How can wannabe programmers move beyond scripting?

I have a problem, after working in support for several years and studying basic and advanced programming courses at university. I’ve had my fair share of experience with numerous programming languages. But not a lot of experience building applications beyond assignments and heavy scripting for work.

Using VB, VBS, C# and basic Python I haven’t been able to take this knowledge to building solid windowed applications. While I would like to become a programming lord quickly I have decided my first goal will be recreating a simple two player game called dots and hopefully adding more functionality as my skill level rises.

To do this I have a few requirements:
1- The language I use must be cross platform compatible or at least easily ported to other systems.
2- I would like a strong IDE with the ability to build my forms visually.
3- I would prefer to use a language or at least a similar language to what i have used before.
4- All these things must be accomplished using free software available for Debian as anything I produce will also remain free.

So where should I look? C? Python? C#/Mono? GTK? My current thinking is that python will be easiest to start learning with but i don’t know about any IDE’s or window modules for the language.

Is there any documentation for newcomers to programming? Even places to look for tips on development process and examples would be a start in the right direction. I am also willing to purchase books and other material to get me in the right direction.

In the end i’d just like to be able to contribute something useful to the development community but we all have to start somewhere.

2 replies on “How can wannabe programmers move beyond scripting?”

  1. C#’s probably a good bet, but I don’t have a lot of experience there. You might consider Java – it has its fair share of advanced features, is cross-platform, and you can find visual editors (NetBeans IDE, for example).

    There’s always documentation out there. Java has JavaDoc and plenty of tutorials, as do other languages if you just search Google for them. Good luck!

  2. haha, you know i never even thought of using java! netbeans looks like a good choice for an IDE to start with too.

    thanks for that i might have a look into java tonight, always good to learn something new as well. 😉

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