Easy Programming Language to Start Learning

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by jrmhng, Sep 12, 2008.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. jrmhng

    jrmhng Registered Member

    Joined:
    Nov 4, 2007
    Posts:
    1,268
    Location:
    Australia
    Hi All,

    I'm interested in learning to program. What is a good one to get started with, something that I can self learn? Also I'd like it to be a practical i.e. not so easy or just a reference language that you cant really use it to create anything. My goal is primarily to learn how to create web apps but would also like to know to to create programs that can be run locally.

    Also what kind of development software do I need? I'm not doing it professionally so I'm not going to fork out thousands just to start.

    Cheers
    Jeremy
     
  2. Pedro

    Pedro Registered Member

    Joined:
    Nov 2, 2006
    Posts:
    3,502
    Heard great things about Python. I'm slowly reading on it myself.
    There are tutorials online, and good books like from O'Reilly.
     
  3. iceni60

    iceni60 ( ^o^)

    Joined:
    Jun 29, 2004
    Posts:
    5,116
    you can try out shell scripting too, i think it's great to start out because it's easy to learn and really, really useful too. you can do it with linux or a mac and maybe even with the windows powershell o_O but it won't be nearly as good with the powershell (the link below won't work with the powershell). if you don't have linux you can try it with a livecd. there are 1000s of online tutorials and some really good books too!

    i did a search and found this page that looks really good, all you have to do is follow this one page and you'll know loads by the end of the page!!!!
    EDIT: DO NOT USE THE LINK BELOW ONE OF THE SCRIPTS COULD DELETE YOUR HOME DIRECTORY IF YOU'RE NOT CAREFUL!!!! lol the bit under this - "A MORE USEFUL PROGRAM"
    http://www.justlinux.com/nhf/Programming/Introduction_to_bash_Shell_Scripting.html
     
    Last edited: Sep 13, 2008
  4. Marja

    Marja Honestly, I'm not a bot!!

    Joined:
    Mar 8, 2004
    Posts:
    4,553
    Location:
    In the Vast Fields of My Mind
  5. jrmhng

    jrmhng Registered Member

    Joined:
    Nov 4, 2007
    Posts:
    1,268
    Location:
    Australia
    Thanks for the responses guys. Apart from shell scripting, what else can I learn that is relatively easy?
     
  6. ambient_88

    ambient_88 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2008
    Posts:
    854
    Since you plan on developing web applications, PHP is a good language to start at. It is relatively easy to learn and should get you going quickly, provided that you put in the effort. ;)

    For developing applications that run locally, you could try Java. A lot of universities use Java for introductory computer programming, because it is easy to learn, especially if you start with procedural programming first.

    For integrated development environments, I suggest you use Eclipse or jGRASP for Java development. I'm not sure what IDE to use for PHP since I don't really use it regularly. For me, I use Notepad++ when writing/editing PHP code because of its awesome syntax highlighting.
     
    Last edited: Sep 13, 2008
  7. Sully

    Sully Registered Member

    Joined:
    Dec 23, 2005
    Posts:
    3,719
    If you are a windows user, you would really be suprised how useful batch files can be. The best part of them is that every windows machine already has them. There are some differences between say 9x and nt, I don't know about Vista. But they just work. For simple stuff anyway.

    Most of my programming skills came from AutoIt. It is very useful and free with some very good support in the forum. I like it because you can create GUI's as well as script, and you can compile them to be distributed as an .exe with no real dependencies to go with them. I use it more than any other for a myriad of purposes.

    Also visual basic script and windows script host (pretty much the same thing) are good foundations to learn. Not that they are any better than others, but they delve in a little deeper than AutoIt because you need to manually do more things in your code whereas AutoIt much is already taken care of.

    If you want to progress with vbs, you can move into straight up Visual Basic, where your scripting skills from vbs come in handy, but you get the whole front end to make full blown applications. I do a lot in vb6 with Access databases. I have tried .net, but frankly already own vb6 so have not had a need yet to upgrade.

    I know a bit of perl, and it is really a nice language to work with, and very powerful.

    If I had it to do all over again, I would start with a C language. Reasons are simple. It is everywhere. Lots of stuff written. Lots of examples. I don't know much, and I am always too busy with the other languages to learn much more, but I sure wish I could. It is definately not the easiest, but I think is the most worthwile to learn.

    Another thing I wish I had done is learned more assembly. Not that I have a need for it that often, but there have been times that my crash courses to figure a problem out have definately left me with the impression that I could have really benefeited from it.

