Which language should I learn first? - Developers

So... I want to get into programming. Which language should I learn first? I want to learn something useful, and not to difficult. I have alot of spare time, and I found my old Q6600 PDA so I thought I would learn a language in my spare time with maybe a E-Book? Got any suggestions to which language I should learn/ebooks/tutorials?

[QUOTE=doonbugie2;24853012]So... I want to get into programming. Which language should I learn first? I want to learn something useful, and not to difficult. I have alot of spare time, and I found my old Q6600 PDA so I thought I would learn a language in my spare time with maybe a E-Book? Got any suggestions to which language I should learn/ebooks/tutorials?[/QUOTE] Really easy and useful: Python Moderately hard but very useful: C++

Hmm, I read up on Python. It sounds interesting, I might learn it. /downloads some Ebooks.

Seconding python.

I'd suggest Lua if you're absolutely new to programming, just to slide into programming.

Lua doesn't really interest me, I don't want to be restricted to gmod or mta. [editline]07:51PM[/editline] Anyways, Does anybody have any suggestions before I order a book on Python?

Lua isn't restricted to GMod, but if you don't want to use it that's fine. [url="http://diveintopython.org/"]Dive Into Python[/url] seems good, I never dwelled into it too much though.

English. Learning how to communicate properly within a team and having a positive attitude is what will get you further as a programmer. (You seem to have both but I felt like mentioning it for everyone). Then pick up C# for ease of use and easy learning curve coupled with a powerful object oriented language with a massive community backed by constant development of the .NET Framework.

What do you want to program exactly?

[QUOTE=VeryNiceGuy;24853587]I'd suggest Lua if you're absolutely new to programming, just to slide into programming.[/QUOTE] Lua is a really weird language. It's bad or anything, it's just unusual. I'm not sure if I'd recommend it to someone with no prior programming experience. [QUOTE=gparent;24853969]Learning how to communicate properly within a team and having a positive attitude is what will get you further as a programmer.[/QUOTE] You sound like human resources. [QUOTE=gparent;24853969]Then pick up C# for ease of use and easy learning curve coupled with a powerful object oriented language with a massive community backed by constant development of the .NET Framework.[/QUOTE] :rolleyes:

Thinking of going with C++.

[QUOTE=doonbugie2;24854780]Thinking of going with C++.[/QUOTE] Go for it. It's pretty much the standard in game development these days.

[QUOTE=ROBO_DONUT;24854351]You sound like human resources.[/QUOTE] Doesn't matter how it's written, it's true. And the concept of a team can extend to being helped on the internet. [QUOTE=ROBO_DONUT;24854351]:rolleyes:[/QUOTE] What?

[QUOTE=gparent;24854875]Doesn't matter how it's written, it's true. And the concept of a team can extend to being helped on the internet.[/QUOTE] "Positive attitude" [QUOTE=gparent;24854875]What?[/QUOTE] It sounded very "buzzword-laden, probably-fictional quote from the back of product box"

[QUOTE=ROBO_DONUT;24855080]"Positive attitude". It sounded very "random buzzword-laden, probably-fictional quote from the back of product box"[/QUOTE] Do you actually have anything to say about the content of my posts or is it just that they're not written up to your standards? EDIT: Yeah, the only wrong part about that is "fictional" and "box". But it's not a quote.

[QUOTE=gparent;24855144]Do you actually have anything to say about the content of my posts or is it just that they're not written up to your standards?[/QUOTE] It sounds like generic "career development" rhetoric. I'm not big on the whole "you better fake a positive attitude or you'll never get a job" thing.

[QUOTE=ROBO_DONUT;24855222]It sounds like generic "career development" rhetoric. I'm not big on the whole "you better fake a positive attitude or you'll never get a job" thing.[/QUOTE] The ones who don't fake it I see are the best here. When someone is closed to himself his productivity goes way down and it really shows at the meetings.

[QUOTE=gparent;24855255]The ones who don't fake it I see are the best here. When someone is closed to himself his productivity goes way down and it really shows at the meetings.[/QUOTE] Whatever you say, boss. I'm heading back to my cubicle to start on that excel spreadsheet breakdown of how many hours the team spent making spreadsheets about how better to utilize our time. Are we still up for the teamwork seminar at 5:30?

[QUOTE=ROBO_DONUT;24855297]Whatever you say, boss. I'm heading back to my cubicle to start on that excel spreadsheet breakdown of how many hours the team spent making spreadsheets about how better to utilize our time. Are we still up for the teamwork seminar at 5:30?[/QUOTE] Whatever, if you want to act like I'm some sort of idiot instead of trying to understand what I say, it's your choice. EDIT: The kind of stuff I'm talking about doesn't require excel spreadsheets, the marketing team presenting new buzzwords or having silly peaceful discussions to solve our issues. It's just talking to other people, asking questions, sharing knowledge, keeping yourself updated on what others are doing. It's the basics. And yes, people who can't do that usually are less productive than the others (and you don't need any kind of stupid chart to see this) , no matter how 'smart' they say they are.

