it to write BBS programs. Anyway I got Cygwin and have Ubuntu in a virtual machine. My money is limited and most goes for my medicine and medical bills.

I cannot afford the Visual Studio series except for the Express edition which is free, and got an old VS.Net 2002/2003 somewhere in my basement. I figure the VB 6.0 to VB.Net translations will help me gain employment as kids graduate college learning VB.Net 2010 and C# and C++ but not the old school stuff I am good at like VB 6.0 and pre-ANSI C, Turbo Pascal and crap like that nobody wants to learn but companies still use and need conversions.

Any advice? If I ask on Kuro5hin I get the usual "kill yourself" replies. Only MDC or Del seem to want to help me in that area.

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Programming getting back into it | 19 comments (19 topical, 0 hidden)

Yes. by ammoniacal (4.00 / 3) #1 Tue Oct 04, 2011 at 08:08:58 AM EST

"To this day that was the most bullshit caesar salad I have every experienced..." - triggerfinger

: PC LOAD LETTER by Dewey Wang (2.00 / 0) #6 Tue Oct 04, 2011 at 11:05:36 AM EST

ERROR 14.

[ Parent ]

Hmmm by Gedvondur (2.00 / 0) #2 Tue Oct 04, 2011 at 09:14:10 AM EST

Well it seems to me that a Linux environment and the open source tools would be the answer to learning C++. As a matter of fact, I think that learning an open source supported language would be a good thing. Not sure what I'm not a programmer.

I would suggest perhaps learning one of these (Java or Ruby or something) would allow you to learn and then contribute to an open source project, giving you recent experience and exposure to a real environment.

Just some thoughts.

"So I will be hitting the snatch hard, I think, tonight." - gzt

: From what I understand by Orion Blastar (2.00 / 0) #10 Tue Oct 04, 2011 at 03:10:05 PM EST

I should start out with text based programs before I can learn a library to do the GUI programming.

I just don't know how to break out into an open source project. I have to learn the language first. I'd need a good book or a good website on it with tutorials. No videos as I cannot see that well and have a small screen. I tried watching Youtube programming tutorials and cannot read the words on their screen.

"I drank what?" - <a href="http://uncyclopedia.co/wiki/Socrates">Socrates</a&gt after drinking the Conium
[ Parent ]

vi & the cli by Del Griffith (2.00 / 0) #3 Tue Oct 04, 2011 at 09:48:38 AM EST

that is how I do stuff.... then again I guess I am old.... When I ran nextstep I just had 10 terminal windows open and just bounced between them... All that graphical crap got in the way, and I was just psyched to have a personal 4.3 BSD machine...

-------
Don't sue me bro!

Nano and Pico by Orion Blastar (2.00 / 0) #11 Tue Oct 04, 2011 at 03:14:52 PM EST

from when I used Linux before.

I used to work for a contractor for the US Army and used VI in SunOS, SCO Unix, Solaris, and Linux. We had flat files downloaded from Army FTP sites to import into Oracle databases. We had to take old files in DBF and Lotus 123 WK2 and convert them as well. Sometimes into MS-Access and MS-SQL Server as well. Data migration is one of my skills and when the file won't import you have to look at it to see if anyone added any characters like letters in the number fields and the like. We wrote small C programs in Unix and used VI. Later in Linux I used Nano and Pico. But things have changed.

"I drank what?" - <a href="http://uncyclopedia.co/wiki/Socrates">Socrates</a&gt after drinking the Conium

[ Parent ]

have they changed? by Del Griffith (2.00 / 0) #15 Tue Oct 04, 2011 at 04:36:44 PM EST

I still see XML warriors that take binary files and put them uuencoded or base64 mime encoded into XML.... Even for dumping lists where lists don't normally exist, you can't beat the power of Excel ... and notepad...

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Don't sue me bro!

[ Parent ]

: Yeah by Orion Blastar (2.00 / 0) #19 Tue Oct 04, 2011 at 08:35:32 PM EST

everything is XML files inside of ZIP files now as far as DocX and other stuff goes. You can rename it to a zip file and unzip it and see the XML files inside of them and sometimes png and jpg files for the art work.

An XML file is just a text file, HTML is for presentations and XML is for data holding. I used to parse out HTML and XML files for some of my apps.

"I drank what?" - <a href="http://uncyclopedia.co/wiki/Socrates">Socrates</a&gt after drinking the Conium
[ Parent ]

Definitely go open source C++ by Herring (4.00 / 1) #4 Tue Oct 04, 2011 at 10:04:11 AM EST

You don't want to get drawn into using proprietary M$ extensions like "templates".

You can't inspire people with facts
- Small Gods

Suggestion by anonimouse (4.00 / 1) #5 Tue Oct 04, 2011 at 10:38:11 AM EST

Try going into the scripting language market such as Python PHP and PERL. Its generally platform agnostic and in demand (at least in UKia)

Girls come and go but a mortgage is for 25 years -- JtL

If you are not by barooo (4.00 / 2) #7 Tue Oct 04, 2011 at 11:37:35 AM EST

having us on, I would suggest ruby. It's very easy to learn, irb lets you try shit out and get immediate feedback, and it's pretty current if you get comfortable enough to get into Rails (which is the leading web framework for Ruby).

