Absolute beginning in programming [closed]

Question

I have worked for the last 10 years in Networking & Web Development and always had an interest in programming. When I was in School I started in Basic, (To date myself) the other languages at that time were Cobol & Fortran, Where should I start in 2009? is C+ or C++ a good place? Is it better to Start Java or .net? I'm in need of some direction from Coders, Programmers, developers who can point me in the right direction. The technology changes in the blink of an eye, I'd like a good starting point to begin learning & understanding relevant code.

Answer 1

I think your best bet is to learn Python because

1. It is simple and easy language to learn
2. Python is capable of doing what any other main stream language can do
3. Python is also a very good choice for web development, with good frameworks like Django, Pylons, Turbogears etc
4. Google uses Python and using google appengine you could be able to quickly write web applications.
5. Python is also great for cross-platform desktop applications using wxPython, PyQT, Tkinter,gtk etc
6. Python has very rich set of libraries and frameworks e.g. PIL for imaging, numpy for computing, twisted for networking etc etc etc
7. Python has implementation in Java and .NET so you can program for those platforms in Python

Answer 2

I agree with most of the posts on here but I would like to add my own slant on this. Learning a programming language should change the way you think about programming and allow you to make useful programs. The list below is a mix of easy to learn (the basics) and helps you think about programming problems

1. Python it makes programming fun and easy. You will learn a lot about programming and make some cool programs in a relatively small amount of code. Will help you think about programs at a higher level than C which is a good thing.
2. C it's the basis of a massive number of languages and will teach you a good deal of stuff that is now considered low level. Stuff that will be useful for any programmer to know.
3. Haskell its a functional language which will have you thinking about programming from a different perspective. It is very useful to know this stuff - can help reduce many bugs.

I would start by gaining a basic knowledge. i.e. be able to make a text based Connect 4 game in each of these three languages (in order). Which books help you do that is largely personal preference.

Programming is not only about the code and the language. It's about everything you do at the computer read The Pragmatic Programmer and Code Complete 2. Extra points for SICP and Hacker's Delight

From there if you want to know more about how programming languages work by writing a interpreter for Scheme (by reading SICP again) And/or look at FORTH. Or learn more about how to program by writing more and more programs. Once you get basic knowledge write, then re-write as many different computer programs as you can.