Easiest code language to start with?

[Heathy]

I've wanted to get into programming but I can never figure out what it is that I want to make even if I knew how, there are simple tutorials for VB that were very strait forward plenty of tutorials on yt aswell for basic things. I kinda prefer level design, even then math and geometry aren't my strong suits either.

the last time i did anything website there was only html and java the newer languages i just haven't bothered to learn any of it. which is a shame because i found html to be very easy to grasp. from my understanding programs are essentially series of conditional statements culminating in an output of some sort.

[psyquest]

c/c++/java/python


take you pick, get paid well. but try and be a T shaped professional. Companies pay more for those type of IT specialists.

[PC2]

The thing about Python is that unlike C, C++, and Java it was designed with a GIL in mind and the amount of cores users expect to benefit from is going up.

[Deleted]

I've wanted to get into programming but I can never figure out what it is that I want to make even if I knew how, there are simple tutorials for VB that were very strait forward plenty of tutorials on yt aswell for basic things. I kinda prefer level design, even then math and geometry aren't my strong suits either.

the last time i did anything website there was only html and java the newer languages i just haven't bothered to learn any of it. which is a shame because i found html to be very easy to grasp. from my understanding programs are essentially series of conditional statements culminating in an output of some sort.

You could use a Engine, Unity and Unreal are very good for what you are supposing.

Oppurtounity for programming, but is masked in a Decision tree and you have a lot more freedom in terms of it being a Editor.

+ most of it is Event based programming, i think it would suit you.

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The thing about Python is that unlike C, C++, and Java it was designed with a GIL in mind and the amount of cores users expect to benefit from is going up.

Doesn't say much when Python is still a specialized field, compared to Java, C, C++......

[Ravenblade]

In my opinion and experience (mind you I started with BASIC in 1989) it is about where you want to go: desktop, mobile or plain web programming.

C/C++ is a fine language but it is not beginner-friendly at all and mostly relevant for so-called low-level programming these days which means for learning purposes it will be overkill. Java is from a neutral standpoint a lot easier to learn than C/C++. From there it is possible to branch out into C#, Javascript and PHP for whatever purpose you want to pursue. Python is an option as well and has been for many years, however it follows a different kind of paradigm and expressiveness meaning whilst C/C++, Java and C# follow a similar syntax concept and require time to understand code, Python code is fairly different and for many things more intuitively to read. Just like ye olde BASIC.

[Deleted]

Learn Lua, addons are always needed.

[Osmeric]

I don't know if you should start with it, but at some point you should learn one or more of the Lisp family of languages. Common Lisp is old but steady; Clojure is getting a lot of traction (and integrates with Java and Javascript, the latter via Clojurescript).

Java is used all over, but understand that if you learn just that, you are competing with many thousands of low wage international workers who also learned Java.

It's also good to remember you aren't just learning a language, but also the system of libraries and frameworks that go with that language. Leaning these is often a bigger job than learning the language itself.

C and C++ are rather low level (remember, C came out when people were running Unix on 16 bit processors with 64K byte address spaces!). If you're going to do system or embedded programming you need to know them, but be aware of all the gotchas when programming in these languages. Even C has all sorts of undefined behaviors that trip people up even today.

BTW, I strongly recommend this blog, which has had lots of cool stuff over the past few years related to language issues in system/embedded programming: http://blog.regehr.org/

[Deleted]

Considering your work will be web based I'd just jump straight into PHP and JavaScript.

[zealo]

Depends on your level of commitment to it. Starting out with C++ as your first language as some have suggested will be a harder ride than something like C# or java, but you'll eventually come to understand things at a deeper level through it though.

Id suggest C# as a first one due to the excellent documentation microsoft have available, and move onto C++ once you got into it properly. C# is also easier to learn than C/C++.
When you do get into C++, the only book you should be using initially is C++ primer and none other.

[Danner]

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 (that have to interact with multiple external data providers), apps, etc.

Languages depend on what you want to do.

Do you want to LEARN programming?
Use Python.

It's a simple and flexible language which exposes you to all the important programming concepts. As a training language, it's by far the best option, and it's a pretty good pick for making almost any semi-complex tools you ever need.

I personally hate the indentation thing, but that's just me being grumpy.

Do you want to build flexible web pages?
PHP + HTML + CSS is not a back pick.

I have no idea what the cool kids use these days (SOAP or whatever), but understanding how a server side web page is built is paramount towards that goal, and PHP offers exactly that. I've used PHP for a decade, and never needed anything else. I've lately also been having some fun with websockets, they are pretty powerful and I wonder why we're not yet seeing a million browser games using websockets as the foundation.

Oh, and... I personally hate the PHP syntax and inconsistent library calls, but that's just me being grumpy.

Do you want to build a computer game?
Use C or C++.

C and C++ is all about speed. Both languages allows you to get the most out of your computer, by building programs that work optimally on your CPU. If you ever think "I wish this game ran faster", you will learn to regret writing it in Java the hard way. That's not to say language is the most important cornerstone in performance - that's you as the programmer; writing fast applications in java is quite possible, as is writing sluggish c++ applications. But if every drop of performance is needed, C/C++ is the only sensible pick.

C is simple and almost* the perfect programming language, but it takes forever do do anything of consequence because you have to start from scratch every time. Expect development to take a while.

C++ is a dystopian tragedy built on top of C that offers more high level concepts, none of which you actually need, at the cost of everything that makes C good. Expect development to take less time due to not having to build your own linked list library, but expect to development to take at least 15 times as long because you get stuck in trying to solve some sort of trivial problem using multiple inheritance or other "cool" c++ features that just ruin any simple program design; a problem that just wouldn't exist if you had coded in C in the first place. But that's just me being grumpy.

