best language to get started on real programming?

[Linnet]

I'd consider starting with Python. It's free, a nice platform for some basic object oriented work, and shouldn't be too hard for you to get it doing something useful pretty fast.

I really like it.

 

[Blue_Atom]

A 'proper' language -> C or Java
A 'look at this windows app I knocked up in 5 minutes - wow' language -> VB
A 'look at my dynamic web page' language - perl, although I've heard good things about python.

Horses for courses basically. C teaches about interesting things like memory allocation and pointers but Java is a good OO language which is all the rage at the moment. I'd go for C and then when you've mastered linked lists, go for Java. It could be a bit of a slog unless you find a decent tutorial. I found Perl hard to get into (coming from a C background) but then I found a good book and was well away.

 

[Honza]

C(++) imho... C is basic of everything in computers

 

[Cyfr]

PASCAL! \:d/

 

[Chilly]

be a man, learn fortran!

I use it at uni, but thats cos im a filthy physics student who cant be arsed to write his own data type for complex numbers

 

[Danya]

Fortran blows goats, you physicists are lunatics for still sticking with it.

 

[Chilly]

~burns danya at steak~

 

[Wij]

Assembler

 

[Danya]

~burns danya at steak~

You mean stake? Or are you going to strap me to a hunk of raw meat...

 

[Chilly]

was planning to burn you at the steak then eat it afterwards - obviously I would wrap it in tinfoil first so as not to be contaminated with heretic juice.

 

[Milkshake]

Personally, I feel Java is the best language to learn first. There's pros and cons to all languages, but I feel that Java tells you what you've done wrong far better than C or C++.

It can be quite frustrating if coding in C, and it won't tell you the problem, whereas Java you can work out what you've done wrong first or second time through.

That's my opinion though. (Compared out of C, C++, Java, Pascal, Delphi)

 

[Honza]

Personally, I feel Java is the best language to learn first. There's pros and cons to all languages, but I feel that Java tells you what you've done wrong far better than C or C++.

It can be quite frustrating if coding in C, and it won't tell you the problem, whereas Java you can work out what you've done wrong first or second time through.

That's my opinion though. (Compared out of C, C++, Java, Pascal, Delphi)

Java telling you what's done wrong better than C? How? Where? (Did I miss something? )
I feel starting with Java is very very bad idea for people serious with coding - yes, it's a bit easier than C or Delphi, but teaches you to be uber pig in resources consumption. This way next generation of coders will make Notepad consuming 4GB RAM (exagerating a bit yes, but not much). The best coders are those who started with 8bit computers and a tiny tiny RAM... Guess why ;-)

 

[Wij]

C for PCs.

Assembler for mainframes.

skillz !

 

[xane]

I would advise C++ or Java; the structure of the two languages is almost identitical and you can use basic object orientated methods on either one, to be honest I don't think there is much between them.

C++ is available as standard on any platform, as much as C was a few years back. No-one uses neat C any more simply because nearly all C++ compilers are compatible with it and can produce C object code easily, there is no reason to use the additional power of C++.

Java, whilst not as immediately available, does have the added bonus of better "packaging" for larger scale projects, most of which is being adopted in the industry, especially for .net, etc.

Java integration with X-Windows is impressive, you can produce code easily on a non-GUI based OS, this is essential for much more powerful GUI applications that need to be cross-platform.

Also note that even if you do get into script based languages like perl you'll end up writing code snippets in C, C++ or Java to get round the difficult bits

 

[Danya]

Java, whilst not as immediately available, does have the added bonus of better "packaging" for larger scale projects, most of which is being adopted in the industry, especially for .net, etc.

Eh? .Net is not at all Java. MS hates Java - if you want .net you have to go with C# or C++ basically.

I'd suggest C++ is being much more suitable for large projects than Java. Java and the like have scalability issues to say the least.