[clay_ghost]

Hi gaf. Any easy to learn programming language that someone can just learn on your own?
I suck at programming c# btw, and have forgotten most of the codes.

Any free websites , etc for easy learning?

or even .bat "Programming"?

[Joni]

Probably Java as it is a very forgiving language. And you'll easily find tutorials for it on Google.

[commedieu]

python.. i'd say..

and html.

[Tenck]

Probably Java as it is a very forgiving language. And you'll easily find tutorials for it on Google.

I'd say Python is a lot easier.

And it looks so clean too.

Website for you to learn OP.

http://learnpythonthehardway.org/

[HooYaH]

http://www.codecademy.com/

[clay_ghost]

http://www.codecademy.com/

Hmm thanks, will try this .

[SPE]

BASIC.

10 PRINT "clay_ghost likes to bum his dog"
20 GOTO 10

[Wolf Akela]

Python and PHP are the easiest. The former has a very friendly syntax while the latter is very lax.

Java requires more typing before you can even start writing your own code. Lots of keywords that's usually taken for granted until later.

[Raistlin]

python.. i'd say..

I'd agree

and html.

errr ... not a programming language.

[Zoramon089]

Python is ridiculously easy

[Mr. B]

Probably Java as it is a very forgiving language. And you'll easily find tutorials for it on Google.

I wouldn't do java as a beginner, even though in school it's usually the first language you learn. It's a convoluted language. Python is good for learning the basics and you can move on from there if you chose.

[Hilbert]

Generally the syntax and particulars of a language isn't the hard part, bit rather the logic and thinking how to program is the hard part. In that respect I would say pico an object oriented language that is well documented. I recommend java or c#

[salva]

Visual Basic

[twofold]

Sign up to Udacity.com and do their cs101 course - it's incredible.

It's a basic primer on Python.

[BrokenSymmetry]

Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET)
- Easy to understand language, but with the same capabilities as e.g. C# and Java
- Great, mature, application framework (.NET)
- Free, very good, development tools (Visual Basic 2010 Express)

[mannerbot]

Hmm thanks, will try this .

I'm keeping up with codecademy myself, but to be honest, it's just not very good. For the most part it's just a big hand-holding tutorial that has you parroting syntax without learning much about what you're doing, why you're doing it, or how it works.

I would recommend Python for the language, and udacity.com and Learn Python the Hard Way are both good. Both give you room to figure things out (and, unlike codecademy, you have the freedom to come up with your own solutions to problems rather than being artificially constrained to whatever specific solution the writer decided on) and do a good job of explaining concepts.

coursera.org has a CS101 course as well, using JavaScript as a platform to introduce basic computer science concepts. If for whatever reason you find udacity's CS101 class overwhelming, coursera's offering very little knowledge on the part of the student. As a result, it is a bit slow, but the professor does a very good job of explaining concepts in simple terms.

[Tenck]

Sign up to Udacity.com and do their cs101 course - it's incredible. It's a basic primer on Python.

Oh my god, where have you been all my life?!?!?!

[dabig2]

Obligatory:

[Wolf Akela]

Another obligatory.

[threetri333]

Do you guys have a good source for learning the logic aspect?

[Man]

Alice 3D environmental programming: http://www.alice.org/

It's only purpose is to teach people how logic works and flows.

Edit: If a real language is desired then learn yourself Python, C# or Java.

[close to the edge]

Do you guys have a good source for learning the logic aspect?

The logic aspect is what you learn when you program anyways. You basically learn how to specify a problem exactly and (more or less) formally in a (hopefully) well-defined language. That's also a big part of math and formal logic, so if you know those things, you'll have an easier time programming. They are not requirements, though.

I'd recommend Python. I started with Java but it was a university course and not on my own and Java is kind of verbose and not very modern. C# is very similar to Java in all aspects relevant to a new-comer but it's less verbose and has shiny new features that, at first, don't really matter. Also, if you want to get into some game programming, there's XNA for C# which makes that a whole lot easier. Python has very intuitive syntax, is not as verbose (to print a line on the console, in Java you type System.out.println("line"); while in Python, you just type print "line") and it's very compact and easy to read.

