What is (are) the best programming language(s) for beginners?

[camuflage]

In your personal opinion which is (are) the best programming language(s) for beginners? There's always some discordance generated but it's interesting to debate and promote new ideas.

[RoomKid]

Ok, deleted my vote and voted for PHP.

[Andre S. Veteran]

Definitely BASIC or VB.NET if you want GUI. Others may argue for C++ or C# if you want more of a challenge in the beginners level.

I wonder what do you guys mean by BASIC. MS-DOS Quick BASIC? FreeBASIC? All the BASICs I know of are terribly outdated languages.

I'm also curious of why would you consider C# more of a challenge than VB.

[Xilo]

I'm also curious of why would you consider C# more of a challenge than VB.

I think VB is more of a challenge just because of it's incredibly verbose syntax...

[JonathanVP]

I wonder what do you guys mean by BASIC. MS-DOS Quick BASIC? FreeBASIC? All the BASICs I know of are terribly outdated languages.

I'm also curious of why would you consider C# more of a challenge than VB.

Although through the CLR, C# and VB.NET executes the same, the syntax is quite different. I learned MS-DOS Basic so I was used to working with VB.NET when it was introduced. Now that I am familiar with C#, the learning curve was steeper but doable (going from VB.NET to C#). It depends on your background and what kind of "baggage" going into learning a language. If you have a clean slate, learn C# as an introductory langauge which I believe is better. In this way, you weill be better prepared for the newer iterations of C# when it comes (in terms of SDK functionality like 2.0, 3.0, and now C# SDK 4.0).

[Limit-Studios]

When I started I began with PHP then progressed into C# which I currently use for custom and personal work. Then at the company I work for we use VB.NET

[AgentGray]

C# has quickly become my default language. It's clean, easy to read, very well documented and exampled, fast and I've found non-coders can read/understand it too. I've had people that have never touched programming before help me find tiny little logic errors in a hundred lines of code that were causing weird bugs.

That, and VS (even the Express Free editions) is SUPER powerful, and the best IDE / toolset available today...

That and the sheer flexibility of C#, it can, with very little to no change, be running as a web app, a desktop app, a phone app, a 360 game, and a silverlight client with literally zero changes to the code. (well, outside of interface stuff...but the core code's the annoying bits anyways) Yes, C/C++ can be doing the same thing, but combine that with it's cleanliness and syntax and it's the best choice IMHO

[Andre S. Veteran]

Although through the CLR, C# and VB.NET executes the same, the syntax is quite different. I learned MS-DOS Basic so I was used to working with VB.NET when it was introduced. Now that I am familiar with C#, the learning curve was steeper but doable (going from VB.NET to C#). It depends on your background and what kind of "baggage" going into learning a language. If you have a clean slate, learn C# as an introductory langauge which I believe is better. In this way, you weill be better prepared for the newer iterations of C# when it comes (in terms of SDK functionality like 2.0, 3.0, and now C# SDK 4.0).

Oh, I wholeheartedly agree then. VB is the logical choice if you're coming from any kind of BASIC background. As a new programming language, I'd recommend C# over it though, due to the syntax being more usual, and there being less language-specific additions in it. And I say that having started with VB myself. :laugh:

That, and VS (even the Express Free editions) is SUPER powerful, and the best IDE / toolset available today...

That and the sheer flexibility of C#, it can, with very little to no change, be running as a web app, a desktop app, a phone app, a 360 game, and a silverlight client with literally zero changes to the code.

Isn't it awesome. :heart:

[hdood]

You said it, not me. Therefore, YOU should be the one answering. And if you're complaining about how I didn't quote the phrase verbatim, well get a grip and don't be such a hardass.

Again, I cannot elaborate on your claim. I never said "have a program that can do everything," you did. Maybe you should ask yourself. I said that some people prefer very abstract languages (and environments, but the two are treated as the same on this forum most of the time) where you get a high level of reward with very little investment, while others enjoy the minutia of how things work. Depending on where on the scale one is, C and C++ can either be or not be enjoyable.

[Xilo]

Again, I cannot elaborate on your claim. I never said "have a program that can do everything," you did.

I will quote you again.

There is no reason why C or C++ can't be enjoyable to learn. It all comes down to whether you have a real interest in learning how things work, or if you just want to push a few buttons in a wizard and be instantly rewarded on a massive scale. Pick whatever suits your style.

Looks like you have a serious lack of reading comprehension. That, or you're just ignoring what you don't want to read and trying to not be proven wrong.

[hdood]

I will quote you again.

Looks like you have a serious lack of reading comprehension. That, or you're just ignoring what you don't want to read and trying to not be proven wrong.

I know what I wrote, because I wrote it. I know exactly what it means, because I wrote it. I have told you several times. Nowhere does it say "magically have a program that can do everything," like you've also been told several times. This is the last response I'm going to give you in this thread, so if you write any responses, you can just paste them into Notepad and paste my last post (#60) below them and keep arguing with yourself for as long as you want. Have fun.

