First Programming Language

[Senior_Buckethead]

Hi all

For a complete beginner to programming, what would be the best language to start out with? Remember: no experience.

[Brimwylf]

Your question depends a lot on what you plan on doing with the acquired knowledge.
If it's for fun, anything works.
If you plan on doing software development, the platform is really important. If you want portability, I'd suggest C/C++ combined with a portable GUI library like wxWidgets or even GTK. dotNET stuff, Java and C# might be worth having a look at too.
Maybe you want to develop games. That beeing the case, DirectX and OpenGL might be worth a shot (or one of the newer 3D libraries).
Maybe you want to do phone/tablet apps, you got official SDKs for this one. Google SDK uses Java, not sure about Apple's iOS, I think Objective-C?!
If you want web programming and/or scripting, you may want to start off with HTML5 + Javascript + CSS3, and then learn some PHP.

[dgoosens]

Your question depends a lot on what you plan on doing with the acquired knowledge.
If it's for fun, anything works.
If you plan on doing software development, the platform is really important. If you want portability, I'd suggest C/C++ combined with a portable GUI library like wxWidgets or even GTK.
.NET stuff, Java and C# might be worth having a look at too.
If you want web programming and/or scripting, you may want to start off with HTML5 + Javascript + CSS3, and then learn some PHP.

as Brimwylf said...

And, this is not correct...
Linux assumes you know everything.

You should say, Linux assumes you are willing to learn everything.

[The Cog]

This question gets asked almost every day in the programming forum. Here is the sticky thread at the top of that forum:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1766253

[gefalu2008]

I have used LiveCode by RunRev for various programming needs over the years. It is available for Linux, Windows & Macs and nowadays supports mobile platforms as well.

The main advantage of the platform is that you can accomplish things by using English-like expressions.

You can try the platform for free for 30 days. The full cost of the platform seems to be $99.

Have a look at

http://www.runrev.com/

especially if you are a complete beginner and have no specific ambitions.

[alexfish]

Hi all

This one is at an early stage of development , may be worth a peek.

http://www.basic-converter.org/

http://basic-converter.proboards.com/index.cgi

alexfish

[forrestcupp]

If you were using Windows, I'd say Visual Basic. You can pretty much get instant gratification with that, which will hold you over until you're ready to move on.

[stalkingwolf]

i agree it very much depends on what you want to do. I have a relative that is a retired math and science teacher. He used GWBASIC for years, still does. It does what he needs it to do. He is not at this point interested in web design or graphics.

I recently purchased a new laptop for him (his old computer left this world,it had a whopping 6 gb hdd of which with 98 and all his games and q basic, gw basic 1.7 gb was used.) and set it up with all the goodies he wanted. in the process i was drug kicking and screaming i might add into the gwbasic world.

GW runs well in dosbox with a couple key changes. the major being ctrl+scroll lock to end a running program instead of ctrl break.

[mips]

Coming from a engineering background I would say Assembly language. Know the hardware architecture and play around. Assembly is really not suitably for writing desktop apps though.

It's the only language that I enjoy but it's really suited to low level stuff. I've done 6502, 680x0, 8086, 8052, PIC.

I think I need a new project after years of absence ;)

[rai4shu2]

... I've done 6502, 680x0, 8086, 8052, PIC.

I think I need a new project after years of absence ;)

Try PowerPC. That's a really sweet CPU to code for. Another old favorite of mine is Z80.

[Brimwylf]

Another old favorite of mine is Z80.
It fueled my first ever computer, and doing ASM for it was the first programming language I ever learned. I still have 3 machines (Speccy clones) and I fire up ZEUS from time to time :D

Actually, if he wants to code for fun, ASM would be a great thing to play with (I'd go for more modern things like ARM assembly though).

[mips]

Try PowerPC. That's a really sweet CPU to code for. Another old favorite of mine is Z80.

I would like to get my hands on a PPC & MIPS box at some stage ;)

[alexfish]

Try PowerPC. That's a really sweet CPU to code for. Another old favorite of mine is Z80.

there are still a few of these about : http://www.tatungeinstein.co.uk/front/software.htm
http://www.tatungeinstein.co.uk/images/hitch.jpg