i want to learn a language but i dont which to chose i wanted to learn BASIC but it went haywire as their is no standed. i want to be able to make games and be useful to know for jobs etc

Well, if you want to make games you should probably learn c/c++, but you could also learn Java (hmm..., not a personal favorite).

If you want something easy try to start with TCL and then advance with TK to make it graphical. Other useful script languages are Perl and Python.

For jobs I would certainly recommend C/C++ although they are not the easiest to begin your programming with.

If you like making webpages you can always learn PHP, I didn't find it too hard to learn when I was new to programming.

My tips would be to start with something easy just to get the hang of programming and then you can advance to more complicated and powerful languages. Once you learn the basics you will see that most languages share a common form.

Good luck and happy coding.

If you consider non-Linux programming as an option..

Visual Basic is also in good demand..and pretty easy to learn, yet powerful.

how hard is java to learn?

If you've never programmed before, consider installing Python and try to find a good tutorial. Python is a lot like BASIC in a way- it's like what BASIC would have been if it was written thirty years later. You can do quite a bit with it and the documentation is excellent.

Like others have said, if you really want to get into heavy-duty programming (especially with Linux/UNIX) then C++ is the way to go. I certainly would not recommend it for a first language (or to learn by oneself) unless someone is an engineer or scientist as there's a lot going on.

It would also be useful to get an overview of what languages really are and what they offer as there are many categories and different types. For example, one reason people are recommending starting with languages like Python is because they're interpreted and have shell environments. That means you can type in one statement at a time, or a group of statements, and see the results right away. It's a great learning tool.