Programming for beginners
 

Hi

I am interested in learning a programming language. I have dabbled in a bit of website coding over the years and would like to take the skill to the next level. The problem I am facing is that there are so many to choose from. (Python etc...) With that I decided to start with C (programming language) as it is one of the oldest programming languages.

I would like to know from the community if this option is safe or would I be wasting my time on this language. I would also like to know what other option I have as a beginner. I could Google the question but I would prefer real answers from a reliable community :)

Thank you
m

there is no good answer at all. It highly depends on your plans, interest and your actual knowledge. C is good and still usable. perl/python/awk/java/c++/php/ruby/shell/whatever are also "available", among a lot of other languages.

C is very useful. It may be a bit harder as a language to teach yourself, but there is no shortage of things that use C. Mainly it is operating systems and networking that use C, and for those it is a very good choice. The languages tend to be used in particular activities.

So, what are you interested in doing? Tell us that, and we can give some suggestions about which language or languages to focus on.

Hi

Thank you for your feedback. I am highly interested in network security and would like to tackle the CompTIA Security+

When reading books on security and ethical hacking they suggest I learn a programming language and that C would be a good place to start.

Hi "smallpond"

Are you suggesting Python would be a recommendation?

Go is easy to pick up

Ok. C is good for building the networking components. But If you're looking at working with existing tools then Perl, Awk, Lua, and maybe Python can be useful.

However, how useful those languages are for certification is another question. In order to answer that question, you'd have to survey the training materials and sample tests and see which material is there. My impression is that certifications are mostly an end in themselves and not much use beyond that.

Thank you everybody for your valuable feedback.

If you want to develope Linux tools I'd go with Python and C.. If you want to be a web developer learn HTML,CSS,PHP (or Ruby), Javascript, and SQL..

I am a programmer. I HIGHLY recommend learning Python first.