[QUOTE=doonbugie2;24853720]Lua doesn't really interest me, I don't want to be restricted to gmod or mta. [/QUOTE] Lua is a programming language exactly like Python. You get a stand-alone interpreter, standard library, REPL program, the full package. [QUOTE=ROBO_DONUT;24854351]Lua is a really weird language. It's bad or anything, it's just unusual.[/QUOTE] ... honestly? There's hardly anything fancy about it. It's just very small - the mixed-paradigm equivalent of Scheme. It's easy to learn if you come from say, JavaScript or any other ECMAScript dialect.

Dutch or Russian.

[QUOTE=rabbid666;24858868]Dutch or Russian.[/QUOTE] I think you missed the Hardware and Software > Programming

[QUOTE=esalaka;24858957]I think you missed the Hardware and Software > Programming[/QUOTE] Or it was an attempt at funnies. :rolleyes: I'd go with Python, by the way.

[QUOTE=ROBO_DONUT;24855222]It sounds like generic "career development" rhetoric. I'm not big on the whole "you better fake a positive attitude or you'll never get a job" thing.[/QUOTE] He's right though, so stop acting like an idiot.

[QUOTE=Plastical;24889034]He's right though, so stop acting like an idiot.[/QUOTE] He's only right because people buy into this crap. It turns the industry into a hivemind.

[QUOTE=ROBO_DONUT;24889525]He's only right because people buy into this crap. It turns the industry into a hivemind.[/QUOTE] Normal people work the way he described. Communication is everything, we're basically pack animals. What are raptors without their bros?

To be honest, It doesn't matter much on what your first "programming" language is. They all server the same purpose.. Some come with this functionality.. others with this.. It pretty much depends on what your initial thoughts are about and what you want to do. If you're better with thinking about stuff as objects, go with an object oriented language like C#, Java (or C++). If you prefer to follow a simple top-to-bottom structure go with procedural languages like c or pascal. If you like to mix those ideas, use C++, Delphi/Object-Pascal, objective C.. It also depends on the platform you want to target. Some default SDK's come with a variety of libraries that allow more or less common and specialized tasks. There are quite a lot of languages that you can start with. You can even check different paradigms of programming.. [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperative_programming[/url] (you describe how stuff works based on it's state) [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_programming[/url] (you describe how stuff works based on changing functions (more mathematical)) [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_programming[/url] (you describe how the results looks like for given input) You pretty much want to start with classic imperative languages (common ones listed above) as those are pretty easy to follow. Once you undestood the basics of those, maybe take a look at a logical language like Prolog (if you understand this, maybe consider studying computer science.. this is the real stuff :P) You can do stuff in Prolog with 3-4 lines where you need hundreds of lines in classic imperative languages like C++ or Java. (Like a pathfinder, or equation solver)

[QUOTE=Jawalt;24890406]Normal people work the way he described. Communication is everything, we're basically pack animals. What are raptors without their bros?[/QUOTE] I didn't say anything to contradict that point. Communication is absolutely essential to everything we do. What I have a huge problem with is the way people think they can enforce an attitude. Being 'positive' doesn't help anyone. Contentment breeds stagnation. You can only better yourself, society, or your product/software if you look at things in the most critical light. Every effort of a team should be focused on solving the problem at hand. Not this tangential, political "how effective is the team" crap. It's a total waste. I think that if people focused on only learning practical skills, teamwork would follow. If people share a large base of knowledge, communication becomes far easier. I don't know if you've ever looked at the breakdown of how resources are allocated in a large business, but most of it goes to people who push papers around and don't directly contribute anything to making the product itself better. They spend craptons trying to make optimisations but in the end it costs more than they save. This is why a tiny group of knowledgeable enthusiasts can write software that rivals a product that some huge company spent many billions on.

Stagnation isn't a bad thing, most people hate change. I don't know about you but I've got an internal schedule,for everything. From my school day to exactly what I do every morning when I wake up. I'm most productive when all of these go undisturbed, and I mesh well with other people. When working with other people you've got to be positive and stay off other people's toes. I've never really worked with more than 1-2 people on a project involving programming before, but people are people and I don't imagine team work changes much from goal to goal.

Hmm, I have narrowed it down to... PHP ( Yes I know its... ) C++ Python I have found some books I could use to learn them with... [editline]08:42PM[/editline] Not sure which one I should learn first.