Whats the best first programming language to learn??

[Dan]

I want to start programming but I don't know what language to learn.
Should I learn VB as my first language??
I have also heard about Python, is that any good?
Or should I dive straight in and start immediately with something like Java or C++?

I need suggestions!!!!!

 

[Jesse]

I think try C++ First...
It is easy to learn i think...

 

[callumacrae]

C++ is really hard. I started with Visual Basic.
I tried python but i just couldn't get the hang of it

 

[Silverspoon]

Java is more intuitive for those getting into OOP with no prior programming experience.

I started with C/C++ and had no issues moving back and forth between the languages.

Both Java and C(++) are imperative languages and the transitions between the two are easy once you establish the basic concepts of one.

If you want an (insanity) challenge, learn LISP and/or HASKELL and think outside of the standard languages (though both are used almost solely in the research and campus environment).

 

[Aerophin]

Go with C++. It is a very powerful language. Although, your choice of language would depend on your target. Are you more interested in nuts and bolts programming, or web-based solutions? If the former, then I would recommend C++ most highly. The gaming industry lives off of C++, and it is widely used elsewhere.

Python is cool for a beginner, but the fact that you cannot (last I saw) make real, binary executables with it limits it's use to that demographic. There is nothing so satisfying as seeing a genuine .exe file that you made sitting on your desktop.

I am rather biased against Microsoft products, (but not without reason) so I will not say anything about VB.

 

[satheesh]

C and C++ is first programing language.

 

[Livewire]

My opinion? Look at the jobs in the area or a language that does something you'd like to do in the future.

Learn that.


Don't bother starting with a language you won't use in the future is what I'm saying; if you'll end up using VB because there's a lot of VB based jobs in your area, then learn VB. If there's C# or C or C++ jobs in the area, learn that. Some PHP/Perl/CGI/other-web-based-languages in the area? Learn them.


I made the mistake of learning a useless language which it's taken me for-friggin-ever to forget so I've got room for the good stuff >_<


Edit: Removed the quote, hit the wrong button. My guess is you'll end up learning a variation of C, since those are some of the msot versatile and are relatively easy to grasp once you've got the basics down.

 

[Dan]

Thanks everybody for your suggestions.

I think I might have a go at learning PHP actually as I'd like to make some Web Applications and apparently it's not too hard.

I might also learn a little bit of C++ because I'm always going to want to have a go at making games and things. I think I am going to go with PHP for the moment though and see how I get on with that.

Again thanks for your suggestions.

 

[callumacrae]

a good (apparently) tutorial for C++ is at http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/

 

[Dan]

a good (apparently) tutorial for C++ is at http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/

Thanks for that!!
Edit:
Anyone got any good places/books to learn PHP at all???

 

[BentFX]

I think the big question is what do you want to do with your programming. If you have a specific program in mind that you want to write, you need to think about what the program does, and what language will allow you to write it with the smallest amount of coding.

If you want to learn programming, just for the fun/challenge/benefit of it, C++!

-----
Dannad500:
check this... http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/PHP

 

[mattura]

I'd say BASIC!
It's intuitive for first-time programmers (the B stands for 'Beginners')
But VB is rather nasty, confusing and too 'visual'; if your machine can configure itself to be backward-enough, get QBASIC

PHP is rather hard to learn without knowing other similar languages (eg C,perl), but those languages are rather hard to learn for non-programmers. (people here say C++ is easy to learn - I disagree if you have no experience of other languages). For example: "for(i=0;i<9;i++) {}" what does that mean to a non-programmer?!! Non-programmers are rarely well informed about data structures and types. So best avoid these C-like languages to begin with. Get a loose-typed language.

I think it is important for a first language to be easy to compile, or even better, an interpreted language.

Hence - QBASIC!

PS No way 'dive in' with java!

 

[Fahad]

I'll tell you how I learned.
First, I learned AutoIt. It's a very versatile language based on basic, but on the downside, it's windows only.
As soon as you need (or want) something more powerful, learn Visual Basic! The syntax is incredibly similar to AutoIt, and it's OOP on the plus side!
Then, ONLY IF YOU NEED TO, learn C++

 

[Jacob Kid Mania Creator]

My order went:

HTML
JavaScript
PHP

 

[zeekgenateer]

I've learned Q-Basic, PHP, Java and Visual Basic. Java was by far the easiest to learn, and it wasn't because of my teacher (all he did was show powerpoints and make use work in the book). There are many good tutorials out there for all the languages, but java has been my favorite to learn.

 

[noerrorsfound]

Most programmers would recommend Python as a starting language, but plenty of people started with more difficult languages such as C or C++.

 

[mlsoft]

Depends what you want to start programming first.

If it is windows based, I suggest VB6 or VB.Net, there are essentially the same thing.
If web based, HTML first. Thats for starting out, then I would go into PHP.

 

[Brandon]

I started off by learning ASP, but I quickly moved to PHP (OOP). Just do a Google search for 'PHP Tutorials', there is so many around on the web it's not funny. If you are getting into Web, I also recommend learning XHTML, CSS, and maybe Javascript.

I personally don't know a lot of Javascript, just enough to do things in AJAX, for most other things I use mootools.

Feel free to ask any questions with PHP or anything you might have in our coding forum.

Also if you want to learn PHP, and make windows-based applications check out WinBinder and to generate .exe from your PHP files check out phpCompile.

 

[callumacrae]

W3schools has loads of internet language tutorials - I learnt PHP and HTML and JavaScript there