Completely new to programming.

[Northwood]

Brand spanking new to programming, and haven't got a clue where to start.

Want to learn it as something new and interesting and possibly look at a future career in computing, but thus far my only experience has been with an old DOS program called Qbasic years ago on a 386, i've heard programming has come a long way since then, so where to start? any languages to suggest for a newbie? and resources for learning said language?

one last thing... stimulant drink of choice for programmers? lol :p:

[Leora]

one last thing... stimulant drink of choice for programmers? lol
Well good STRONG filter coffee is a good start..... although some may agree AMP has longer lasting and more noticeable effects... ;)

As for programming languages, the field is so diverse and dynamic and depends really on which area of expertise you want to branch out into (try aim to get into a niche field with specialised programming skills). For example, regarding web programming one tends to start out by learning various languages such as VBScript and JavaScript (client-side scripting languages) and ASP, PHP, Perl and ColdFusion (server-side scripting languages). Once you have mastered one, it becomes easier to understand the general concepts and implementation of most other programming languages ( i am speaking personally from a web developer's pov). Desktop programming perhaps along the lines of C, C++, Java and Python to name a few.

[MDK]

Well good STRONG filter coffee is a good start..... although some may agree AMP has longer lasting and more noticeable effects... ;)



There was a question we used to ask around where I used to goto school... Whats the percentage of blood flowing in your caffeine stream? :)

I started with the good old Basic 1.0 way back when and then moved to QBasic, VB, asp and then Java and C++.

I agree with the statement that you have to find a niche. C and C++ are primarily used in performance conscious environments where its worth complicating your life to get an extra bit of performance, while the other high level languages are used in cross platform environments where application portability is more of a factor.

Have fun coding

[aarathi]

If you are a new comer, you must learn Basic language.Every language have their syntaxes.

[jinu117]

Assembly :)
Okay.... I am just joking on that one...
It really depends on what you are after. Programming gets pretty specialized now a days in different parts. Technical/engineering, Business, and Web Application development are big things I see now a days. Which part of programming interests you? Depending on your answer someone can give you insight of narrowing down further from there on.
When I started, I thought I would like technical and engineering development. Soon, I found out that I actually get bored of those and do not enjoy going back to same old thing (C, assembly, C++) over and over and over. Moved to business application side for long time (some C, mostly VB, ASP, etc) and became DBA in the midst of it (more of structural management languages with queries... and sometimes application to help things move along since I already have discipline in it)
If you are thinking about it as carrier, than you really need to think of what you would like to do with it.

[Cooper]

Assembly

:rofl:

[bobbobson]

I was actually going to say assembly =\. It would be a :banana::banana::banana::banana: load easyer to learn if you didnt have knollege in Higher level languages to get in your way :P. But in all seriousness, its not really a language you need to learn its just the Way that you come at a problem. It takes 20 mins to get the syntax and commands down. Than years and years of programming to build up your skills as a programmer. Somehing like VB or PhP would be good. Do you want to do web programming ? App development or crazy shizz thats awesome ?

[Yakyb]

afaik you should get to grips with visual studio(get the free trial) buy a couple of .net books c#, vb take your pick then move to ASP or similar really depends on what your hoping to acheive

[Leora]

Assembly

;)

I can count the number of people i know personally who can program in assembly on less than one hand... but if you can master assembly, all other programming languages should be simple sailing :up:

[Magnj]

Try some flavor of Basic. It really helps you think about how to program. In school we did True Basic -> Python -> Java. I don't have a mastery of any of them, but i know how to program.

Personally the hardest part was the theory, after that it's all syntax for the most part.

[uOpt]

There's no reason to torture yourself with basic, and the jobs you can get for it can be excessively hire and fire. Not to mention everything that you learn only applies to one implementation of basic on one platform. Not to mention you always have to go with every change made by the vendor.

I'd say a language like Python or Ruby is the best choice, as they are very baggage-free, they run on multiple platforms and since they are OpenSource your vendor cannot pull a Delphi on you.

Many people will say Java, but it has a lot more syntactical baggage than the above, is still slow and there are way too many people competing for the jobs. More than half of the new programmers who joined us in the dotcom boom are exclusive Java programmers, that really cracks down on the work conditions.

[tobe22]

Visual studio express is a good place to start learning C++, C#, or Visual Basic -- it's free.

http://www.microsoft.com/express/download/default.aspx

You can then move to the DirectX, Nvidia, and ATI sdks', and do some really cool stuff!

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/xna/aa937788.aspx
http://developer.nvidia.com/page/home.html
http://developer.amd.com/downloads.jsp#AMD_ATI