omgitskyle

Hello guys, I'm Kyle. I was surfing the net looking for some programming forums to join and stumbled upon this one. I saw cooperation, helpfulness, and best of all noob-friendliness. Those are the reason why I made up my mind and decided to join this forum. I hope I don't regret joining later on and when I become more experienced in a language help people like most of the users I've seen do. Well here's the thing, I'm fairly new to all this programming thing. I've learned most of the things I know from flipping through books, glancing at webpages, and from friends. I really want to learn how to program,but now I'm facing an obstacle: There are several different languages to learn, and I don't know which one I should begin with. Since you guys know a lot of this (judging from what I've seen)I believe you can help me with this. So which one should I learn?
I'd like one that's as user-friendly as it is powerful. So could you please give me a hand on this? I love programming with a passion, so I know I'll really get committed to it and won't just drop the book as soon as I open it.

Thanks in advance,
Kyle

lectricpharaoh

A big factor in your language choice is what platform (target operating system and hardware) you want to write code for. If you want to write programs for Windows-based machines (including Windows Mobile PDAs and smartphones), my recommendation would be C#. It's fairly easy to learn, offers a good bit of power, and it's very flexible. It's certainly the language I use most of the time. If you want to target non-Windows systems, you'd probably be better off with C++ or Python (I've never used Python, but word is it's good for beginners).

Perhaps you can tell us a bit more about what system(s) you want to develop for, and the kinds of programs you're looking to start off with. Then we can be more specific.

[edit] Oh, I forgot to mention that you can download the Express Editions of various Visual Studio tools free from Microsoft. Here's a link, and down at the bottom of the page is a link to download an ISO image for burning to DVD. [/edit]

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And once again, Probability proves itself willing to sneak into a back alley and service Drama as would a copper-piece harlot.
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omgitskyle

Thanks a lot for the reply. Now about the platform, I'd say Windows because that's the one I'm more familiar with, but I'd also like to expand my boundaries and not just develop Windows programs ( I have a laptop with Linux installed and a Mac). You gave me C++ and Python as options, I think I'll choose C++ because it's better known than Python IMO ,therefore I can get more advices and resources on that matter. Also, could you give me your opinion about C? Shouldn't I learn that one first THEN C++? I would appreciate an answer.

Thanks in advance,
Kyle

lectricpharaoh

Well, I still recommend C#. On Windows, building GUI apps tends to be easier than using C or C++, as you need a stronger command of the language to do it in C/C++. Also, you'll need to use a third-party library for this, unless you want to do it all with the raw Win32 API (not recommended for a beginner). Some of the GUI libraries are cross-platform, meaning you can compile the same program for multiple platforms with little or no changes needed, but there are similar libraries for C#. Even though C# is most commonly associated with Windows, the language itself is standardized and available for multiple platforms. Some of the class libraries aren't, but then you're just in the same position as when porting C/C++ code, not necessarily in a worse one.
Actually, no. Good C programming techniques often make for bad C++ techniques. In addition, C++ has several facilities (either as part of the language itself, or in its standard libraries) that allow you to avoid common issues with C. An example would be string handling; in C, a string is a sequence of characters terminated with a zero, whereas C++ has a rich string class that handles actual allocation of the memory needed for the string behind the scenes.

__________________
And once again, Probability proves itself willing to sneak into a back alley and service Drama as would a copper-piece harlot.
- Vaarsuvius, Order of the Stick

BstrucT

You can't go wrong with C#, if you want C++ for its OOP features, C# boasts alot of them as well.

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"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

rhish.franks

I would suggest you should go first with 'C' as i have said this already many times and saying to you once again "If you know C language throughly you can learn any language in the world". Try to learn C first which wont take you much of a time and also learn all data structure techniques and data structures available with C which will help you through any language. That is if your data structures language is good you cant get struck for implementation of any logic or any algo on any language. Try to do lots of data structure programms with moderate and high level difficulties.

omgitskyle

Thank guys for the advices. You've given me 2 options: C and C#. C, because if you learn it you'll learn every language in the world,but like lectric said it can create some conflict because the strings are different. C# is powerful and easy to learn, thus making it a tempting choice, however it's not as compatible as other languages,so I'll have to think it through, stop being lazy, and do some research by myself.

Thanks again,
Kyle

P.S: If you guys know any book or online tutorial than can get me started with
either language, please post them.