Which Computer language to learn first?

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GuitarDave

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I'm interested in trying to learn Computer Programming but I'm not sure about what language to try and attempt first...every site I've looked up has conflicting answers...Can anyone here advise or give any help on the issue and also after deciding on what language to try learn what the best way to go about it would be?
 
It depends what you want to get out of it, I learned BASIC on a Sinclair ZX81 as a kid and never really got into anything more after that, did a bit of C++, but BASIC gave me a great foundation for my current profession in machine automation.

what's your end goal? others may better direct you then...
 
You should learn C first as that gives you the foundation of what you will use in most of the other languages when doing loops and if else statements etc.
 
Hard to answer you don't really say what your goal is here.

If you want to learn the fundamentals of programming the C or C++, if you want to get a job or do a project, then the answer might be completely different.

Otherwise I'd say do a course.
 
Jim2007 said:
Well for an introduction you could try MS Small BASIC. It should give you a feel for what it is all about.

Jim
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I suppose I don't really know enough about each area of direction but the idea of being able to write some sort of a program greatly interests me. I've no programming experience at all so I might take a look at the above just to see what it's all about.
 
If it just as a hobby, well be prepared to spend many hours of your "leisure" time driving yourself up the wall trying to de-bug a simple 50 line coded prg.

As you progress this becomes de-bugging 500+ lines of code with a similar rise in time. If you like this then overall it will be satisfying.
I would advise learning an object orientated programming (OOP) language such as C# (derivative of C and C++) and similar to Java.

Many years ago I taught myself Basic, then Assembly (6502,6510) and then pure machine code. I called a halt when a screenful of numbers whether in decimal, binary or hex made sense to me!!
 
I think it depends on the usage of the language you are going to learn and I want to mote you that the programming language learning is a gradually process. In my mind basic> C#
 
Since posting this question I've downloaded a C64 emulator & a C++ compiler & IDE. I'm going to try get somewhat proficient at BASIC just to get used to programming then move onto C++. From what I've read on the topic C++ is a good place to start.
 
BASIC can be very powerful,.. but Microsoft discontinued Visual Basic 6, which was dissapointing. I could write nearly anything in that, including a scrolling shoot em up game! (Using the Windows API)

C will give you much greater control than BASIC, but it requires you to write more complex code. In other words, BASIC will hide some of the finer details, which makes it easy but that means you don't have fine control. C will reveal all the fine details, but the disadvantage is that you must then fine tune all of this extra info, .. which is a lot of extra work, and C is very unforgiving, whereas BASIC is exceptionally easy, in terms of debugging. BASIC does stand for Beginners All purpose Symbolic Instruction Code after all.


I think C++ will be difficult to start on.
 
OK so rethinking my last post perhaps I'll stick with BASIC until fully proficient at it before moving on.
 
GuitarDave said:
OK so rethinking my last post perhaps I'll stick with BASIC until fully proficient at it before moving on.
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I'd recommend Ruby as a modern programming language that is simple to get started with and nice to get advanced with when you're ready.

There's plenty of library support, and lots of documentation on the web.

Try it here - http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/
Read about it here - http://www.amazon.com/Ruby-Programming-Language-David-Flanagan/dp/0596516177/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313412324&sr=8-1
 
I'd recommend trying Groovy on Grails. I found it really intuitive and picked it up in a few weeks. I have a background in IT and know java which Grails builds on so I'm not sure how someone new to programming would find it.

It really impressed me how far along languages have come since the ones I learnt in college. I'm not allowed to post urls but if you google grails and quick start you will see the grails guides. They are a good place to start if you are interested.
 
dtlyn said:
I'd recommend Ruby as a modern programming language that is simple to get started with and nice to get advanced with when you're ready.

There's plenty of library support, and lots of documentation on the web.

Try it here - http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/
Read about it here - http://www.amazon.com/Ruby-Programming-Language-David-Flanagan/dp/0596516177/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313412324&sr=8-1
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Ruby or perhaps Python would be my recommendation too. Both are easy to get started.
 
learning computer languages

It depends on what you are hoping to do.

Are you a hobbyist who wants to put up websites, or are you hoping to learn the fundamentals of programming?

If you want to learn the fundamentals of programming then I think Java would be your best alternative. It was invented to get around many of the then complexities of C++ e.g. managing memory is much easier, though this will be addressed in the forthcoming release of C++.

I have worked in IT since the early 1990s and started off in C and C++. I wouldn't advise either. I will have my head bitten off by some for saying this. My view is that C doesn't teach some aspects of current programming practice, and C++ is too powerful and complex. Java has a massive user base and masses of online tutorials and sample code and teaches many of the fundamentals. This is why it is a mainstay of many academic courses. For the record, I am not a java programmer, though I have been for two or three years in the past.

Good luck.
 
i'm with gearoid here - i've also been in IT since the early 90's and while i don't and never have worked as a programmer i have had cause to use almost every language in some form or other from assembler to fortran to c to vbasic to java to tsql/pl-sql and so on.

OP - give us a better understanding of what you want to do ... eg vbscript is a useful language to know if you have to do any type of windows administration
 
I've no history or experience in programming so its very hard to know exactly what it is I could do with a particular language. If for example I wanted to write a program like a registry cleaner or a temp file cleaner what would be the language of choice there? I would have an interest in learning the ins and outs of a language that would be best to perform those sort of tasks but have no real knowledge about the subject. I appreciate it may take quite a long time to be able to write such a program but if that was what I was aiming towards where should I start?
 
GuitarDave said:
I've no history or experience in programming so its very hard to know exactly what it is I could do with a particular language. If for example I wanted to write a program like a registry cleaner or a temp file cleaner what would be the language of choice there? I would have an interest in learning the ins and outs of a language that would be best to perform those sort of tasks but have no real knowledge about the subject. I appreciate it may take quite a long time to be able to write such a program but if that was what I was aiming towards where should I start?
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for something like these two examples either vbscript or windows powershell are your best bet.

be aware that these scripting engines are quite powerful and generally are executed as an adminstrator user so you can remove the wrong files quite easily - best to configure a sandbox virtual machine that you can play with and destroy to your hearts content.
 
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