Recommend a book on general programming?

[Hmmm...]

For the most part I understand the VB "Language". I also understand C,
C++, JAVA, JavaScript, etc, etc.

What always holds me back is that I don't know what to do with them. I
mean, I have good ideas for things to make, but I can't seem to organize my
work and decide which part should do what and whether this should be in a
loop inside the main program or in a separate function or if I should do
that part before this part or not.

The last general programming course I took was for TRS-DOS in the 80s
and we used flowcharts and little triangles. That doesn't seem appropriate
with the more complex programs required on Windows. But what should I use
instead?

I'm not asking the fine people on this NG to answer all these questions,
although I will be appreciative of any advice, what I need is a book or
course on general programming methods. Something that will take my mostly
non-programming, somewhat ossified mind and train it to think like a
programmer.

[CajunCoiler \(http://www.cajuncoiler.tk\)]

The "flowcharts and little triangles" method still works for me... perhaps
you're just perceiving it as archaic, viewing it in the light of newer, more
robust languages. If need be, throw in some circles and parallelagrams.

In theory, any system that you use to organize your thoughts in a way that
you can understand them, and change them easily is the right system for you,
whether it's objects drawn on paper, velcro shapes on a felt board, or good
old fasioned chalk and chalboard.

There is no set method... like we used to say in the "good ol' days"... If
it
feels good, do it.

"Hmmm..." <[e-mail]> wrote in message
news:qh********************@twister.tampabay.rr.co m...

For the most part I understand the VB "Language". I also understand C,
C++, JAVA, JavaScript, etc, etc.

What always holds me back is that I don't know what to do with them. I
mean, I have good ideas for things to make, but I can't seem to organize my work and decide which part should do what and whether this should be in a
loop inside the main program or in a separate function or if I should do
that part before this part or not.

The last general programming course I took was for TRS-DOS in the 80s
and we used flowcharts and little triangles. That doesn't seem appropriate
with the more complex programs required on Windows. But what should I use
instead?

I'm not asking the fine people on this NG to answer all these questions, although I will be appreciative of any advice, what I need is a book or
course on general programming methods. Something that will take my mostly
non-programming, somewhat ossified mind and train it to think like a
programmer.

[Stephane Richard]

What you might want to look at is Object Modelling tools. From these models
you can then put them into source code.

As far as VB (or C++ and Java too), if you google for UML you might find
something called Visual Paradigm for UML which is a graphical Object
modeling took that's available freely (one edition of it). and from these
kinds of tools you'll learn how to describe your problem from aOOP
perspective and put that into code afterwards which should bridge the gap
between the programming language and the programming project.

--
Stéphane Richard

"Hmmm..." <[e-mail]> wrote in message
news:qh********************@twister.tampabay.rr.co m...

For the most part I understand the VB "Language". I also understand C,
C++, JAVA, JavaScript, etc, etc.

What always holds me back is that I don't know what to do with them. I
mean, I have good ideas for things to make, but I can't seem to organize my work and decide which part should do what and whether this should be in a
loop inside the main program or in a separate function or if I should do
that part before this part or not.

The last general programming course I took was for TRS-DOS in the 80s
and we used flowcharts and little triangles. That doesn't seem appropriate
with the more complex programs required on Windows. But what should I use
instead?

I'm not asking the fine people on this NG to answer all these questions, although I will be appreciative of any advice, what I need is a book or
course on general programming methods. Something that will take my mostly
non-programming, somewhat ossified mind and train it to think like a
programmer.