First programming language to learn?

[jasonwj322a]

Decided to get into programming but have no idea where to start. People say Python but there are also arguments being made saying Java is better. What do you guys think? 

[zehao39]

Both python and Java are pretty compare to other, I think python will be  the easy one to start

[TheTelperion]

13 minutes ago, jasonwj322a said:

Decided to get into programming but have no idea where to start. People say Python but there are also arguments being made saying Java is better. What do you guys think? 

Start with HTML, it's a very easy introduction to programming.

Then I would suggest python, Java just isn't as relevant anymore.

From there on you have the choice to do C++ if you're planning on doing stuff for windows. Or Swift from Apple (I'm currently doing that one). 

[vorticalbox]

1 hour ago, jasonwj322a said:

Decided to get into programming but have no idea where to start. People say Python but there are also arguments being made saying Java is better. What do you guys think? 

What do you want to create? no point learning python or java if you wanted to create websites where html,PHP,JavaScript are used. You can use python for websites in django.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, TheTelperion said:

Start with HTML, it's a very easy introduction to programming.

Then I would suggest python, Java just isn't as relevant anymore.

From there on you have the choice to do C++ if you're planning on doing stuff for windows. Or Swift from Apple (I'm currently doing that one). 

C# for windows. C++ is for anything. 

 

Though now Microsoft's C# is apparently open source. 

[Dat Guy]

Right, C# is cross-platform as of 2017.

 

About the initial question itself: Woohoo, my favorite topic! Here's the usual answer.

In descending order of being an interesting and valuable experience for beginners:

1. C++,
2. Common Lisp,
3. Perl,
4. 
   
   
   
   
   
   Python.

All of them have great free books and tutorials available (I, personally, recommend Wikibooks for your first attempt).

 

I can't really recommend anyone to start with Python because, while Python might give you working code rather fast, it relies on bad style, e.g. mandatory try..catch blocks instead of avoiding exceptions in the first place.

[fjdhdhcyfhf]

C++ or C. start with the language that does the least for you so when you do need to learn other languages they will be easier

[Mira Yurizaki]

7 hours ago, jasonwj322a said:

Decided to get into programming but have no idea where to start. People say Python but there are also arguments being made saying Java is better. What do you guys think? 

Python is easy because it has a simple setup. You install Python, go to the command prompt, type in python, and you can start working right there. Although if you don't want to go around piddling in the command line, you can also use your web browser's developer mode for JavaScript, if you want to go that route instead to learn how to program in general. Although running saved stuff from a JavsScript console in a browser is hokey (alternatively you could install node.js :D)

 

If you want to get serious with it though, I would say stick with Python and move onto another programming language like C or C# once you're comfortable with it.

 

Remember: take the high level concepts with you. If you understand how programming works in general, you can pick up most languages with minimal effort.

6 hours ago, TheTelperion said:

Start with HTML, it's a very easy introduction to programming.

(obligatory rant because reasons) HTML is not a programming language and is as good as teaching how to program as teaching someone how to cook using TV dinners.

[TheTelperion]

On 13-2-2017 at 6:28 PM, M.Yurizaki said:

Python is easy because it has a simple setup. You install Python, go to the command prompt, type in python, and you can start working right there. Although if you don't want to go around piddling in the command line, you can also use your web browser's developer mode for JavaScript, if you want to go that route instead to learn how to program in general. Although running saved stuff from a JavsScript console in a browser is hokey (alternatively you could install node.js :D)

 

If you want to get serious with it though, I would say stick with Python and move onto another programming language like C or C# once you're comfortable with it.

 

Remember: take the high level concepts with you. If you understand how programming works in general, you can pick up most languages with minimal effort.

(obligatory rant because reasons) HTML is not a programming language and is as good as teaching how to program as teaching someone how to cook using TV dinners.

Welp, I got into programming because of HTML.

But that's the beauty of the forum, everyone can share their experiences.

Thats what makes the posts so interesting.

[Mira Yurizaki]

23 minutes ago, TheTelperion said:

Welp, I got into programming because of HTML.

While that is good, it's still important to know that HTML is not a programming language. HTML is basically a more advanced version of say messing with the INI files on Skyrim. Or more closely, editing a Wikipedia page. Does editing a Wikipedia page make you a programmer?

 

This is mostly me, but when I think of something that is an actual programming language the language must be Turing Complete. HTML/CSS is a data set language and is not Turing Complete.

 

This is also my problem with a lot of "programming games" these days. They don't really teach a person how to be a programmer for software development, but the world acts like it does.

[fizzlesticks]

10 minutes ago, Erik Sieghart said:

It's easier to avoid exceptions in python than other languages. 

You can avoid writing your own try/catch in a lot a places but in Python you can't even write a for loop without relying on exceptions (not that it's really an issue, just how the language was designed.)

[straight_stewie]

On 2/13/2017 at 4:19 AM, jasonwj322a said:

Decided to get into programming but have no idea where to start. People say Python but there are also arguments being made saying Java is better. What do you guys think? 

It really depends on what you want to do. There is a link in my signature that has more information about how to select a type of programming that will suit your needs. 

I'd like to elaborate on some things thought and say that I have mixed feelings about python. I'm starting to get to know it pretty well, and there are some things that are amazing about it, and some things that just make you go "what were they thinking?". It's still a great beginner OOP language, just don't expect to learn much about encapsulation as a compile time constraint. 

[Dat Guy]

1 minute ago, Erik Sieghart said:

I can do more in python, faster, better, and more bug-free than I can in any other language.

 

Fact: CPython is one of the slowest default interpreters of any recent programming language.

 

1 minute ago, Erik Sieghart said:

It compiles to C and often behaves like C when you need it to

 

How can I define an explicit char pointer in Python? Right, I can't.

[Dat Guy]

Compiled Python is still slow.

 

ctypes is basically "calling C functions", so no, you can't do that in Python itself.

[Dat Guy]

1 minute ago, Erik Sieghart said:

Compiled python is essentially C, because most of python is written in C.

 

And compiled C is essentially machine language, so Python, COBOL and Scheme are essentially machine language? 

 

1 minute ago, Erik Sieghart said:

fast enough

 

I hope the difference between "faster than in any other language" and "fast enough" is obvious even to the most stubborn Python "developer".

 

1 minute ago, Erik Sieghart said:

If Python still isn't fast enough then I can write a function in straight C that's a complete automation of the particular part of my code that's slow.

 

And then you can skip the Python step entirely. That's what I do.

 

1 minute ago, Erik Sieghart said:

It's ridiculous to say "cyptes" isn't real python because it's C, when python is C

 

Python is not C.

[Mira Yurizaki]

46 minutes ago, Erik Sieghart said:

Compiled python is essentially C, because most of python is written in C.

...

It's ridiculous to say "cyptes" isn't real python because it's C, when python is C, despite it being an exposed feature of the python language.

Uh, no. Python is an interpreted language, an interpreter can be written in any language so long as it creates the expected output. The original interpreter may have been written in C, but there are interpreters written in .NET/Mono, Java, Lisp, and strangely enough, Python itself.

 

Otherwise, you may as well claim Java is C because the original JVM was written in C.