Easiest code language to start with?

[TaurenNinja]

Javascript is, broadly speaking, (being) phased out in favor of PHP as I recall, but I haven't used it in years.

PHP and Javascript are two entirely different things. Javascript typically runs on the client side (mostly in your web browser), PHP on server side (i.e. the web server), although NodeJS has become quite popular which allows you to run Javascript anywhere including on the server or outside of the web browser. But that's not what it was originally made for.

Anyway, there is no "right" answer here.

Java can be a good start because it's used a lot, its C-like syntax is used by a lot of other languages as well, and it's easier than C/C++. C# can also be used.

But it can also make a ton of sense to start with things like Python or Ruby because their syntax is a lot cleaner and you can read and write code much quicker and with fewer hassles, which also helps a beginner a lot.

C/C++ are also very important languages that allow close to the metal programming which is important in e.g. game engine programming, OS/driver programming or embedded systems programming. So it can be very important when you want to go that route, although it has a lot of added complexity over the others mentioned above of course, and this complexity might make it a worse choice for writing regular applications because you'll likely produce code with much more bugs and security holes.

You can also make it dependent on what you want to do later on. Personally, I started with typical scripting languages (first Perl 5, then Python 2 back in the day) because I never write "big" programs, just small ones, and a lot of scripts (professionally and personally).

[Roadblock]

Python, JavaScript

And if you had to pick just one then JavaScript.
Despite its humble beginnings as a scripting language for the browser, JavaScript is ubiquitous nowadays and can be used to develop full-stack (from the server, database, all the way to the client)
So any skills you pickup translate well to all of those tiers.

Also with ECMA 6 it's maturing a lot as a language.
It has the added benefit of not requiring a full-blown IDE to start seeing results from it (although a good IDE helps)

Pros: http://thefullstack.xyz/full-stack-j...ipt-developer/
Cons: https://www.altexsoft.com/blog/engin...k-development/

Python is a lot closer to the machine than JavaScript, especially if you're developing on Linux and there's tons of packages / libraries allowing you to easily branch out to more difficult topics with a good level of abstraction.

My perspective comes from ~15 years of software development using ansi-C to C#, Java, Shell scripting, Java, Python, Lua, a bunch of MVVE JavaScript frameworks (Angular, Ember, Knockout) as well as plain old javascript and jquery and pretty much everything that's been a "thing" since 2000 when I got my first job.

[Knolan]

I wan't to start code-ing. What language should i pick up first or is a good base?
Already looking into PHP as we speak, seems easy enough. So Python? PHP? C++?
Will most likely use it to create responsive webpages/functions, apps, etc.

For web go with python, flask, sqlite, bootstrap and jquery. It is likely to be the easiest setup for a beginner (they are easy to install and use) and will hold its ground to quite a decent flow (I would expect up to 1k requests per second in a base entry machine). You will also find a lot of documentation on those.

Web is not something that really requires performance in most cases, so focus on learning how to get a functional application first, then you should focus on performance. If you want to change areas (i.e.: apps, desktop, any backend service that requires a lot of processing), then you should probably look at other languages, as a rule of thumb, you may assume:
Tier 1: C and C++. Fastest, hardest to learn.
Tier 2: C# and Java.
Tier 3: Python, PHP, Ruby. Slowest, easiest to learn.

[jon234]

I woudl say Learn Mainframe to make money COBOL probably because believe it or not people still do run on mainframes and would love you if you did know a mainframe language.

[Beazy]

Depends. If you're planning on making dynamic data driven web pages, you need to learn C# webforms and C# MVC. Javascript is never going away, there will always be a new framework to make client to server interaction, and even web UIs easier to create/operate. AngularJS, JQuery, and even AJAX are all popular JS frameworks that are growing and are beyond important to a full stack web developer.

Now,
If you want to make a video games later in life, you might want to get comfortable with Java of C#Unity.

Ive been a full stack software developer since the late 90s, who started out thinking I would make video games, now I work for accounting firm making various software for business process groups and even some clients.

[anon5123]

If you've truly never done any coding before, I'd suggest looking at BASIC from 1980s computers.

It's completely irrelevant today, but it will help teach you all the fundamentals of computer programming, with a very easy to understand and very simple programming language.

After that, you can move on to more recent languages like Java, Python, VB, etc.

[looorg]

It's unfortunate that you are not really going to find one language to fit all the things you want so you kind of have to learn a few of them.

You want to make apps for phones and such? Learn C, it's really quite easy to grasp the basics of it so there is no point in going the java or c++ route first since you'll just end up having to unlearn bad habits you pick up later. Programming C is quite easy overall. Programming good, secure and error free C is quite a bit harder tho. Other languages have more hand-holding; C# for example - skip the whole Java and C++ thing and go for C# instead if you want to do that first.

