Want to get into programming, where to start?

[phyto]

Hey, so I'm in college right now and have a major completely unrelated to computers; but they have been a hobby of mine for-like ever. Most of my friends are engineering majors and have all learned the basics of a few languages. For the most part they all started with fortran which seemed pretty sweet but not really powerful. I was wondering if there are any languages I should look into learning and where I would find out more about them. I began reading this book from the MIT library and it was using LISP as it's primary language; but it was started in the 1950's and seems really outdated. I'm not sure what kind of programming is out there or even what type I really want to get into. What is a good language to learn for hobby things, like making programs on my computer, and how do I even go about writing a program. It's not like a window pops up on my screen and says, "write program here".
Sorry for being vague, I just don't really know where to start atm. Anything and everything helps.

[Alski]

C++ is always a good place to start. If you dont like the looks of it start with SiMPLE it basically does everything for you

[sinisterwyvern]

Yeah I learned C++ at the start of my interest, pretty cool stuff. I forget what we used first year but AP course we used Microsoft Visual to build in.

[mothbitten]

Python is a good language to start out with. It's free and works on pretty much any OS. It's straightforward, and it's used everywhere. There are plenty of good tutorials for it as well.

[Kosm]

Look up 'the new Boston' on YouTube and start with java tutorials

[Kouki]

Start with learning the process into making a virtual system, the stuff on paper.
Then learn Visual basic. Then move to C++

---------- Post added 2011-09-09 at 03:43 AM ----------

Yeah I learned C++ at the start of my interest, pretty cool stuff. I forget what we used first year but AP course we used Microsoft Visual to build in.

I did the same thing at CDI college

[Doirdyn]

Assuming the OP wants to get into programming for game development, the easiest start would be C# -> XNA.

http://rbwhitaker.wikidot.com/c-sharp-tutorials

The thing with programming is understanding concepts and applying correct syntax depending on the language.