Langauge selection for a newbie

[ConcreteClam]

Hello. I'm a newbie at programming/coding (having used QBASIC and a little bit of Python before). I'm a self proclaimed geek, and I'd love to be able to write some simple UI programs, and then go on from there. What do you guys suggest I should start out with? I was thinking of Visual Basic, but I'm not sure if I have to pay for that. While I wouldn't mind buying software/books, my budget is limited to about $35 right now, and I'm stuck on 56k until I get a new cable provider. An example of something I'd like to write would be a simple audio player. Anyway, any suggestions/links/book reccomendations? All would be welcome. =)
Thanks in advance,
-CC

P.S- sorry if this isn't in the right forum, I couldn't find one for general questions. ^_^;

[sde]

hmmm .. the Java tools are free. that seems like a good place to start. since c# is very similar, it will be easy to pick up on too.

c++ is pretty difficult, but i suppose it depends on how much you want to learn it.

my main languages are PHP and c#. c# is great cuase you can program windows and web apps. unlike c++, it's managed code so it does a lot of the memory managing for you. it make it a little easier to pick up the language.

welcome to the community and good luck =)

[redhead]

In my mind, Visual basic just teaches you bad coding style. So I wouldn't go that way, I know it's easy to create GUI apps in it, but if I were to start out, and had in mind to continue application programming later on, I would chose a different language.

Like Mike suggests, Java is a good place to start, you'll get all the system librarys for all the UI stuff, so you wont have to code it from scratch. At the same time it's very similar to C++/C#/PHP so you'll get a head start at programming style, if you wish to continue your journy in that area.

Welcome to our small community here.

[ConcreteClam]

Thanks for the replies. =) I'll be downloading Java (slowly) for the next couple of days before I can mess around with it.

I'll also check out C# in the meantime...

-CC

[Belisarius]

My college is a Java school, so here's my advice for starting out in Java. Bookmark these websites:

http://java.sun.com - Sun's portal to all things Java.

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/java/index.html - Sun's Java tutorial, great place to start out in.

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/index.html - This is the API for Java 1.4.2. If you ever wonder how an object works, this is the place to look for info. All included classes are listed here.

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutor...lts/index.html - This covers just about everything not included in the API, such as flow control, primitives, loops, what have you.

[idx]

In the meantime (while downloading on a 56k. ow), keep learning python!

[safecracker]

stay away from VB untill you understand the syntax of a few languages.

python is a great language and a good place to start.

java is a good introduction to OOP so if you plan on learning C++ some day java isn't bad to help you.

nobody has mentioned Perl and they should have, Perl is a huge stepping stone to C (which then makes it a small leap to C++) Perl allows you to create quick programs that work, sometimes only 1 line but functional.

PHP/SQL all the way for web design.

[ConcreteClam]

Wow, thanks everyone.

Finally got done downloading Java, and I'll mess around with it soon. In the meantime, I've been making a text adventure game with Python =P

"Ye see ye FLASK..."
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail94.html
-CC

[Spook]

I strongly reccomend regular C as a starting point, as many modern languages inherit a lot of thier basic structual aspects from it. From there, learning Perl, C++, Java, and PHP isn't too much of a leap.

In general, I haven't tried C# or anything else .NET just because I'd like to keep my code portable, but that's just me.

Also, there's free compilers / interpreters for basically any language, a quick google search should help you find anything you'll need.

One other point : Avoid IDEs like the plague. Just figure out how to use your command-line compiler and get a decent text editor (TextPad is awesome if you're a windows person).

[safecracker]

Actually VB .net and so on are now portable just not too stable when porting. I would still avoid them as the use of goto's and so on is a bad habbit.

[GnuVince]

Scheme and Python are really good first languages.

For functional programming, check out SML and Haskell.
For object-oriented programming, check out Smalltalk (especially Squeak).
For awesome power, check out Common Lisp.

[inkedmn]

Originally posted by GnuVince
Scheme and Python are really good first languages.

For functional programming, check out SML and Haskell.
For object-oriented programming, check out Smalltalk (especially Squeak).
For awesome power, check out Common Lisp.

agreed (except for the Smalltalk thing )

[GnuVince]

Originally posted by inkedmn
agreed (except for the Smalltalk thing )

Don't under-estimate the power of Smalltalk young Jedi.

[ConcreteClam]

Wow. It's been a long time, and I haven't really done anything. Now I suddenly get an urge to try programming again...

Python was too boring for me. Java was too difficult, and I didn't really have any uses for it. So I picked C, and surprise surprise, I actually understand it. Now the problem is... I can't find a compiler that works.

I know that's a horribly newbish statement, but I just can't. I tried out Miracle C Workbench, and it would just give me errors every time I compiled something. I tried some other one (lcc, I think?) but that wouldn't let me compile at all. Could anyone reccomend a compiler/linker for me to use? It would help me out a lot. Thanks in advance.

Edit: I'm using WinXP Pro.

[sde]

check out redhead's post at the bottom of this thread: http://codenewbie.com/forum/showthre...ght=c+compiler

i think there is a gcc version for windows. others here are definately more experienced in this area than i though.