Do you want to use a high level scripting language?
Javascript aint' half bad as a language. Javascript in a browser involves working with the HTML DOM, which has been a disaster for the better part of a lifetime.
But javascript is a nightmare to integrate in an application (and that's not just me being grumpy, this is an irrefutable truth). If you're already working on a browser, say f.ex a HTML5 game or a web page, this is still the optimal pick and integration is done for you. Exploit it!

If you want a scripting language for a non-browser game, use LUA. For pet game projects, I write my engine in C, and the actual high level logic in LUA. The LUA syntax officially suck donkey, but it's literally a 4 minute task to integrate LUA into anything.

[Kolvarg]

The most important thing really is learning the basics of coding like programming logic and basic concepts and methods. Languages come and go, but those coding basics apply to pretty much every language.

There are a multitude of languages that are fairly user-friendly to get started with, so personally I'd recommend you pick one where you can find fairly decent tutorials/guides on introduction to programming. And I'd also say, start with one you'll probably not really use later on. Yes, if you start with one you'll use you'll "save time" learning, as you'll learn coding and the language you'll use at the same time, but you'll also most likely develop bad habits/practices that will be easier to get rid of if starting a new language already knowing coding basics (imo).

Personally at my university they used a variation of Racket (lisp) when introducing people to programming when I got in, but I believe now they do that in python. But I've also seen other languages like Pascal, Java, C++, C# or even C being used as learning tools for various purposes. PHP or really anything relatively medium to high level should be friendly enough to start with, although, again, I'd recommend start with something unusual/you won't really use much.

And try to get some experience with basic linear and functional programming before you even look into Object-Oriented programming (even if you do start with a language that supports it).

[Deleted]

If you've no experience with programming then i'd suggest you start with C++ or similar. There's a lot of more forgiving languages & easier to understand languages but C(++) is a good start as it's pretty restrictive in the sense that if you fuck up you'll know it. Once you get sort of used to programming in general(i.e. know how to do things and how to get around easy things) you can then pick the language that suits what you're trying to do as syntax is just syntax and you'll get used to it real fast. The only thing that you actually need is to understand how you make things happen.

[Independent voter]

Web pages? JavaScript. You laugh? look at NodeJS, you actually build a web server with JavaScript in NodeJS. But even javascript without NodeJS will let you do lots with a webpage, like check to make sure a zipcode is good or even do a fancy slide show with images. Use AJAX to post and refresh a tiny part of your page without refreshing the whole page, etc.

Python and Ruby are good too. Ruby on Rails is still used a lot in Silicon Valley for startups.

There are a lot of websites out there with PHP and C#, if you're looking to get a job I would pick one language, learn it well and if the new job requires some other language you can then pick up the new language pretty fast.

The cool thing about javascript is you download Notepad++ and start right now. Your browser will have a debug feature for javascript.

[Deleted]

Try Visual Basic.

[Darsithis]

Try Visual Basic.

Please, no.

If you want to learn proper object-oriented development, go with either C++ or C#. Visual Basic, while it is a proper OOP language, is unnecessarily verbose. If you want your skills to translate into other languages that share a common syntax, you want C++/C#

[Wildtree]

Languages depend on what you want to do.

And do you want to actually understand what you're dealing with (Hardware aspect)?
Learn Assembly.
It is still invaluably important.

[Deleted]

Been a week since i started this post.

On recommendation i started at freecodecamp.com. Having a blast up till now and i highly recommend it.

Got HTML down properly, de-learned some bad habits, got into CSS, bootstrap, Jquery and im now working on Javascript.
As natural as HTML, CSS come to me, as problematic is Javascript. What a p.o.s. syntax. Im just not getting the logic or the function + the fact that it screws u over on hitting the spacebar once too many... ugh.

#div2 { font-size: 20px; font-family: Arial; border: solid 1px silver;} gives all text in my div with id div2 a silver border and all text in the div is Arial in 20px.

var fahrenheit; fahrenheit = 30+(9/5)celsius; Celsius (3o)

Makes really little sense eventhough trough practise i know what it does. Why woulnd i just put in the fucking fahrenheit? Unless im making a celcius to fahrenheit recalculator.. Plus i dont see how it benefits me in any way when i want to make websites/pages.

After this is PHP (great for the job market, alot of question for it) and then maybe ill pick up ruby.

[Deleted]

=o]

I fucking hate this:

function()
{

}

I just despise it. If that makes me a noob or a bad person, I don't know. Don't do that extra, pointless newline.

[Draeth]

If you're looking at webdev as your primary area of interest, definitely start with Python. It's easy, clean, and in moderate demand. Once you feel confident in your conceptual skills, learn PHP, then Java, if you like; both are in high demand, PHP moreso and Java less so each year as a general market trend.

If you're only planning to do web, don't bother with C++, you'll never use it. If you are looking to get into compiled software development, C++ is a fundamental, but a difficult place to start.

Ignore the ruby fanatics. Its only remotely mainstream use is Rails and that commands a very tiny market share of the web. It's not worth your time.

[Jotaux]

In university, the intro computer science class was all python. I really enjoyed the class and for our final project we had to make a Sudoku game. My partner and I were the only ones who had a game where you could select the cells with the mouse instead of typing in the row and column

I considered doing a minor in computer science but then I did discrete math and a class that was all theory, pretty much killed my enthusiasm for the subject.