Best language to begin with?
 

As many ppl of Programming forum already has noticed, I'm newbie to that, but want to learn it desperately.
I want to learn some language based and working as C, so tell me, wich one of these choises is most recommended for n0ob?

:Pengy: <- phear tha confused pengyh!

EDIT: Define "other"! Tell about that. Except for MS QBasic, they are all I know for the moment.

Shell script is the best thing to see at first... Then try:

1) tcl
2) python
3) Perl
4) c
5) C++/Java
6) Lisp

(i don't know ruby, so I don't list it)

Just for fun, after all:

1) pascal
2) basic
3) elastic
4) euphoria

HTH,

vfs

I suggest starting with HTML, this isn't a programming language, but should get you used to working to a syntax. Then if you want C like syntax I suggest trying Java. http://www.javasoft.com/tutorial/ is a good place to start.

C++ of course :}

No offense to lovers of any other languages meant.

but as as soon as a project grows OO is the way to go
and C++ just does that great without being slow (*runs
in panic from aggitated Java coders) ... besides that
it's just better style than plain old C ;} ...

Well, in my opinion, C++ is just improved version of C, right?

So those skills learned with C apply to C++ as well, am I right again?

Well, I'm just newbie... :(

Starting with an easy scripting language first like PHP/Perl might be a good idea, and then moving on to c++ and the like

i asked this question before, and there were as many different answers as respondents, with people suggesting perl and python and java and c and c++, i even had one amusing guy recommend i start with fortran and cobol!

Somebody said though that i should start with BASIC, since it really is basic, and then quickly move on to C, and then hastily to C++, they said i should not stick with one language long enough to pick up any bad habits from it, and when i mastered one i should learn another, until i was happy i had learnt enough of each one that i wanted to learn.

Of course i haven't had time to try out this advice yet, but i thought i'd just say, y'know...

Is there actually any BASIC programs for Linux?
Going to do search now with google however.

BASIC programming is not quite powerful, I have noticed that, but it's plain fun. :)

i don't see why there shouldn't be, except of course that basic is a bit crap.

unlike visualbasic, basic is not a micro$oft proprietary language, as i found out in these very forums (i think from acid kewpie), so there isn't a legal/licence reason why it does not exist for linux...

Well my opinion is to learn either C or C++, Me I chose C++.

A lot of people here are telling you to learn some easier languages first, to give you some background before diving into anything as big as C or C++, and that is a valid point.

The point I want to make is that you can also learn just as much if you go straight to C++ or C, even if you never learnerd a different language before. It all depends on how dedicated you are to learning the lanuage. Also how fast a learner you are does have an effect as well.

Me I learned C++ pretty easily, even though I never took any other languages before it, but the fact that I took it as a course in University, might explain that.

I see form other posts that you chose C as the language to go with, so I recommend to buy a book on it, or read some of the stuff online about it. Most importantly Do as much practice as you can. Best way to learn is just to make as many programs as you can.

Also it might be a good idea after learning some of the basics of C, and you think that you know a good deal about it, to join one of the projecs at www.sourceforge.net. That is a good idea if you have no idea of a project to make for yourself. To see what help projects need goto sourceforge:

Project Help Wanted > Development

Then go through the list, and see which project you like that has to do with C.

Just my $ .02

P.S. In no way am I diching other languages by saying to choose C or C++. Don't want to start a "Which language is best? war ;)

Where 2 start eh?
I am a big java fan, as it is portable and it has it's own GUI api built in not to mention that the language is truley elegent. I will warn that with java (and C or C++) there is a bit of a learning curve however once you get over that hump it is well worth it. Another reasson for learing java is that it makes you program with objects where C is strictly procedural and C++ can go either way (which can be confusing to the beginner). Besides once you become familiar with polymorphism you will never want to go back to that proceedural stuff. People are gonna try andd tell you that java is slow but keep in mind that is what assembly programmers said when C first came out.

hope this helps,
cludwin

i think C. For a beginner it will be a steep learning curve, but once you get it, you'll have a much easier time learning others.

My vote goes to Java. It is a little tough in the start, but once you get over the hump and understand the concept of OOP your worth as a developer will be worth the extra learning time. Java being able to run on any operating system with a JVM is also very nice. You can code on any platform and run in on any without worry of OS dependent code. I do this often at work. I develop on a Windows 2000 box and deploy to Solaris servers.

LISP isn't too hard to get to grips with if you fancy something a bit different, although it isn't widely used these days.

Well, i think scripting would be a good start too, but I selected C.
You learn a lot about how things are done in the Computer using C, since it is quite lowlevel. I wouldn't use Java, because it's object oriented. And it is good if you have a solid background of procedural programming before you get into object oriented programming.