JGalvan

I am starting to take an intrest in computer programming. I am having trouble on deciding where to focus on. I am intrested in graphic development, OS design, things of that nature. I self taught myself through my A+ cert. So before I spend money on college classes, I was wondering if someone could piont me in a direction to learn more about the subject. The differences in C++, HTML, Java, etc. Just basic information would be helpful. Maybe a helpfull website if you know one.

Cellus

If you are considering the programming or graphics design route, I highly recommend you acquire your education through a reputable college/university or polytechnic institute. Try to find a program which, at the very least, provides the equivalent of an associate degree (two years of college/university).

disdain

I agree with Cellus, and this is some of what I know about this topic.
C++
C++ is an "object oriented" programming language created by Bjarne Stroustrup and released in 1985. It implements "data abstraction" using a concept called "classes", along with other features to allow object-oriented programming. Parts of the C++ program are easily reusable and extensible; existing code is easily modifiable without actually having to change the code. C++ adds a concept called "operator overloading" not seen in the earlier OOP languages and it makes the creation of libraries much cleaner.

C++ maintains aspects of the C programming language, yet has features which simplify memory management. Additionally, some of the features of C++ allow low-level access to memory but also contain high level features.

C++ could be considered a superset of C. C programs will run in C++ compilers. C uses structured programming concepts and techniques while C++ uses object oriented programming and classes which focus on data.


Java
Java is a computer programming language created by Sun Microsystems. Java is used mainly on the Internet and uses a virtual machine which has been implemented in most browsers to translate Java into a specific application on different computer system. With most programming languages, you either compile or interpret a program so that you can run it on your computer. The Java programming language is unusual in that a program is both compiled and interpreted. The most common Java programs are applications and applets. Applications are standalone programs, such as the HotJava browser. Applets are similar to applications, but they don't run standalone. Instead, applets adhere to a set of conventions that lets them run within a Java-compatible browser.

The Java programming language is a high-level language that can be described as,

Architecture neutral

Object oriented

Portable

Distributed

High performance

Multithreaded

Dynamic

Secure

As long as a computer has a Java VM (Virtual Machine), a Java program can run on these machines,

Windows 2000
Linux
Solaris
MacOS
The Java platform differs from most other platforms in that it's a software-only platform that runs on top of other hardware-based platforms. The Java platform has two components,

The Java Virtual Machine (Java VM)
-compiles and translates Java scripts into Java bytecodes which can be descibed as machine code instructions.

The Java Application Programming Interface (Java API)
- is a large collection of ready-made software components that provide many useful capabilities, such as graphical user interface (GUI) widgets. The Java API is grouped into libraries of related classes and interfaces; these libraries are known as packages.

Java can offer these features,

Objects - object-oriented technology
strings
threads, numbers
input and output
data structures
system properties
date and time
Applets
2D and 3D graphics
telephony
speech
animation
electronic signatures
private key management
access control

HTML
HTML documents are plain-text (also known as ASCII) files that can be created using any text editor. HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language and is the computer language used to design web pages. HTML has been in use by the World-Wide Web (WWW) global information initiative since 1990. Once you understand the syntax of HTML and know how to write it, it's quite simply for you to create a HTML file. All you need is a simply text editor like Notepad on Windows, then you write your html code and save it with a (.html, .htm) extension. There is even simplier ways to create HTML files, such as using a software package like Macromedia Dreamweaver or Microsoft Frontpage. These packages automatically write the code for you and you can create a web page in a totally graphical interface with very little knowledge of HTML syntax and how to write it.

PERL
Perl is a dynamic programming language created by Larry Wall and first released in 1987. Perl borrows features from a variety of other languages including C, shell scripting (sh), AWK, sed and Lisp. Perl was widely adopted for its strengths in text processing and lack of the arbitrary limitations of many scripting languages at the time.

If you would like to learn more about any of these topics then you can read about them at http://books24x7.com/login.asp?ic=0