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Originally Posted by s7n
I've just found out that we are going to study ASM and also SQL. Just want to thank everyone again for their contribution  |
Is that it?
ASM and SQL hardly make a coherent course. They are worlds apart.
I see the question about "which language to learn" asked quite often on beginners forums, and there is no really good answer to this. The reason is that you need to "use the right tool for the right job". And there are thousands of tools in CS, each of which is good/better at a particular thing.
If you want to learn to create web pages, then learn HTML, CSS and any server-side scripting language. If you want to create fancy application GUIs then learn C#/.NET3.0 and WPF. If you want to write applications for embedded 16-bit platforms then learn Assembly/C.
So you want to learn how to do programming... sure... I can teach you what "if" and "else" constructs do, or how a "while" loop works. And you don't have to learn ANY language for that.
So every language has its own strengths and weaknesses. And if it's the right language for you to learn depends on what you want to make.
If you need to have good memory control and want to be close to the OS/platform for performance reasons, or because the platform doesn't allow otherwise, then go for C/C++
If you venture in the realm of Java/C#/VB/Python low-level things are mostly hidden for you, which is, arguably, a good thing. These languages are good at quickly putting together an application without having to worry about things like platform or memory.
PHP, ASP, HTML and CSS are your weapons of choice for creating web pages.
SQL is glue between any of the above and a database.
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Originally Posted by Hebdomad
You can learn to code and you can learn to create programs. Most courses teach you to code, not to create programs. They teach you how to do something, not why.
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I disagree with most of Hebdomad's other statements in this thread (the "you have to learn..." ones) but this is more true than anything else. I didn't learn to write applications until I finished school and started to work in the industry.
At work I'm also working with student's code (I write prototypes for research, and some of the research is done by thesis students), and it often looks like they didn't have a clue what they were doing when they came up with their application structure. I can't blame them of course, I produced an even greater mess when I was still at school.
Just, if you want to learn to create applications don't just open up a book about a programming language and read it from start till end. It won't teach you anything. At least not how to write great applications. You have to actually do it.
If you can tell me what you want to make I can try to tell you which languages may suit your needs. If you don't want to make anything, then just open up a random programming language book that tells you about "if" and "else" constructions and "while" loops, it won't matter. The concepts are mostly the same accross languages.