[plug] programming

[Ryan]

On Thu, 2003-09-18 at 13:13, Adam Hewitt wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> I am very interested in learning to program but I am at a loss as to
> where to start. There seems to be hundreds of languages out there and
> without learning them all I can't mnake a judgement on which one will be
> the best to start off with. Bascially I have a few simple ideas for some
> programs I would like to work on, if it is possible for a beginner to
> jump straight into graphical programs (gtk+) then I would prefer to do

I don't consider myself anything close to a programmer, I just tinker
with the odd thing here or there when I have the time.  Often whatever
answers the need at the time is what I go with, so here are my
experiences - be they right or wrong, this is how it is in my world :)

FWIW I learnt Gtk this week via the Perl interface.  I'm using Glade to
make all kinds of ugly things and then glade2perl to convert the XML
definitions into Perl code.  The Perl code it makes and the way you have
to reference it will scare the pants off you if you are not well
familiarised with Perl though :(   Glade also comes in the GTK2 variety
and has a plethora of optional GNOME extensions so you can get jiggy
with all things GNOME very easily if that floats your boat.

The online tutorials I found were very adequate for explaining it all
for me.  Before I started using Glade, I found Tk far easier to code
manually than Gtk, but the Tk results are very primitive to look at. 
Gtk has interfaces for many languages, C and Python are probably the big
ones, though I don't grok either, so my commentary stops there.

Try Kylix if you want _EASY_ GUI development and are prepared to
consider Pascal a valid language.  You mentioned VB - it is that, but
better IMHO.  It is fun to get started with because it is easy and well
documented.  It does however present transportational dilemmas due to
its enormous library dependencies and similarly enormous resulting
binaries.  There is a heap of online support for it and lots of examples
to fondle with.  

I've used Delphi (the Win32 version) for ages and so I found Kylix great
for drawing the forms etc, but then felt limited by its integration with
the OS as I wasn't too keen on gaining a college degree in it.  If you
are prepared to learn about the various units it has for low level
system calls etc, it will do what you want very elegantly.

Ryan

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