[Xilo]

I know what I wrote, because I wrote it. I know exactly what it means, because I wrote it. I have told you several times. Nowhere does it say "magically have a program that can do everything," like you've also been told several times. This is the last response I'm going to give you in this thread, so if you write any responses, you can just paste them into Notepad and paste my last post (#60) below them and keep arguing with yourself for as long as you want. Have fun.

And I also said "If you going to nit pick about how I didn't quote exactly, don't be such a hardass". :rolleyes:

/done

Anyways, back on topic... Personally, I learned BASIC on my TI-83 Plus. Learned loops, basic conditionals, flow control (the wonders of having to use GOTO), and assignments. After that, I went on to Visual Basic 6.0 and then to C++. From there, everything else. Having the background in understanding basic programming concepts like conditionals, math, assignments, flow control, functions, loops, etc before hitting C++ made learning C++ a lot less frustrating. I wasn't trying to learn all the concepts from scratch on top of having to worry about pointers and memory management. This is why I usually suggest scripting languages like Python for beginners. There's a lot you can do with it, and it makes it easy to learn fundamentals while being able to write up useful programs. C# is also good if you want to jump right into a more traditional C-style OO language. Lots of resources, lots of built in libraries, code completion, built in help for everything, and more.

Not many people seem to like or prefer Perl. Maybe I'm just weird. :laugh:

[Doli]

Name one programming language where you can "push a few buttons in a wizard" and magically have a program that can do everything.

Go ahead. I'm waiting. :rolleyes:

I think he means the IDE. Microsoft does a real good job at wizards and shortcuts (ctrl+K, ctrl+S or right click "Surround with...") for development, hell they have a shortcut to do an "if" statement and block of code. Its good for connecting databases, forms, etc... but if you dont know how to do this without the magic of a wizard then thats not good. Well its not bad but would it be better to know the ground work also so you can have more control? It like using phpMyAdmin to do a database, all point and click and it even generates php code for you.

[sbauer]

OK. Be honest. Who voted for Perl?

[Xilo]

OK. Be honest. Who voted for Perl?

One was me. :rofl:

It's powerful, yet can be used pretty elegantly. Plus CPAN rocks. Just don't use it for CGI.

[+Majesticmerc MVC]

OK. Be honest. Who voted for Perl?

More to the point, which godless soul voted for LISP?! :huh:

[selphj]

More to the point, which godless soul voted for LISP?! :huh:

Ok, I'm going to take credit for that. I learned it way back in the early 90's when I was in college and I remember how stupidly hard that language was. I learned LISP man.. probably 16 years ago. It's bad. Even worse than RPG or COBOL, and those are pretty bad. But look at it this way, if you learn LISP first anything will be easier afterwards.

[still1]

I will vote for C# and vb.net

C, C++

[sbauer]

Ok, I'm going to take credit for that. I learned it way back in the early 90's when I was in college and I remember how stupidly hard that language was. I learned LISP man.. probably 16 years ago. It's bad. Even worse than RPG or COBOL, and those are pretty bad. But look at it this way, if you learn LISP first anything will be easier afterwards.

Yeah. That's like saying that after you cut your finger 50% off with a saw, a slip with a kitchen knife won't be that bad.

[+John. Subscriber¹]

PHP/C#

[sbauer]

I voted for Python, C#, VB.NET and Ruby.

[HSoft]

I think it truly depends on what you want to do.

The easiest language to learn is probably Basic or one of the variants like Visual Basic.Net however there's not really much call for it in a professional environment if that's where you ultimately want to head.

Perl is outdated, same with C++ etc.

I personally don't like Java and prefer C# over it but there's plenty of opportunities for both professionally.

If it's for websites then I'm afraid you can't just get by with one language these days. You need to learn HTML/XHTML, JavaScript, CSS, XML, backend language like C# etc. etc. (yes I know CSS, XML aren't really languages but in a way they count as you have to learn them).

[+Majesticmerc MVC]

The easiest language to learn is probably Basic or one of the variants like Visual Basic.Net however there's not really much call for it in a professional environment if that's where you ultimately want to head.

I wouldn't say that VB (especially .NET) isn't desirable in a professional environment. Short of the syntax, VB.NET and C# are very similar, and VB is only very loosely descended from VBScript. There's still a fair amount of demand for it in business programming (the majority of the code where I work was originally written in ASP, and the developers made the jump to VB ASP.NET, so the majority of our work is still done in VB.NET).

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My votes went to: Python, C++ and C# (with C++/C# in no particular order).

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The whole C# vs C++ thing reminds me of this...

[Andre S. Veteran]

What happens if you program in both C# and C++, are you condemned to hate yourself? :rofl:

[Elliott]

Python and Ruby are very easy to learn. Java's also easy, though I hate it with a passion.

[CHC]

There is no reason why C or C++ can't be enjoyable to learn. It all comes down to whether you have a real interest in learning how things work, or if you just want to push a few buttons in a wizard and be instantly rewarded on a massive scale. Pick whatever suits your style.

I agree with you, I started programming in C, and then after about 2 years of that I now program in C++ aswell, I didn't care for things like VB, or C#, so I started playing with C and using gcc and thats when I actually started programming.

I voted C because its what I started programming in.