You want to create webpages? Sadly learn PHP, it has a horrible syntax and is a pain in the arse overall but it runs most of the web. It's like the ugly date you won't want to be seen with but it gets the job done better then all the competition. HTML isn't a programming language, but you kind of need it to make your PHP useful. It's more of text markup (hey that is even in the name!)

If you don't know how to program at all? Something like Python should get you familiar with the basics of what you need to do, the upside is that it's also quite versatile afterwards for other projects.

Wanna do math-stuff and stats? Learn R.

When I learned to program at uni they thought you Pascal first. Java didn't even exist at the time. But then I already knew Basic and some ASM so learning Pascal felt really weird and a bit of a throwback but it thought you the importance of structure and planning before you start. Then I learned C.

[Torgent]

In school we learned Java first, then C++, C, Python and finally Scheme (in that order of classes). Personally, I found java very easy, but I know other universities start with C++.

You learned python after C? That's strange to me. Python is a wonderful place to start if you know absolutely nothing. It's very easy to learn and it transitions decently to C++

[Rezhial]

While I do not code personally, I have a few friends who all agree Python is the best language to start with. I am actually going to attempt to start learning it myself once the Summer partying is over.

[vindicatorx]

Python and JAVA are the 2 most universities start off with and the nice thing is there are tons of online resources for both.

[betawarz]

There is a lot of confusing information in this thread. I think Draculla's most recent post is pretty good, though.

A poster, earlier in the thread, said that PHP is replacing JavaScript. That could not be more wrong. JavaScript has taken over web development over the past few years. JS has a large presence on servers and is even spanning into GUI applications with things like Electron. Riot Games recently rewrote their PVP.Net launcher using embedded Chromium (JavaScript).

The OP said they're looking to get into web development. As a web developer, I'd completely suggest that you pick up JavaScript. There are so many JavaScript jobs at the moment, if that's your end goal. JavaScript does have a relatively difficult barrier to entry, for modern web dev tools, but the core language itself is pretty straight forward. The language itself is pretty terrible, in the sense that it allows you to shoot yourself in the foot very easily, but it's currently the dominant language and is worth knowing. Because of the popularity of the language, you'll be able to easily find help and there will be plenty of blogs, stack overflow answers, etc, to help you learn.

Some possible tools to research, specifically within the realm of JavaScript and web dev are: React, Angular, Ember. React is likely the most popular, but it's not a framework. It's just a smaller component and as such has likely a harder barrier to entry than Angular or Ember, because React lacks a lot of the tooling out of the box that the others provide. Angular and Ember both have large communities and decent tooling to help you start out. Last time I used either Angular or Ember, which was about 2 years ago, Angular was a bit easier for a beginner, imo. I currently use React.

Your other question was about which language is easiest. I've used a ton of languages over the years - I think I've used every language I saw mentioned in this thread. While I do agree that C and C++ have some simplicity in their initial stages of use, due to just fundamental basics, I do not agree that they're easiest relative to some other languages. I think the easiest language I've ever used, and is the language I recommend to all beginners, is C#. I recommend C# because there is a top of the line, free editor in Visual Studio, the language has extremely easy syntax that transitions easily to every other C-like language, Visual Studio does such an amazing job with its intellisense that it basically codes for you. You can also combine your request for a simple language with your other desire of web development. There is a popular web framework for C# ASP.NET, called MVC. The C# community is mature and large enough that there is help readily available.

Just my 2 cents. Hope it helps.

[Xar226]

Will most likely use it to create responsive webpages/functions, apps, etc.

I don't meant to sound like a douche, but step #1 should be figuring out what tools you actually need to do what you want to do.

Responsive webpages requires only HTML and CSS. You can obviously add JavaScript to build on that. If you need your webpage to talk to a server then you need a backend language -- PHP, Ruby, Python and heck, even JavaScript these days are pretty popular ones.

"App" is ambiguous, but the two major players for apps would be Java (for Android) and Swift (which is based on ObjectiveC, based on C) for iOS.

But here's the good news: The skills you learn in any given programming language transfer over to the others pretty well. You need to learn the new syntax obviously, but that's relatively easy; once you learn how to program, picking up any given language is fairly easy.

Since the first thing you mentioned was webpages, my recommendation is JavaScript. It will aid you on the web side, it can be used to do server-end apps with something like Node.JS, using tools like Electron you can even build native system apps, and as a bonus it's fairly easy to learn and it's incredibly popular right now.

HTML + CSS + JS basically all go together, so I'd start there.

