Best Beginner Programming Language?

theEnd

I'd go straight for C# with Visual Studio. It's all there, very simple to get going, very complex if you want to go deeper.

AndyPix

bod1467 wrote: »

This is essentially Microsoft's derivation of C++ for web environments, and is sometimes referred to as C.Net. (Like MS's web version of Visual Basic is known as VB.Net).

Lol, you mean C sharp !!

InsideInsurance

AndyPix wrote: »

Ie one that looks "a bit more like English"
Get visual studio as mentioned above and have a mess around with visual basic.
You should be able to create a working windows app quite quickly and by doing this get your head used to thinking in the certain logical order that is required for programming.

Once you have progressed a little using that, then progress to learning C++ and all the object oriented goodness that comes with that (!)

Have fun
Andy

VB is as object orientated as C# so a little confused by the final statement.

Personally, I did the above and regret it, the notation in C, Java etc are all very similar, it does create a steeper learning curve initially but creates good habits.

VB is certainly easier to learn and is more forgiving to minor errors/ inconsistencies (eg variable names arent case sensitive) but it makes it then harder to switch to C#. Similarly many examples of code you find online is written in C rather than VB

AndyPix

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Similarly many examples of code you find online is written in C rather than VB

What a strange statement..
If you are looking on a C site, the examples will be in C
If you look on a VB site, the examples will be in VB.

Thousands upon thousands of both

AndyPix

InsideInsurance wrote: »

VB is as object orientated as C# so a little confused by the final statement.

" Examples of a language that is object-based, but not object-oriented are early versions of Ada, Visual Basic (VB), and Fortran 90. These languages all support the definition of an object as a data structure, but lack polymorphism and inheritance. "

Going back to my VB6 days

theEnd

Stick with C# (C Sharp).

You'll learn everything you need and as it's all in one clean environment (Visual Studio) it's very easy to start creating decent stuff quickly.

VB is ok, but I don't see the point if you're starting out now. C# offers a full OO (object orientated) language.

Unless things have changed, C and C++ are just too difficult to get going on. Getting a consistent working environment will take a while for starters. Finding the right libraries, trying to build interfaces etc is not simple (I'm sure options now exist). C is also not an OO language. C++ definitely is.

Which brings it back to C#. Everything that C++ has in a very nice consistent environment, plus the entire .NET framework presented for you.

[Deleted User]

Python would get my recommendation for something easy to pick up and not too intimidating.

droopsnoot

It all depends on what you want to do - some languages are more suitable for certain tasks than others. You could develop a web site in C, but there are more suitable languages, if you want to write something for a specific platform (iphone "apps" for example) then the choice is smaller.


As for methods of learning, I've always found I learn better by having an actual job I need to do. I can run through a few basic examples but after that I lose interest unless I'm actually getting towards a specific result.

bod1467

Geodark wrote: »

You might want to check up on that...

AndyPix wrote: »

Lol, you mean C sharp !!

Yet again the nit-pickers abound. Sigh.....

If you Google for What is C.net? the 3rd result (for me anyway) is: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-GB/library/z1zx9t92.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

AndyPix

bod1467 wrote: »

Yet again the nit-pickers abound. Sigh.....

If you Google for What is C.net? the 3rd result (for me anyway) is: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-GB/library/z1zx9t92.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

haha that's because it has the words "c" and ".net" in the description (not next to each other)

(Text removed by MSE Forum Team)

"C# is an elegant and type-safe object-oriented language that enables developers to build a variety of secure and robust applications that run on the .NET Framework."