What programming language is a good starter language?

Drunken_King

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Hi. I've been wanting to learn to program for a while now, but never did it cause I have no time but now im gonna jump into it. I know 0 about programming languages and would have to start at Level 0. :p What language is the easiest to learn for starters?
 
python

There is less boilerplate to worry about than java or c++.

It also has a very nice interactive console that will execute what you type when you hit enter,
instead of needing to worry about compiling, linking, executing.

Python 3.1 tutorial
Download Python I'd recommend 3.1, and if your platform is 32 bit windows that would be: Python 3.1 for 32-bit windows

And some more links around their site:
Python Library Documentation - Every python programmer is going to refer to this frequently.
Full Documentation List for Python 3.1
 
AutoIt is neat if you have something you want to automate :) Helped me out at work a bunch
 
I'd suggest Pascal or plain C (not ++)

But then I'm a firm believer that one should learn procedural programming first, then learn object oriented concepts afterwards.
 
I started with logo in 4th grade. Its a good way to learn basics concepts (state, loops), but not much else.

Whichever language you choose, start with a basic console application with one giant function (usually main()) and work through basic concepts (conditionals, loops, arrays). Once you are comfortable with those, add functions.

My first real language was C, but c, c++, c#, and java are all pretty much the same when your are just working through the basics. Of those, C# with visual studio express is probably the easist to setup and get programming with in a windows environment.
 
I know 0 about programming languages and would have to start at Level 0. :p What language is the easiest to learn for starters?

If you want to start at Level 0, you should start by learning how computers work. You don't need a particular language to do that, and I think that choosing a language at that point is premature and damaging. You can read an essay I wrote about it, which includes links to books to get you started.
 
Hi. I've been wanting to learn to program for a while now, but never did it cause I have no time but now im gonna jump into it. I know 0 about programming languages and would have to start at Level 0. :p What language is the easiest to learn for starters?

Similar to Danith's advice, I'd recommend AutoHotKey. It's easy to learn, has plenty of code examples, and you'll easily be able to come up with a quick project that will interest you. In my opinion, the easiest way to learn to program is to find a procedural language that you can easily learn that you can quickly solve problems you deal with every day. I think AutoHotKey fits that well.

Once you've gotten a little familiarity with basic programming concepts like variables, loops and arrays, Python is an excellent language to learn as many others have suggested.
 
I'll throw out java. My reasoning is simple; it's a well used language. Anything you might want to do has probably already been done and you can find examples online somewhere. It's a language that has seen widespread use, so you'd be learning something immediately useful.
 
Another vote for Python. Just go in knowing you're learning concepts; it's far from useless, but you will have to move on (to a different language like C++) at some point purely because it can be very slow to do many things.
 
hey not quite sure exactly what you are wanting to do with the programming but i found this site to be really helpful.

http://www.w3schools.com/default.asp

they show you the basics and let you test your projects all the way up to advanced. I wanted to refresh my html and css they have a great layout. hope this helps.
 
So many choices.:eek: I know a lot about computers hardware wise and such. Many said Python and that seems to be the winner. Thanks for all the input. I'll be sure to check all of them out and see which one I like best. Is PHP easy to learn? I am very interested in Web Development as well. BTW my environment would be with OS X Snow Leopard don't know if that makes a difference?
 
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PHP is fairly easy to learn, but it's terribly designed and really the language is a complete mess. It's not coherent or consistent, and that makes it rather annoying to use for experienced programmers, and may teach you bad habits. I'd personally recommend that you stay away from it until you've got some experience in another language, so that you can learn quickly to avoid PHP at all costs ;). Not to be too harsh; it's good for quick and simple scripts, but I'd never want to use it for any large project.

You can use most any language for web development if that's what you're interested in. PHP is the quick and dirty route, it's easy to get into but rather a mess. I would focus on learning the basics first, and once you have solid foundational skills in a general purpose language, learn something more web-oriented like Python/Django, Ruby on Rails or (ick) PHP.
 
I always find these threads somewhat amusing. Ultimately pretty much every single major language gets suggested at some point. I wonder if the OPs actually leave with any useful information.
 
I always find these threads somewhat amusing. Ultimately pretty much every single major language gets suggested at some point. I wonder if the OPs actually leave with any useful information.
As with any other question in these forums, there's really no reward for answering. The OP doesn't come back, we don't know how they do, they don't give valid feedback about how their chosen path worked for them.

Most of the "wanna program!" threads are just whims by the OP, which die off when the poster discovers some other more immediate distraction and discards the long-term benefit of following up on their own promise.

I hope I don't sound bitter--at least, not more cynical than your own question--but the problem is that I'm drowning in work, and I need to hire help. It's very difficult to find guys who really know what they're doing, and the lack of persistence is one of the major reasons why.
 
As with any other question in these forums, there's really no reward for answering. The OP doesn't come back, we don't know how they do, they don't give valid feedback about how their chosen path worked for them.

Most of the "wanna program!" threads are just whims by the OP, which die off when the poster discovers some other more immediate distraction and discards the long-term benefit of following up on their own promise.

I hope I don't sound bitter--at least, not more cynical than your own question--but the problem is that I'm drowning in work, and I need to hire help. It's very difficult to find guys who really know what they're doing, and the lack of persistence is one of the major reasons why.

If you don't mind me asking, what is your area of specialty at valve?
 
Getting to know a language is one thing, basics will carry over from one to another easier than you think. If you are not a CS student and don't have formal training background, I think you could still learn quite a bit from non-language specific study.

I think a book like Clean Code was a big help in teaching me how to think about how to make my code not only readable and testable, but also how to make it maintainable. The concepts will carry over into any language you decide to try, be it Python, Java or C#. I read the Passionate Programmer and one of the suggestions in the book, was to try something like Smalltalk. Now after going through a couple of Smalltalk books and playing with the VM environment of Smalltalk, I wish I could use it everyday for my field. But it does reinforce what I think are some good habits.

That's just my opinion, I'm not a pro by any means. If you want to look at Python, I think Pyhon 3 for Absolute Beginners did a pretty good job of not only an introduction to Python, but also stressed how to document and design the process.
 
PHP is fairly easy to learn, but it's terribly designed and really the language is a complete mess. It's not coherent or consistent, and that makes it rather annoying to use for experienced programmers, and may teach you bad habits. I'd personally recommend that you stay away from it until you've got some experience in another language, so that you can learn quickly to avoid PHP at all costs ;). Not to be too harsh; it's good for quick and simple scripts, but I'd never want to use it for any large project.

You can use most any language for web development if that's what you're interested in. PHP is the quick and dirty route, it's easy to get into but rather a mess. I would focus on learning the basics first, and once you have solid foundational skills in a general purpose language, learn something more web-oriented like Python/Django, Ruby on Rails or (ick) PHP.
Honestly, PHP isn't a bad language. While true, it does allow for some abominations, it is equally capable of good code.

All comes down to the coder. Now, as a first language I'll agree; php probably isn't the best choice.
 
Even good code in PHP isn't as good as average code in other languages, though. PHP's lack of structure, flimsy typing, and dynamic attributes make it a pretty miserable choice for beginners.

If you don't mind me asking, what is your area of specialty at valve?
I'm a software engineer on Steam.

I also hope it's clear that I'm not picking on Drunken_King directly; I'm referring to most thread posters in this area of the forum, in general.
 
Honestly, PHP isn't a bad language. While true, it does allow for some abominations, it is equally capable of good code.

I'd say the same of perl. I still wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
 
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