RealBasic

[riminicat]

I decided to learn to program and will be taking classes this year in school but decided to get a head start, I was messing with Realbasic and found out that it was free in linux so I got it but when I click on the window app to add buttons and stuff Realbasic shuts down. Does any one know how to fix this? Also, I heard there were some games that could teach you the basics of programming in some languages, does any one know how I can find these? Thanks for any help

[pmasiar]

Best program for games is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_maker : totally GUI but will teach you a lot about programming. Sadly windows only, but some people from this forum plan to make a clone :-)

Another good language to consider is Python - has more flexible data structures than BASIC. BASIC is pretty obsolete these days.

[riminicat]

sweet thank you, I plan on putting my prof to shame so i have to learn all this. Wheres the best place to get involved in open source projects?

[pmasiar]

Sound plan! Let him earn his salary, and don't make it easy! :-)

There are many projects, and most of the are eager to train developers willing to learn - and have "simple bugs to fix for beginner" set aside. Depends what are you interested - games, drivers, eduware, desktop programs - Linux has it all!

But before you can do that, you want to become reasonably proficient. Language is more than syntax: it is also data structures, libraries, module design, testing and debugging. Wiki in my sig has links to free online books about Python, and simple training tasks to solve, collected from all the internets. Especially Pythonchallenge is worth try: more than 30 levels (puzzles) to solve, couple months of fun, with each evel has own forum.

Good luck, and if stuck, don't hesitate to ask for help!

[riminicat]

sweet, the way I see it in class, I pay his salary, if I don't like what he teaches, I don't need to hear it

[pmasiar]

Well, it is not exactly like that.

He has tenure, probably knows at least something about he teaches :-D and more importantly, you need to graduate ... :-)

OK bonus links for you how learning programming is like learning karate:
http://www.codekata.com/2007/01/kata_kumite_koa.html

Listen to your sensei and do kata excercise - but be open and learn tricks from next door dojo too, you may need them in kumite :-)

[riminicat]

yeah he does know alot about what he teaches. I just bought a 500 gig hard drive!!! and saved 200 bucks on my text books (on amazon) there where cheaper hard drives but I wanted a company I knew I could trust

[pmasiar]

If you want to spurge on hardware, RAM is more important that disk space: get 1GB or 2GB. As disk goes, 20GB is plenty, 500GB is good for music/video, you can not comprehend that much code :-)

And good books - many good books are paper only, not online.
Another good deal is O'Reilly Safari - read books online without buying them.

[riminicat]

I can't put ram in my laptop because its a school provided laptop(we keep it though) so we can't mod it until school's done. I do a lot of media stuff though too, and a program I'm working on will take up a lot of space because it requires a lot of pictures and sound files. This is why I need to learn to program. I made a plan and I know what features my program needs, now I just need to make it

[samjh]

Putting your professor to shame? You don't need to like what he teaches, you just need to learn it, do your assessment tasks, and pass the subject.

Professors don't get their job for being morons (at least not at respectable institutions). First learn what he has to teach, you can then make up your mind later, once you know enough to make your own judgement.

For open-source projects look at:
http://sourceforge.net/
http://freshmeat.net/
They have tons of FOSS projects, and many of them need developers.

[newyorkpaulie]

I decided to learn to program and will be taking classes this year in school but decided to get a head start, I was messing with Realbasic and found out that it was free in linux so I got it but when I click on the window app to add buttons and stuff Realbasic shuts down. Does any one know how to fix this? Also, I heard there were some games that could teach you the basics of programming in some languages, does any one know how I can find these? Thanks for any help
I have been programming in RealBasic for a few years now and have written many apps (for Ubuntu) that are only a desktop icon click away and would probably be lost without them. It is an alive and well programming utility and widely supported. The best place to start might be this forum: http://forums.realsoftware.com - Hope this helps! Also, I am at your disposal for any assistance you might need. nypaulie@verizon.net (Paul's the name, btw)