Best programming language to start with?

[PopeHat]

What, in your opinion, would be the best programming language to begin with? Now, a little background about myself. I graduated from high school in 08', failed out of college the following fall, I'm A+ and Network+ certified. I'm hoping to start college again in the fall now that I have less shit on my mind and a foot in my ass (Future wife

). What do you think would be the best starting language for someone of my caliber? I come asking you this question because I want to develop for this type of community for fun (Various exploits, homebrew, launchers etc) and hopefully help to improve upon some of the code. I'm hoping to become a contributing member to the community.

 

[Golfman560]

Well the first I learned was Python and that was pretty simple, but it depends on what you're working on. I leanred Python because I had to use it to mod a few games, but since you're working on Wii stuff I think C++ would be easy because you could start with simple programs that turn on the slot light then move up.

 

[PopeHat]

I was thinking somewhat of the same thing. I was looking through some source code to figure out what languages certain Wii apps were written in and it seemed like it was predominately C++ and ASM. Would it be a good idea to start with C and then learn C++ or just start with C++?

 

[Skyline969]

I started off with GML (if you'd consider that a programming language), then went on to Visual Basic 6, and then on to C++. C++ was probably the easiest of the three to learn, and from there most of the other languages, such as Java, look very similar.

 

[UltraMagnus]

well, it depends what you are learning.

ASM is always a good place to start, just so you have some idea of what is going on "under the hood" when using higher level languages. but ASM for modern X86 based systems is hugely complicated, so its not the greatest idea unless you like the idea of fiddling around with microcontrollers (which are a lot of fun, and quite useful in little electronics projects)

if you don't fancy that I would recommend you just learn C, from there learning languages like C++, objective C and Java are a lot easier, and those are the industry standards.

stay away from visual basic, it will just get you into bad habits.

 

[notnarb]

My college has moved away from java and has begun introducing those new to programming to python before anything else. That course is just to get people familiar with the basics like conditional programming - basics which are harder in C++ than in other languages. The saying goes "if you know one programming language, you know 80% of the rest of them" - it's probably better to get the fundamentals down in an easier language, like python

 

[ddp127]

autoit is also very easy, good language to start with if you have no previous programming experience

you can do C++ after that, i am doing the same right now.

 

[Pyrofyr]

Python or go straight into Java.


There are a few reasons for this.
1)Python is generally easy for people so they start here, however if you have more than general intelligence, go with learning straight into a SERIOUS language >:|

2)Java is the best language out there ATM, people will say that C/C++ is better, and it's more used. This can be true indeed, however it's also a bit off base, and depends on what you're doing.

3)Java is completely Object Oriented, it doesn't GIVE you the other option (LAZY WAY), you are forced to make everything an object which is GOOD PRACTICE, as it makes everything work the way it should, the progressive way. In C++ you have the option to go OO, but people opt not to because it's 'harder', however it's also 'better'.

4)Java is what most mobile phones use. Blackberry, Palm, Android, most others. iPhone doesn't use Java, however it uses Objective-C which is a cousin to C, however still not quite C.


If you're a book learner, get the book "Head First Java", you won't regret it. Your library should have it in stock, if they don't, read through the first chapter, see if it's for you, if so, buy it, if not, drop it, it's NOT for you.

IF online resources are your thing there are several.

Since you want to do it for vidya game forums though, C is what you need to know, however I still suggest learning Java, seriously.

I'm in a very similar situation to you I graduated in '08 from high school, (Well dropped out and got my GED BEFORE I would have normally graduated) started college a semester early, was doing bad (close family member died and I missed most of the semester), I'm going back in August.

I originally was taking a class on C/C++, because I missed most of it it didn't work out for me, however C/C++ is still very... easy, however it's a language where you have to fetch a lot if you don't have a reference, and fetching is NOT my style, I prefer knowing what's there (being taught, that's why I took a class) and then using what I know, logically construct things. My teacher had a 'learn to fetch' teaching style though, so we had to dig through stuff to find what we needed, with no previous indication of what we need. This is what you can eventually expect, just so you know.

What's your goal out of this though? Like besides helping the community, one doesn't just learn programming to help others, it's not enough of a drive, programming is annoyingly hard to learn for some, ridiculously easy for others, it depends on your mindset, but for most it's either drudgingly boring or ridiculously hard.

I'm personally learning Java because I plan on developing for mobile applications (Blackberry, android fill all the top 5 spots except iPhone [#2]) for last quarter's fiscal statistics. I eventually want to learn Objective-C for iPhone though.

