What program do you use to program using C++ or website design or anything

[Alayah]

So I want to learn C++ & website making as a side hobby since I have some free time in my days. What programs do you all use and would suggest for C++, Visual C++ ? LOL.
And for website design or making; what program? Sorry I don't know the correct terms.

 

[jedishrfu]

Most website developers don't use C++ in any form. Instead they tend to use Java, PHP, Ruby, Groovy or Scala in order of decreasing use. If you want the explore developing web apps there's Ruby on Rails and Groovy on Grails and others of a similar design.

My preference is Groovy on Grails as it integrates well with Java and is fairly easy to use. Basically a Grails application is a web application that uses Javascript in your web pages, and Groovy/Java on the server side with a backing database to store things.

Grails provides a framework (like Rails) for various parts of your app code and will autogenerate other parts as needed. It allows you to get something working as a prototype quickly and then to later replace the autogenerated pages with your own custompages.

Grails works well with NetBeans IDE.

Check out Groovy and Grails on Wikipedia to get a better understanding of what they provide. Groovy can run java code and has many of the features you wished Java had.

 

[ektrules]

My web programming experience consists of PHP, and a little bit of Ruby on Rails. For PHP, Netbeans is great. For RoR, I used Aptana Studio, which was nice as well.

Like jedishrfu said, C++ is rarely used in website design. Server-side code is usually written in scripting languages or Java (which is like a hybrid of a scripting and compiled language). I've used the Netbeans and the Code::Blocks IDEs for C++ programming; both are good. Code::Blocks is specifically designed for C++ development, but it was a little buggy the last time I used it.

With all that said, I think it's best for people just starting to learn programming to start programming without using an IDE first. A syntax highlighting text editor (Notepad++, Vim, Gedit, Kwrite, TextMate, etc) and a compiler with a command-line interface are sufficient (if you're using a compiled language like C++ or Java). IDEs start becoming more useful when working on larger projects.

 

[jedishrfu]

I'd tend to disagree on starting out using the command-line tools maybe for your first project to get a sense of it. Its the way I started but only because there was no other way to do it. The IDE tool provides an organization to your projects and the method lookup feature when you type . after an object is priceless. For school work, we would create a project for the class homework and separate packages for each assignment.

An IDE like NetBeans also provides line by line debugging that is far superior to the command line debugger although beginners tend to use the poor man's debugger the lowly print statement.

The best command line editor to use is vim as it runs everywhere on all platforms Windows, Linux... But best editor suggestions create religious wars. THink of VIM like American Express its everywhere you want to be. :-)

For Java the BlueJ IDE is is often used for introductory courses. Its a simple IDE with many cool features. For heavier work then NetBeans or Eclipse. I used to use Eclipse for everything getting the third party plugins for it but then discovered that NetBeans had most of the plugins I used already installed in the distribution and so I switched.

 

[Coin]

Okay that is a big question! What tools and what language are best to use vary wildly depending on what it is you want to do. In particular C++ and web design do NOT mix well, you don't want to use C++ for website programming.

I think a good place to start if you're just getting started is Python-- you can just download Python and start on any random tutorial. I recommend Python in this case because it's a simple language, easy to get into, it's flexible, and it works well for web programming. The python equivalent of rails/grails would be Django.

 

[jedishrfu]

But Tony the Tiger says Grrrrails :-)

 

[chiro]

Hey Alayah and welcome to the forums.

For C++ I recommend Visual Studio if you are developing on a windows based platform. For other platforms I can't give any solid recommendations.

For web development PHP is a good environment to use. You could also investigate .NET technologies for web development since they allow you to work with other .NET objects and routines using say ASP.NET and there is a fair bit of code support in the form of libraries to get stuff done (but then again this is there for PHP as well).

Also with web development, you might want to get something like Dreamweaver to generate template code easily and then use an inbuilt text editor to refine the code and add stuff that can't be added with a tool like Dreamweaver.

Some people write websites purely in a text editor because they have got their dev process down to a tee and to a point where in their mind they know exactly what is going on and how to do things quickly. For others a tool like Dreamweaver is used.