   Is it alright to...?
  For the past few weeks i''ve been picking up and dropping QBasic, constantly restarting. I''ve read about 25 pages of the book I bought, so I understand quite a bit. I was wondering if it would be alright to start making a simple text based pro-wrestling game, and just look up more stuff as I go along, as I feel I will have alot more success with this, as this is what I did with HTML. while I understand they are 2 very different types of language, I am just curious as to if anyone does this, or if most people learn a whole book first, then start writing their own programs. Please tell me someone does :-D Thankyou for your timeP.S. This is my first post, so hey everyone. I used to come to this forum when I was attempting (and failed) to learn C++ about a year ago(ish). I can''t even remember what my name was, but i only made like 6 posts. Anyways, hey. 
  It is imperative that you try stuff out while reading the book. That''s the only way to learn to program. With that said, though, your knowledge of QBasic is not complete, and if you do your own stuff now, you''ll run up against that. I suggest that you put your pro wrestling game on hold, but that you do all the programming exercises listed in your book. They''ve been chosen with your current skills in mind, and are the best way to help you learn.   "Sneftel is correct, if rather vulgar." --Flarelocke ;  Fair enough - but it''s still alright to create small programs using what I have learned from the book right? Just to keep me occupied? ;  The concern that most people will have when reading this is that you''ll pick projects that you think are small, but end up being more difficult than you previously realized.  And that is good advice to listen to, especially now, when your experience is limited.  It can be hard to know how much will actually be involved in a project.  Along the way, though, you will attempt projects that are more than you can handle at the moment, and that will help you gain the experience that lets you know more easily what is within your grasp.Doing your own things on the side is definitely okay, but do the projects in the book as well.  Like Sneftel said, they are designed for your level of experience, and as the book goes on, the complexity of the projects should as well.  And with your own projects, try to pick really simple things.  If you only know in the most general terms how to describe what you want to do, it probably isn''t simple enough.  For now, only do projects where you have a reasonably good idea of how to proceed.  Later on, you can take on more complicated things, but even then, be sure that you at least have a good idea of how to research  .  If you don''t even know where to start in terms of research, chances are that you''re not ready for such a project yet.  (I don''t want to sound pessimistic and discouraging, so if you really want to do something, try it out, and you may succeed.  If so, then congratulations!  I''m just trying to describe a somewhat safer route.  Besides, if you come here asking questions that indicate that you''re far from ready to take on a project, then others will jump all over you.  Be warned.) 