Creating programs from scratch

[Maryring]

I was wondering if anyone here had any experience creating programs from scratch. That is, not some fancy special help programs where you drag and drop features, but actually making it from the beginning with just a notepad++, or whichever other program that helps with making the program from scratch. I want to try my hand at something like this... but I have absolutely no idea where to even start. So 'f anyone could offer a starting point for someone who wants to try and make things, I'd be quite grateful.

[Solse]

Sure! I've made lots of programs from scratch (albeit small ones) and here's my advice:

1. Think about what you want the most basic functionality of your program to be,
2. Translate your idea into a programming language,
3. Run it, and notice that there are many, many bugs. That's okay -- nobody ever gets a program to work completely on their first try.
4. Fix the bugs, and keep on testing until all bugs are fixed,
5. And then do the same thing for any additionally functionality that you want to add.

If you want a good programming language to start out with, try Python. It has a very English-like syntax and is very easy to pick up, yet powerful. There are a bunch of tutorials to get you started with Python. Good luck on your foray into the world of programming!

[Grinner]

• If you end up going with Python, be sure to set up the environmental variables, if you're using a Windows computer. This is critical yet easily missed.
• On that note, find a basic set of tutorials to start with. The language documentation will do you no good here.
• Once you have an idea of what you want your program to do, try to think about how the program will go about doing that. Think about what individual pieces of code you'll need. Make some sketches, perhaps a flowchart, on a piece of paper. Obviously, it helps if you actually know a language first.
• Get comfortable with Googling "<enter subject here> python tutorial".

Edit: By the way, what sort of program did you have in mind? And do you have prior experience?

[Douglas]

Plenty, I do it professionally as part of my job.

I recommend against actually going all the way down to the notepad++ level, as you lose a ton of basic helpful features that go alongside coding rather than substituting for it. Syntax highlighting and as-you-type error checking, code auto-completion, automatic indenting, context sensitive suggestion information, and all sorts of other stuff that would be rather aggravating to me to go without, yet still require me to actually write code first for them to do anything.

I would suggest picking an IDE for your chosen language (for Java I recommend IntelliJ, for other languages I might have to research), starting it up, and telling it to create the most minimal bare bones project it has an option for. The result should typically compile and technically run, but do either nothing or something similar to outputting "Hello World". As far as I'm concerned, starting from that counts as "from scratch".

If you want to make your program do anything meaningfully nontrivial, you will almost certainly have to use some libraries in addition to the base language features, the specifics of which depend on the language and what you're trying to do.

[Vaynor]

The Red Towel: Moved to Mad Science and Grumpy Technology.

[Balain]

I would say don't use an IDE to learn a programming language. Yes it can make it easier, but I think you learn more when hunting for errors in a simple text editor.

This reminds me of my first assembly course. last week or so we did a bit of programming using machine code....nothing hard just adding two numbers together sort of thing. Talk about programming from scratch lol

[Heliomance]

• Run it, and notice that there are many, many bugs. That's okay -- nobody ever gets a program to work completely on their first try.

Corollary: If your program works completely on your first try, it's probably possessed. Salt it, burn it, and scatter the ashes over as wide an area as possible.

Plenty, I do it professionally as part of my job.

I recommend against actually going all the way down to the notepad++ level, as you lose a ton of basic helpful features that go alongside coding rather than substituting for it. Syntax highlighting and as-you-type error checking, code auto-completion, automatic indenting, context sensitive suggestion information, and all sorts of other stuff that would be rather aggravating to me to go without, yet still require me to actually write code first for them to do anything.

Notepad++ has, at least, syntax highlighting and automatic indentation for a whole bunch of different languages.

Python actually comes with its own basic-but-functional IDE, IDLE. Or if you get the very useful PythonWin32 module, that has a slightly fuller-featured IDE.

[Maryring]

I've worked a bit with Java, PHP and HTML in the past. This is mostly to teach myself some new skills to make myself more useful. The exact programs is mostly gonna be small things to make me more confident in coding. So small things, like a program that starts up all the other programs I use during my work-day, or move a sprite around on the desktop, or just making my own calculator.

Any programs that help with syntax, but as the purpose is to teach myself coding, I'd want to avoid anything that codes automatically for me. But if it can help me highlight mistakes, then that's perfect.

Thanks for all the answers thus far though.

[noparlpf]

I took a semester of Java freshman year of college. I don't remember anything, but I liked Notepad++. Just Google something about how to compile and execute those through command prompt.

[Grinner]

I took a semester of Java freshman year of college. I don't remember anything, but I liked Notepad++. Just Google something about how to compile and execute those through command prompt.

These ought to be put into a batchfile or something similar in order to automate the process.

[BannedInSchool]

First you create a requirements document...

[Zrak]

Sure! I've made lots of programs from scratch (albeit small ones) and here's my advice:

1. Think about what you want the most basic functionality of your program to be,
2. Translate your idea into a programming language,
3. Run it, and notice that there are many, many bugs. That's okay -- nobody ever gets a program to work completely on their first try.
4. Fix the bugs, and keep on testing until all bugs are fixed,
5. And then do the same thing for any additionally functionality that you want to add.

If you want a good programming language to start out with, try Python. It has a very English-like syntax and is very easy to pick up, yet powerful. There are a bunch of tutorials to get you started with Python. Good luck on your foray into the world of programming!

I think I actually managed to program something in MATLAB without any errors one time. I guess using MATLAB in the first place probably counts as an error, though.

[pendell]

I was wondering if anyone here had any experience creating programs from scratch. That is, not some fancy special help programs where you drag and drop features, but actually making it from the beginning with just a notepad++, or whichever other program that helps with making the program from scratch. I want to try my hand at something like this... but I have absolutely no idea where to even start. So 'f anyone could offer a starting point for someone who wants to try and make things, I'd be quite grateful.

It's what I do for a living.

I would start off with a Tutorial . Follow the steps and write sample programs. Get comfortable with compiling programs and running them. Learn about debugging and troubleshooting. Once you've been able to follow the cookbook a few times -- google "python cookbook" -- you can start making your own programs for your own tasks. Try to think of something that is similar to the tutorials you've already built. After you've built a few original programs that are very much like the tutorials, you can start diverging from them as you build your skills.

I would also be very patient. Computers are finicky and it takes a lot of work to learn, especially at the beginning. I would suggest also finding an online forum such as stackoverflow or javamoose , so you can ask questions of knowledgeable people. Look around for forums specifically intended for newbies.

Here's something to look at . Nothing more fun than games, and copying them should give you a feel for writing programs. That's how I got my start back in the day.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Knaight]

I think I actually managed to program something in MATLAB without any errors one time. I guess using MATLAB in the first place probably counts as an error, though.

Sometimes you have to use it. Sometimes you end up fighting with their bizarre surface function for hours on end, because the way it works is completely ridiculous.