    Umm. I hope that helps. If you are more concerned with web stuff, then I don't know. I try to do as little of that as possible.

    If you have not programmed before, it is my opinion that no matter what language you decide to start with, you will learn the logic. Loops, conditions, conversions, etc. Once you understand how a program does it's thing, new languages are different twists on the same premise.

    Good luck.

    Sul.
     
  8. iceni60

    iceni60 ( ^o^)

    Joined:
    Jun 29, 2004
    Posts:
    5,116
    what about ruby on rails? has anyone used it? i haven't, i don't really enjoy programming though apart from shell scripting because it's so easy and the most useful for me. i'd definitely find out more about Python and ruby on rails though if i were you.

    here's probably the most used tutorial on python - How to Think Like a Computer Scientist. 1000s of people have started out by reading through it.
    here's two links for it.
    http://openbookproject.net//thinkCSpy/
    http://greenteapress.com/thinkpython/thinkCSpy/
     
  9. innerpeace

    innerpeace Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jan 15, 2007
    Posts:
    2,121
    Location:
    Mountaineer Country
  10. EASTER

    EASTER Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 28, 2007
    Posts:
    11,126
    Location:
    U.S.A. (South)
    I done a ton of VBScript simply because it's less time consuming and Windows runs them like an executable. In fact i use them and batch files to automate my local system, but your looking for a programming language that goes beyond these simple syntaxes i'm sure.

    Some peeps say learn C or C+ and others, but be prepared for a long study of them if thats the course you take.

    One thing i've noticed for years since Windows 98/Me. Looks how surprisingly rapid ASSEMBLY language is when compiled, if i had the time, that would likely be my programming lang of choice.

    Just look at all of Nirsoft's freeware programs, they are really short, small, but are extremely quick in how they carry out their programming functions.

    EASTER
     
  11. AKAJohnDoe

    AKAJohnDoe Registered Member

    Joined:
    Sep 26, 2007
    Posts:
    989
    Location:
    127.0.0.1
    I have been programming since IBM/360 Assembler days and can code in more than a dozen languages. While C++ or C# or JAVA might be a valuable skill to have these days, it would certainly not be my recommendation for a starter language. Likewise, an assembly language is not really all that accessible as a starter language. I would probably recommend Python. It can be had for free and the constructs are applicable to most other languages. Although an interpretive language like REXX does has advantages for the learner, it might be difficult to find these days. Likewise Pascal. There is some advantage, I think, in learning a procedural language before an object oriented language.
     
  12. jrmhng

    jrmhng Registered Member

    Joined:
    Nov 4, 2007
    Posts:
    1,268
    Location:
    Australia
    Thanks again guys for all the responses. Do I need anything to start programming? What is an IDE? Will I need one?
     
  13. emperordarius

    emperordarius Registered Member

    Joined:
    Apr 27, 2008
    Posts:
    1,218
    Location:
    Who cares
    A relatively easy to learn language is Visual Basic(as the name itself suggests)
    And IDE is an integrated development enviroment, so a program where you write your code, build your application, set the application's properties etc.

    PS: For Visual Basic, there is a free IDE called Visual Basic Express 2008, or the full IDE (not free), Visual Studio 2008.
     
  14. Pseudo

    Pseudo Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 4, 2008
    Posts:
    193
    C++ is very easy, as long as you don't jump into 3D programming right away. *puppy*
    Visual Studio IDE... Intel's compiler if you can afford it. (Microsoft's compiler has great optimization as well, though)
     
  15. Searching_ _ _

    Searching_ _ _ Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2008
    Posts:
    1,988
    Location:
    iAnywhere
    Learning is an important task. If you go about it incorrectly, your progress can be slow or dead still frustrating.

    I wanted to learn HTML to create web pages. Not a difficult endeavor. Friends and family familiar with it said it's easy, everything is available online, try the W3C site for starters. Just before their online schools.
    I probably spent a few weeks surfing and reading and I was no closer to creating a web page than before I began. I decided to take a look at what books had to offer. Oreilly was a monster, next. I found HTML and CSS Visual Quick Start Guide.
    The way the book was layed out, with usage explanations, screen shots and results, taught me more in a shorter period of time than all the surfing I had already done. It's visual method was very good for me to learn HTML.

    If I were to learn Python, I would probably first need a list of the (tags) with definitions and maybe some usage. Read that over. Then incorporate some visual method to actually learn the nuts and bolts.

    I understand that Python is a more complex syntax than HTML, but I would still try to learn it at least visually.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.