Learning to program stuff?

I mentored under one of the most revered undergraduate educators, and he argues that Java is the best programming language to teach to new students for a variety of reasons.

However, I think that if I were self-taught instead of learning in a classroom setting, then I would highly, highly recommend C#.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/default.aspx

For one, you can get a completely free version of Visual Studio Express, which is not far off from Visual Studio Enterprise, just the ability to build applications for distribution. The syntax and structure is not far off from Java. I think Java is better in a classroom setting because there aren't really any great full-featured IDEs so you focus on structure, where you can't really do C# or VB.NET without it. Self-teaching yourself, being able to look at an IDE and whip up forms in a flash make it easier to stay interested.


Visual Basic is the most useful programming language, but you're going to have a very hard time getting a good job without a degree so it's not really worth worrying about that if you just want to learn for fun.

However, I will strongly disagree with what gumby just said. If you learn VB6 first you will never become a good programmer. The chances of a person learning how to code properly after starting with VB6 is probably like 5%. It is one of the most god-awful languages ever written and it is widely used because Microsoft wrote a good IDE (for its time) and because it was easy to learn. But it makes it a night made to learn to actually program well. You should avoid VB6 at all costs.

I also work at a place that used VB6 exclusively until I got there (I started the transition to VB.NET) and the people who started with VB6 write some of the worst code I've ever seen. They would have had trouble getting a C in my intro courses when I used to teach.

Java or C# are definitely the languages you should start with and, then, if you're adventurous, C++. And depending on what you want to do you could always learn Perl/PHP/Python, but they aren't the best starter languages because of their syntaxes.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

C actually isn't a terrible language to start out with, it's just harder to grasp concepts in.

C++ is an awful language to start with. It makes customization too easy, so you end up being crutched whenever you make mistakes.

There's nowhere I can't reach.