New at Programing

[WarGamer]

I'm new at programing can someone tell me what is a good language to learn? I've started to learn true basic and I want to learn more.

[SpydaByte]

There are a bunch of lang's to learn. If you want to go into app's do c++ (the way to go now) if you want 2 go into scripting for webs, go java (j++). There are many possibilites. Im glad you choose to become a programmer! Stick with it, you have a hard road ahead.
-Spyda

PS - Perl, Basic, and Fortran are old, but still used (Perl being my first learned lang)

[FamStars&Straps]

I learned VB in school first...don't learn that first. Right now I'm learning Java, its really fun, you should start with that. And plus you don't have to pay for any complier!

[mathgirl32]

People always ask this question here at AO. There are a hundred threads on the subject.

Whenever a person asks this question the first thought that goes through my head is the following. The most important thing for you to know or to ask yourself is where you want to go with your programming. How can you take advice if you don't know at least this?

So, is your interest web based, security programming, windows programming, db programming, gui, scripting.....???

If you tell us this information you may get more milage out of our responses....

As always...if it's an "opinion" you're after, then let it be C++!!

[amon]

well i would suggest you to start with c++ or even better with pascal.pascal is a dead language but it will help you put your thoughts on a piece of paper.if you understand the way pascal works then you will easilly learn c++.if you want to make some programms for the internet try php.
my teacher once told me that i should learn 2 or 3 languages but i should take a deep knowledge of them.
hope i was helpful.

[mrleachy]

oersonally i'd start with Java, the syntax is almost identical to C++ but the reason im suggesting Java is because it is a newer language than C++ but has the portability factor of being platform and o/s independantwhich makes it an extremely useful language to start with

also with C++ you become restricted as far as i know in the form of how you can distribute your applications, ie Java apps can be embedded in a browser rather easily and executed with a plugin, ive never heard of or seen a C++ program embedded in a web page, but Java has the drawback of being a very slow language due to the way that the programs or 'bytecodes' as they are known are executed

if youre after a java book i can recommend Dietel and Dietel's Java how to program (4th ed)

i cant really recommend an extensive C++ one as i dont have one yet

[|The|Specialist]

I started out with VB im going into C++ and I'll hopefully get a language like .NET or some JAVA.

Im kinda still a newb to C++ but the one book I can never seem to put down is a book called learn C++ in 28 days. LOL I don't think I'll learn it that fast but atleast its gotten me started. Im not sure if this book is still around or not but im sure you can probably find it at a used book store or a colledge library.

[tampabay420]

This is a great C++ Tutorial: http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/index.html
..WHY C++ ?
..Object Orientated
..Common
..Portable
..Standard Library
I started using BASIC (QBasic 4.x), I wish i never had :-)
C++ and other more powerful programming languages are a lot more dynamic, although in can be a bit more complicated... Anyway, goodluck on the whole programming thing, i think it's fun ;-)

[GreekGoddess]

I've been learning C++ on my own and have been doing pretty well at it. There's excellent tutorials out there and I've had some help on IRC regarding questions I've had. It's fun and definitely rewarding. I've done work with mostly web development languages, such as HTML, JS, etc.., so when I first started at C++ it took some getting used to and some banging my head against the desk in frustration.

I agree with what was stated above though, go where you want to go with a language. VB is a good language also, and definitely easy to learn. The syntax basically tells you what's going on and there's no holds bar about it.

At any rate, best of luck in whatever you do choose as your first, and find a good forum on the net dedicated to helping newbies with programming languages, maybe language specific to answer any questions you may have. And most of all, don't let frustration make you give up. Keep plugging away, it's one of the most rewarding things ever.

[HTRegz]

Hey! Hey!

My first language was Turing about 10 years ago. A great lil language, it's a dumbed down version of Pascal, but it's really nice, supports everything except networking. However it does have serial, and parallel commands. My roommate still programs in this language. However we both use the dos version, he's coded the entire gui for his car in the dos version. I have heard of a new windows version which supports Network protocols, and is very nice. Anyone who went to high school in most parts of Ontario in the last few years will know of the language, anyone interested can check it out at HoltSoft .

After that i went to VB 6, and I have also worked with VB .Net, as much as I dispise M$ products, I rather enjoyed working with VB .Net, other than the over simplification at times, but to throw out a quick windows gui, it's nice and fast.

I've also worked with C/C++ but only to grasp the basics before moving to PHP which IMHO is the greatest programming/scripting language around.

I also like perl, but to a much lesser extent.

If you want opinion.. for app programming I say c or c++ (I stated with C) and for the net, it's definately php.

As a side note..I'd like to say it's great to see people talking about Programming... I'm taking Computer Systems Technology (Network administration) and out of a class of 108 last semester when we did networking, I was the only person who saw a use for it in the network field.. We did VB .Net, they aren't even teaching us a dos/*nix console language. The general concensus around here seems to be that programming knowledge isn't needed in a networking.