- - - Updated - - -

I work for a big data orientated website and were currently migrating the entire website from Javascript to PHP because Javascript "is outdated". Isnt javascript going out the window soon? and shoulnd therfor just be skipped?

JavaScript isn't outdated at all; it is probably the fastest-growing language out there. Perhaps you mean Java which is entirely different.

[Deleted]

As i have no experience with any language aside from HTML i think i go with Python as i see it mentioned the most as a starting language.
See how long it takes and then move up to any other. Eventually i want to learn alot of em to a degree. Thanks all for the insightfull responses.

[Beazy]

As i have no experience with any language aside from HTML i think i go with Python as i see it mentioned the most as a starting language.
See how long it takes and then move up to any other. Eventually i want to learn alot of em to a degree.

Nothing wrong starting with Python.

Try this website out, created by PluralSight: https://www.codeschool.com/ and here for python https://www.codeschool.com/search?ut...o&query=python



They helped me with MVC years ago and now their new website has courses that are even more beginner friendly.

[Ute]

As i have no experience with any language aside from HTML i think i go with Python as i see it mentioned the most as a starting language.
See how long it takes and then move up to any other. Eventually i want to learn alot of em to a degree. Thanks all for the insightfull responses.

As a front-end web developer, I feel like you may have been steered in a direction not fitting with your initial post.

Okay, there is a lot of good advice (and some bad) in this thread for programming languages; however, if you want to "create responsive webpages/functions (that have to interact with multiple external data providers), apps, etc." as you said in your first post, you want Javascript. You will need HTML/CSS as well. You will eventually need some kind of databasing (MySQL, MongoDB or any of a dozen options), but you will always need Javascript on the "front-end" (client-side).

Python is a great language, and pretty easy to learn, but I don't think it's going to get you where you described wanting to go. Python can be an effective back-end (server-side) language, but the beauty of Javascript these days (as someone else pointed out) is that it can even be used for back-end scripting now (via node.js).

If you are planning to self-teach, I recommend freecodecamp.com. It's a really good tool for learning full-stack (front and back end) web development. It starts with HTML and CSS, but you can actually skip it if you want. I recommend going through it for practice though and to make sure your skills are where they should be.

Good Luck and Have Fun!!

[Cairhiin]

As i have no experience with any language aside from HTML i think i go with Python as i see it mentioned the most as a starting language.
See how long it takes and then move up to any other. Eventually i want to learn alot of em to a degree. Thanks all for the insightfull responses.

In my opinion since you are planning on web development you should continue with the PHP you said you already started with and add JavaScript to that. Of course you also need knowledge of CSS and HTML but those are not programming languages.

[Deleted]

People who say C or even worse C++ are good languages for beginners either have no idea what they are talking about or they never bothered to learn any language besides C/C++ and almost for sure don't make living off programming.

And to those who came up with HTML I'd just say ROFL.

C++ is:
- complex in terms of syntax & concepts programmer has to grasp (like pointers, templates, macros & memory management)
- very elaborate - I'd say it requires like twice the code Java requires for the same thing
- hard to debug and find errors and some errors may be practicaly undetectable
- very machine dependent - programmer has to have in mind target architecture and OS
- because it's complexity programmer tools are less advanced than for example for Java

[tehealadin]

I started with procedural programming (Pascal) first before OO programming. I think I might have struggled with jumping straight into OO. I did Java at university, with some C and C++(I wouldn't recommend this for beginners). Picked up C# on my own, very similar to Java and picked it up quickly, I really like C#.

As someone else has suggested, C# might be the way to go. It is free, the debug tools in visual studio are good, and you can use MVC/ASP for web stuff.

JS wouldn't hurt either.

The important thing is to get the basics down. Data structures, input and output, selection, iteration, then move onto more advanced stuff (more advanced algorithms, OO fundamentals etc). Once you get this, moving to another language is fairly straight forward.

EDIT

Also, I just can't get into Python. I have heard many people preach about it, but I just don't like it.

[Eldonia]

I started getting into coding about 3 months ago and started with VB. Not super useful for me so far other than it was easy to learn and helped me understand basic programming logic on a level I could put to some practical use. Learned C# next and it seems to be a real strong base for me as many other languages seem very similar. I took a few HTML and CSS courses and I'm starting ASP.Net MVC to see if I can make something that will read from a DB running on a different computer. Its all very new and as surprising as it was to me, very enjoyable.

I guess my point is that if you find something that you can use as a base and then work out what the differences are between what you know and what is in different languages, it seems to make learning progressively easier and faster. This is personal experience speaking though and not much of it. It could work entirely different for other people.

[tehealadin]

I started getting into coding about 3 months ago and started with VB.

VB as a starter isn't bad- I started with it and Pascal, and was easy enough to get the core concepts.