Posted by Hal Bonnin on 2000-11-10
programing is made up of 3 parts. the syntax, the data types, the compiler the syntax is the language (pascal,c,c++,unix,etc...) it is basicly the ability to compare and to change the data types. a spreadsheet uses simular language like the if()then()else() statements. the data types are pretty much uniform today. bool = true/false or Yes/No char = 0to255 (not fully uniform) int = number, max number depends on what platform you make it for float = same as above the compiler... well ill let you read the manuals for each compiler and let you compare. i use MSC++6,borland c++ builder, Borland c++ 5.xx, watcom 9(?), linux. my primary compiler is MSC++6. and i use C++ to understand the code first break it down into command and data. it might help to highlight the data in yellow. you can look into the help files of your compiler for what each command does... note that there are a lot of calls. some are to the system like if() while others are a part of the OS like bitblt(,,,,,,) and others are in the program itself like ClearMyData() color each type a different color. and all the parts should be marked. the system functions are documented in your compiler, the OS is documented by the OS, and the program is documented by the programer(if at all......) windows has several thousand functions.... MFC and OWL are simply copys of windows but easier to use... many of them have the same names. you can get tutorials on a language like C++ and fairly quickly learn the system.... the OS is more complex but doesnt change very much and you will get to the point where you will recognize them in the code..... the next and the hardest part is understanding how the programer thinks so you can understand his code....... if he documented his code then its easy... if not then i would get some other code to study...... > I have little to no experience with coding, the most I've done was attempted > to write programs on my graphing calculator. And all I managed to do was set > up questions and varying displays based on the answer, I think I also set up a > heads or tails thing, and a "hit counter" just for the heck of it. I have had > an interest in programming since I first made something appear on the > calculator screen, I became quite proud of that little code I spent all so > many classes writing. Other than this I messed with triggers in the campain > editor to Starcraft. So, is it normal for me to look at code and have little > to no idea what it means? Should I treat it like a foreign language and just > jump in head first and see what can learn. It would probably help if I could > get a computer in my room because I can't really do much in this lab. Also, > which language would be best to learn on, when I do manage to get a computer. > > Nathaniel Johnson, UofA
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