Thinking of taking up programming - Any suggestions?

The advantage of going for C is that it is much more independent than C# or C++. It depends really what your end goal is, what sort of things you see yourself wanting to mess with, and on what platform.
 
I'd suggest Python myself, high level language that covers a hell of a lot of stuff and has lots of free resources to use.
 
Dark_Angel said:
So yeah, basically it's for fun / something to learn. Can people recommend a good language to start with, perhaps a few starting points?
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It really depends on what kind of programs you want to write! If you want to get into web programming, then PHP may be your best option, but if you want to get into desktop programming and have no interest in the web at all, I can't imagine PHP being very interesting to you.

I'd probably recommend C# as a good starting language. You can download Visual Studio Express Web or C# edition free from Microsoft, and it's really useful IMO to have a good development environment when you're learning - helps no end with debugging anyway! :)

Regardless of what you choose, there are thousands of tutorials out there for almost any programming language you can think of - enjoy learning :)
 
bah bit old but i started with VB.net and it took me forever to get over the basics as i was kinda overwhelmed by the whole framework. You don't have to learn proper practices and end up making life hard fro yourself. I would go with C.

With C you have the bonus of moving on to any C like languages like Java, C#, C++, PHP Actionscript etc with the ease of knowing the basic syntax and how it actually works.

You also won't have to worry about OO and just make some simple apps. Then once you can do all the basics and kind of get whats going on move on to a C like language to get the benefits of 20 odd years of language development

Or you could have a look at Small Basic, its aimed at total beginners and seems kinda simple - maybe a little too simple tho :p
 
Java gets my vote, its a strictly typed language which will stop you picking up bad habits, and its easier to move from java to C++ than the other way round. However java can be a little harder to pick up then C++, but hey it's easier than haskell or pascal.

You also have the added benefit that in Java you do not need to worry about memory management, its all taking care of automatically, this has its downsides, but its nothing a beginner would particularly need to worry about.

Objective-C is another good language to learn but you really need a Mac to run the Xcode IDE.
 
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