OT: Look what I can do...

[AngleWyrm]

Suggestion for version 2:
Separate input, output and processing into their own functions. It's real good exercise. Something like

main(){
get_input( variables )
process_input( variables )
put_output(screen)
put_output(file)
}

My brother never learned to use functions, and now he codes his entire programs all in main().
So now he can't write big programs, because after a while it becomes too much to follow in one function.
Try reading a 500-line function! One page is plenty.

[NullAshton]

Nothing compared to my 500 or so lines of spagetti code written in qbasic.

[Gandalf Parker]

aiken said:
It only means that geo's really first programm was written in Basic.
But he will never admit it

Most programmers started in Basic.
And most wont admit it.

[CovertJaguar]

I don't believe "cout" or "cin" is in C, so it must be C++.

[Will]

boran_blok said:
Lemme tell you, that is C not C++ it might be C++ syntax but C++ implies OO programming. dunno if you guys see that.
having a single main aint a good sign

but if it's meant to be procedural it looks like a well structured program.

Ah, but there are objects. He clearly uses both the pre-defined cin and cout for standard input and standard output, respectively, and also uses the class ofstream for file output. Just because he hasn't created a class doesn't mean it's not OOP. I think Java has started to rot people's minds, making programmers think something is never OO unless you type "class foo" somewhere...

And I don't know about the rest of you, but I started in C, at 14 years old. A year later I learned "BASIC", but it was the version in my TI calculator, not this Visual nonsense. I technically still haven't "learned" VB, but really, do I need to? I can read the stuff, and if I'm ever asked to write it for some horrid reason... well, I'll burn that bridge when I get to it.

[Slynky]

Gotta take my hat off to anyone who's got the initiative to learn a programminglanguage this "late in the game".

[Suicide Junkie]

NullAshton said:
Nothing compared to my 500 or so lines of spagetti code written in qbasic.

Or my first serious program, which was almost a thousand lines of GW-Basic code.
All my variables were 4 or 5 character acronyms.
And it had no elses or block-ifs, since I didn't know about them at the time.
Instead, I used If-Dosomething-Goto

I'd estimate that up to 10% of the instructions in that program were gotos!

But at least it was neat, well organized spaghetti code.

[TurinTurambar]

Slynky said:
Gotta take my hat off to anyone who's got the initiative to learn a programminglanguage this "late in the game".

Amen brother.

[Gandalf Parker]

Anyone who knows more than one language would be hard pressed to tell you to learn or not learn any particular programming language without afew more answers. In other words, dont bother learning VB unless and until you have a reason to. Something that you want to do, which it does well. Same goes for any other language. They all have their pros and cons

[Kamog]

My first program was indeed a hello world program written in BASIC, on the Apple IIE. I was so happy and proud to be learning how to program a computer. That was a long long time ago. That year I went on to write spagetti code. In those days, each line of code had a line number and you had stuff like, "100 goto 250".

Then when I took my first programming course in university, on the first day the professor asked, "put up your hand if your first programming language was BASIC". I put up my hand, along with about half the people in the class. The professor says, "You are all contaminated - you learned to write spagetti code!". That course used Modula-2, and they were very strict about your code being neatly organized. That was a good thing, because I got rid of the bad habits I picked up earlier.