What are some things i can do now to prepare for a career of programming?
Well I want to do somthing with programming or design for games in the future, and I dont know how to start. I already have some books, and watched many tutorials in C++ but im not sure what to do beyond that. Im a sophmore in high school and im taking a web page design class next year, along with graphic arts. But what can I do on my own time?
Hi. I’m a freshman in highschool. I’m kind of addicted to web design. Bad habit. Anyways, I’d suggest (if you’re looking into web design) that you learn the languages HTML, CSS, and PHP. Those 3 are the foundation of the internet. Any class that you take in high school will probably teach you some shit on how to use adobe dreamweaver, that’s bad, wrong direction, don’t take the class. I’d suggest going to w3schools.com or tizag.com to learn those three languages. It hardly takes any time to learn the first two. PHP is the real hardcore programming, and it’s pretty fun too. I like the idea of learning this stuff on your own, personally. On your path to learning those 3, sign up for a web host somewhere, so you can get your own website to test stuff out on. For the past 2 years, I’ve gotten by just fine with hosts like fh50.com . That’s a totally free host, i think it has some fairly good stats, better than the rest. Now I use justhost.com, thats pretty much the best paid host out there, and only 3 dollars a month. Over the past month, I’ve programmed and designed the websites http://www.flurpal.com and http://www.upli.us . Maybe you can do the same, idk. C++ is for programs more, not websites. Good luck. If you have any questions then ask me at my forum, flurpal.com/forum. Good luck!
One of the best things you can do is what you are doing now: reach out to other programmers and see what they do and what programming is like. Do you know any programmers who can show you tbhe ropes? When I was in High School I met a programmer who helped me learn more about the career of programming in one conversation than I could have ever gotten form reading books alone. I’ve had a few High Schoolers come do a job shadow as well. If you know any programmers this isn’t a bad idea.
Learning good programming practices is also a great idea. It’s hard for a self-taught programmer to learn this but if you do you’ll have an edge. It’s not really about learning the language. It’s more about learning programming.
If game programming is where you want to go, pay lots of attention in math when they discuss vectors and trigonometry. These are useful in games.
Most importantly enjoy what you do.
Good lick
If you want to learn C++, try writing something you might use like a text editor or an app for some other hobby or sport you are involved in. If you make something useful, you will be more likely to continue tinkering with it and will learn more in the long run. Plus it is fun to use your own apps for stuff. Good luck.