 

[Jiggah]

What, in your opinion, would be the best programming language to begin with? Now, a little background about myself. I graduated from high school in 08', failed out of college the following fall, I'm A+ and Network+ certified. I'm hoping to start college again in the fall now that I have less shit on my mind and a foot in my ass (Future wife

). What do you think would be the best starting language for someone of my caliber? I come asking you this question because I want to develop for this type of community for fun (Various exploits, homebrew, launchers etc) and hopefully help to improve upon some of the code. I'm hoping to become a contributing member to the community.

I'd say that you should go ahead and skip right to taking an introduction to C++ class. Every introduction to programming class teaches the same material regardless of the language. You might as well be a step up from the get go and start out with a language that you'll be using later on down the road. The hardest part for any programming language is the logic, which can be applied across all languages. Once you have the logic down for programming, learning the syntax for other languages becomes much easier to understand.

My biggest tip for programming is that, if you take it, you need to make sure that you are actually interested in it. This means doing programs outside of the class requirement and have the willingness to look outside what is being taught to you.

 

[UltraMagnus]

3)Java is completely Object Oriented, it doesn't GIVE you the other option (LAZY WAY), you are forced to make everything an object which is GOOD PRACTICE, as it makes everything work the way it should, the progressive way. In C++ you have the option to go OO, but people opt not to because it's 'harder', however it's also 'better'.

normal programming is far from bad practice in non object oriented languages like real C (no bloody ++ or #) or ASM.

 

[PopeHat]

Python or go straight into Java.


There are a few reasons for this.
1)Python is generally easy for people so they start here, however if you have more than general intelligence, go with learning straight into a SERIOUS language >:|

2)Java is the best language out there ATM, people will say that C/C++ is better, and it's more used. This can be true indeed, however it's also a bit off base, and depends on what you're doing.

3)Java is completely Object Oriented, it doesn't GIVE you the other option (LAZY WAY), you are forced to make everything an object which is GOOD PRACTICE, as it makes everything work the way it should, the progressive way. In C++ you have the option to go OO, but people opt not to because it's 'harder', however it's also 'better'.

4)Java is what most mobile phones use. Blackberry, Palm, Android, most others. iPhone doesn't use Java, however it uses Objective-C which is a cousin to C, however still not quite C.


If you're a book learner, get the book "Head First Java", you won't regret it. Your library should have it in stock, if they don't, read through the first chapter, see if it's for you, if so, buy it, if not, drop it, it's NOT for you.

IF online resources are your thing there are several.

Since you want to do it for vidya game forums though, C is what you need to know, however I still suggest learning Java, seriously.

I'm in a very similar situation to you I graduated in '08 from high school, (Well dropped out and got my GED BEFORE I would have normally graduated) started college a semester early, was doing bad (close family member died and I missed most of the semester), I'm going back in August.

I originally was taking a class on C/C++, because I missed most of it it didn't work out for me, however C/C++ is still very... easy, however it's a language where you have to fetch a lot if you don't have a reference, and fetching is NOT my style, I prefer knowing what's there (being taught, that's why I took a class) and then using what I know, logically construct things. My teacher had a 'learn to fetch' teaching style though, so we had to dig through stuff to find what we needed, with no previous indication of what we need. This is what you can eventually expect, just so you know.

What's your goal out of this though? Like besides helping the community, one doesn't just learn programming to help others, it's not enough of a drive, programming is annoyingly hard to learn for some, ridiculously easy for others, it depends on your mindset, but for most it's either drudgingly boring or ridiculously hard.

I'm personally learning Java because I plan on developing for mobile applications (Blackberry, android fill all the top 5 spots except iPhone [#2]) for last quarter's fiscal statistics. I eventually want to learn Objective-C for iPhone though.

My goal is, as of right now, to just learn how to develop for various systems and in the long run (after college) turn it into a career somehow. I'm not really interested in the career part as of right now, I just want to be able to program for, for instance, the Wii which is why I'm somewhat skeptical about starting with Java. I want to be able to interact with the hardware better and not be limited to hardware that can run Java. I actually have a Java book in my possession right now that I've been skimming through. (A friend of mine just finished his first year at RIT and let me borrow it.)

 

[dawn.wan]

This one!!!!!

Then ASM

When i was young..way back in the day I started on QBasic, then Touring then ASM... oh i remember those compuserv days....@_@

 

[MicShadow]

Really should start off in a C-style language, such as java, C/C++, python or something like that. Once you learn them, its pretty easy to move to whatever language you want