So I want to learn programming...now what?

[ssam]

i'd recommend learning python. but if you want an easy route into GUI programming you could try gambas (sort of like visual basic).

[3rdalbum]

Buy an old old Mac and it should have Hypercard installed on it

(I wish there was something like Hypercard for Linux...)

But seriously, I recommend Python. The MacPython IDE did all the tabbing for you (every time you pressed return, the new line would have the same number of tabs as the previous line, plus one if it ended in a colon) so if you find an Integrated Development Environment with the same functionality, that would be excellent. gEdit has Python code colouring.

With Python it's possible/easy to get the programs running on all three major platforms without changing the code. Tkinter, the GUI toolkit that comes with it, is pretty easy to use as well for beginners.

Unfortunately, to create interfaces in Python you still need to write code.

I recommend giving Java a wide berth, especially if you want the programs to run on OS X without opening huge security holes