What is the best programming language to begin with?

I have heard a number of different things when asking which programming language to start with. I have found so intelligent people in these forums and thought I'd ask it here. What is teh best programming language to start with?:confused:

People will say basic, which is correct it is the easiest but also useless. If you wanna be a windows programmer go for Visual Basic at first, but my preference is C++ not C. When you learn C++, C will make sense. But either way go for some form of C first in my opinion. You can also use C++ in the visual c++ compiler, which is also the best and easiest to use compiler, to make windows programs.

I would say start with C.
Or if u plan on sticking with wintel VB.

I have to agree that c and C++ are prolly the most useful you can find. VisualBasic is a nice tool for windows programming, but is going to be obsolete in some time with the introduction of C#. (assuming it gets accepted in the programming world of course)

imho, C is the best one for any aspiring professional programmer to learn. In your code fu adventures you will probably learn that most useful and portable languages are based on C. Think of C as the Latin of programming, in that most of the other languages evolved from the whole or used parts of C. It is pretty common for a guy how is a real C freak to pick up a language like Perl or Java and be writting excellent code in under a month. /* know a guy who learned Perl in about 4 days */

C++ is also a great language, if you are into game programming this might be a good one to start with, after mastering C++ then I would go learn some C and Assembly for any game programmers that want to become professional.

imho once again, I would highly recommend staying away from any language that is not portable /* portable = can be compiled and run on any OS/processor acrh. for which there is a language X compiler.*/ as it will limit what you can write code for.

A great free and Open Source IDE/compiler that is a lot like MS Visual C++ is called Dev C++ and can be downloaded for Windows or Linux here http://www.bloodshed.net

what??? most games are wrote with C not C++, besides it is a waste of time learning C and then getting a C++ book. If you learn C++ you will be able to write aand understand C code. If you are a CS major in school they dont teach you C they teach you C++ first the other languages like java, which isnt all that different from C++.

i agree with all that the best to start on is C++, but it is sometimes too hard for a beginning programmer to understand,

if this is true i recommend starting with a scripting language like Javascript or something, its not that hard to learn, has many aspects of major languages, will prepare you for these languages, and Javascript fits right into HTML code, so you don't have to mess with compilers and stuff

Intresting opinions, I wasn't expecting "c/c++" as a response. Thanks for your replies!

i'd say that c++ is definatly the way to go...its not that hard. its my first real language. all i ever did before this was some kind of basic(i think) on a TRS-80 when i was quite young and doing TI-86(a graphing calculator, for those of you who dont know) programing. both were sorta BASIC(well, atleast thats what ive been told), but i find c++ to be about a thousand times easier to pick up. you just have to make sure you are learning from a good book or in a good class. if you use MS Visual Studio's VC++ compiler dont expect the help files to be all that helpfull...they write all the source in straght C and its kinda criptic about alot of things.