Could someone help me determine a good langauge to learn?

[philtered]

The main purpose I want to learn to program is so I can work with and modify the auto-scanner (code reader) for my car. it would also great to be able to increase the range of modifications you could make with the scanner.

This is the cable/system currently that I have in mind:

http://www.ross-tech.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=VCKII&Category_Code=VAGCOM"

Maybe someone could even tell me if that's possible.



Other areas of use would be web development and maybe some simple apps.

 

[davee123]

The main purpose I want to learn to program is so I can work with and modify the auto-scanner (code reader) for my car.

That sounds pretty difficult, unless you have:
1) The source code for the scanner software
2) Extremely detailed specs on the format of the data stored and transmitted by the car's diagnostic system
3) The ability to re-write your car's diagnostic system, including information on how the individual systems' stats are gathered

If you've got the source code, that's a reasonably possible undertaking, assuming you get very familiar with it. Otherwise, this seems ludicrously difficult as a do-it-yourself project.

DaveE

 

[schip666!]

IF you can get the specs for the interface to that plug-in device, most any PC side programming language would do -- say Java or Visual Basic. However I doubt that the manufacturer would be interested in telling you how their product actually works, so you would have to reverse engineer the whole system. That's a lot of hacking for a neophyte -- but a great learning experience presuming that you have no life whatsoever.

It's also likely that the device gives you access to just about everything you can do to the car on the other end already, so you might not gain much control.

 

[philtered]

Thanks for the responses guys, its probably best that I do some more research and see what I can find and if its worth the time investment

 

[BeginnerPal]

At first, you have to know the concept of programming. All programming languages has similar concepts such as arrays, functions/methods, etc. Try to pick an easy language and semi-powerful language to learn from. I would say go with C# or Java... Once you get it, feel free to move to the language that suits your later future goal. OOP is the way to go ... If you want to get into coding computational, hardware, embedded systems and such things, you eventually will have to learn C/C++ ... I don't recommend you starting with C/C++ ... NOTE: instructor also plays big role in helping you understanding programming