The easiest way to learn ruby is to start with the Ruby Koans, which basically lead you from zero by having you fix broken unit tests and learn in the process. http://rubykoans.com/

If you are in fact trolling, I hear assembler is popular with the former VB guys.

man, i need a beefy taco now.
-gzt

awesome by Del Griffith (2.00 / 0) #8 Tue Oct 04, 2011 at 12:12:21 PM EST

I scored a copy of MASM 5.1 in the box!

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Don't sue me bro!

[ Parent ]

Learning Ruby by Orion Blastar (2.00 / 0) #12 Tue Oct 04, 2011 at 03:30:24 PM EST

I am downloading Rails now, it has the Ruby language with it.

Ruby Koans I downloaded, but fixing someone else's broken code in Ruby I am not ready for yet. No offense but I got to learn the basics before I dive into debugging.

www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/ Looks a lot better and I found it by some of the other Ruby web sites. Maybe one day I can go over the Ruby Koans, but for me, they are not the first place to start.

"I drank what?" - <a href="http://uncyclopedia.co/wiki/Socrates">Socrates</a&gt after drinking the Conium

[ Parent ]

hmm by barooo (2.00 / 0) #13 Tue Oct 04, 2011 at 03:45:10 PM EST

The koans start pretty basic, and they get you used to the idea of unit tests and to the Ruby Way. Plus, you're in real code instead of reading a book.

It worked for me anyway. They took about 5 hours to go all the way through.

man, i need a beefy taco now.
-gzt

[ Parent ]

: Not the way I learn by Orion Blastar (2.00 / 0) #14 Tue Oct 04, 2011 at 04:28:49 PM EST

that Ruby Koans way is like trying to learn Pali by taking a test on it and not learning the alphabet or grammar by trying to type in words that are wrong in a paragraph without even knowing what those words are.

My schizoaffective disorder acts up when that happens. I'm betting off writing a hello world program and start out that way. Remember I am mentally ill, which is why it is harder for me to do stuff than a normal person and lead to my disability. Like asking a blind person to look at pictures, etc.

"I drank what?" - <a href="http://uncyclopedia.co/wiki/Socrates">Socrates</a&gt after drinking the Conium
[ Parent ]

Serious answer by ucblockhead (4.00 / 2) #9 Tue Oct 04, 2011 at 12:24:51 PM EST

Forget C++. It's a high-end niche skill these days. It'll command you a huge salary in the right places, when combined with other technical skills, but it's also a big mountain to climb.

I would start with Python. It's clean, easy to learn and completely free.

Another option is to get the Android SDK and learn Java. Android is very hot right now, and Java and the Android SDK is also free. (Though it has a higher learning curve than Python.)

Or concentrate on JavaScript web-apps. Look at AJAX development with some open sourced server on the back-end. (Ruby-on-Rails, Cherrypy or node.js depending on what language you want to use.) Less hot than it used to be, but still marketable, and all the tools are free.

Stay away from Visual Studio. It costs money and the market is at best stagnant.
---
[ucblockhead is] useless and subhuman

Python by Oberon (2.00 / 0) #16 Tue Oct 04, 2011 at 04:40:48 PM EST

I've heard good things about these books, which are both available free online:

http://diveintopython.org/

http://learnpythonthehardway.org/

I don't have any direct knowledge of these books as I learnt Python by rewriting some truly horrific Perl scripts in Python. While it was very satisfying I can't recommend it as a way of learning the language.

How now, mad spirit?

[ Parent ]

: Thanks Oberon by Orion Blastar (4.00 / 1) #17 Tue Oct 04, 2011 at 05:30:58 PM EST

that was the type of advice I was looking for. Free books online and some feedback on how others learned.

"I drank what?" - <a href="http://uncyclopedia.co/wiki/Socrates">Socrates</a&gt after drinking the Conium
[ Parent ]

I should clarify by Orion Blastar (2.00 / 0) #18 Tue Oct 04, 2011 at 05:34:18 PM EST

I have schizoaffective disorder, it is a poorly understood mental illness. www.nami.org/Template.cfm

It shares some symptoms with schizophrenia and affects the language part of the mind and scrambles things a bit. Stuff like Ruby Koans don't work for me because of that. I am glad it works for some of you. It is why I am disabled and on disability as well as the personality side effects the illness causes and most people in general not understanding the mental illness and thing I do or say stuff on purpose when I don't.

I think I can learn programming all over again at home, and take my time and maybe start out developing small programs and work my way to larger ones. Start out with text based and work my way to GUI. Otherwise I am going to overload and get stressed out and need hospitalization.

"I drank what?" - <a href="http://uncyclopedia.co/wiki/Socrates">Socrates</a&gt after drinking the Conium

Programming getting back into it | 19 comments (19 topical, 0 hidden)