Lookin' for to learn a programming language.

[kongurous]

I've been wanting to learn a few programming languages lately, so I thought I'd ask the members here for any advice. Which ones are easiest or quickest to learn, and what programs and all that fun stuff do you recommend?

[Modred]

What type of programming do you want to do? Website, application, web application, database? C or C++ is always a good idea, although I've never done much with either. For website development, start with XHTML (and CSS) then move on the Javascript. Web based apps are often written in Java or created with Flash or Shockwave. Database interaction works with websites and other things and will usually involve SQL and either Perl or PHP. w3schools.com has some good tutorials for anything that relates to web development. About.com has some introductory lessons for just about everything else.

[Tharisfal]

hmm, I don't really know anything about programming but here's one: http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial.html

and if you don't know what programming language you want to learn this might help:
http://www.coronadoenterprises.com/coronado/lang.html

[Sikawtic]

Website: I'd go CSS,

If you're talking teh real programming, go C++.

[kongurous]

A 4 month revival? Damn...

[Mindslaver]

Assuming that you are still interested, what operating system do you use? This can make a huge difference in which programming languages you should/can learn.

[Modred]

From what I hear, Visual Basic and JavaScript can be good to start out with. I'm doing C++ right now and it's not terribly difficult.

Assuming that you are still interested, what operating system do you use? This can make a huge difference in which programming languages you should/can learn.
Knowing that Skippy is a gamer, I'm fairly certain we can assume Windows.

[Black.Ice]

A 4 month revival? Damn...

The new sub-forum has old posts, and it was on the first page. It doesn't really mater.

If you're still interested in doing a language, I would strongly recommend Java. I say this because it's object oriented, and it's good to get that down. Once you understand that, you can move back to C++ or any other language.

[Mindslaver]

Though some would argue that Visual Basic is a good language to start with, I would say the opposite. Avoid Visual Basic.

Start with something like Javascript or Python (http://python.org) if you are completely new to programming. For Python, you can start with Dive Into Python (http://diveintopython.org/), or the official BeginnersGuide (http://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide).

C++ would be a good choice, though I would suggest that you start with Python. The constructs of C++ are fairly annoying unless you already have a grasp of them from a scripting language. But if you are bent on developing in C++, you have a few options.

Get Visual Studio (http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/), Microsoft's proprietary software-development platform.
Get Dev-C++ (http://www.bloodshed.net/devcpp.html), Bloodshed Software's open source, and consequently monetarily free IDE (Integrated Development Environment).
Get MinGW (http://mingw.org), Windows port of GCC, and learn to hack your way into programming *nix-style.
Get Visual C++ Express (http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/visualc/), Microsoft's free C++ development environment, considerably bug-ridden but still remains a viable alternative.
Keep trying, and you'll eventually get where you want to be.

[Aquarian]

Hm...Actually,if you can do basic HTML,PHP and web coding,programming should be very easy.

[Mindslaver]

Hm...Actually,if you can do basic HTML,PHP and web coding,programming should be very easy.
HTML doesn't really help you in the realm of system programming, as it is not a programming language (no loops). However, experience with PHP or similar web scripting languages will be helpful, as the constructs remain similar. However, unless you intend to become a web programmer, don't bother with web programming if you want to learn systems programming (C++, C, Java, Python, etc.)

If you're interested in both, take a look at Ruby (www.ruby-lang.org) and Ruby on Rails (http://www.rubyonrails.com/). Python (http://python.org/) can also be used for CGI development (http://www.cs.virginia.edu/%7Elab2q/lesson_1/), and even ASP (http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/webtech/082201-1.shtml). Then there's Javascript, but you know all about that.

[TimP]

HTML is not a programming language, it's a markup language, hence the ML. I particularly enjoy Python and REXX and they're good languages to start with.

[Haplo]

HTML isn't actually a programming language, but it's good to know and will help later in a technical sense when you go to a real language.