[Charmicarmicat]

BASIC. 10 PRINT "clay_ghost likes to bum his dog" 20 GOTO 10

[Nemo]

If you want something that's easy and gives you awesome results directly, look no further than processing

http://processing.org/

Although if you want to do something substantial go with more traditional stuff. But for learning purposes this is pretty fucking great

[Tantalus]

Python is a great place to start. Not only does it have an easy to read syntax and lots of great documentation online, it's actually a really useful language to know.

I would also recommend not starting with Java. It has more of an emphasis on being an "object oriented" language, which introduces a bunch of new key words and concepts that might not be easy to grasp for a first time programmer. Things like "polymorphism" and "inheritance" are very useful, but I found them to be a lot easier to get the hang of once I had worked in regular old ("procedural") Python and PHP for a while first.

[kruis]

Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET) - Easy to understand language, but with the same capabilities as e.g. C# and Java - Great, mature, application framework (.NET) - Free, very good, development tools (Visual Basic 2010 Express)

This.

[i nerini del buio]

Lua is amazing. And fast. Really fast.

[Zoe]

Why did you suck at C#?

[Myke Greywolf]

Python is a great first language to learn. It's easy, mostly cleans after itself, and has libraries for most things you could ever want to develop.

Only issue is that it is not very fast on execution.

[Dynamite Shikoku]

It would be cool if there was some language where you could say something like

Make *game;

And then the computer reads your mind and completes the rest

[neorej]

It would be cool if there was some language where you could say something like Make *game; And then the computer reads your mind and completes the rest

some of the clients I work for actually do think that exists for websites.

[ChiTownBuffalo]

[Scrow]

python is a good place to start

[tuffy]

It doesn't get much easier to learn than Scheme. It's the sort of language where you can pick up everything you need to know about its syntax in half an hour. But something more conventional like Python tends to be more practical.

[cartoon_soldier]

ColdFusion

I learned it in 2 days.

[Hawkian]

Another obligatory.

Smiled at C++, chuckled at Unix admin, lost it at HTML

[The Technomancer]

Python is useful and easy but working with it still kinda freaks me out. I feel...uneasy when I'm working with it.

Another obligatory.

I still cannot believe that when I was getting LaTeX for a project last year I typed "latex" into Google and got the correct top result.

[thesoapster]

No mention of Ruby?

Can even learn an amusing way...

Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby

[silentspork]

Ruby/Ruby on Rails

[injurai]

Java - Smart Pointers will make you dumb...

[Sqorgar]

Most languages these days are sufficiently high level that beginners can pick them up easily from numerous excellent learning sources. In my opinion, it doesn't matter what language you learn how to program in - you aren't going to be using the high level parts of the language for a while, and you'll be doing the same types of "Hello World" programs at the beginning. It's largely about learning the basics of things like variables, input/output, string manipulation, and using libraries. The music might be different from one language to the next, but the dance is the same (except for functional languages, see below).

It doesn't get much easier to learn than Scheme. It's the sort of language where you can pick up everything you need to know about its syntax in half an hour. But something more conventional like Python tends to be more practical.

Lisp-likes do indeed have the easiest syntax of all languages, but they tend to require higher level knowledge to be able to write properly (I'd save recursion for an intermediate programmer). And I've still never seen an easily understandable description of continuations. Every programmer should know a functional language. I'm just not sure they should start with one. A number of noteworthy computer science curriculum begin with Scheme, but you aren't trying to learn that on your own. I've recently been picking up Clojure (Lisp-like built on top of the Java virtual machine) and there's some things I really like about it.

[RustyNails]

AutoIT. Became proficient in just 2 days, starting from scratch.

[Frank "Trashman" Reynolds]

i'd go with java or c#. might be semi easier languages, but one of those will be the best in the long run. Especially if you want to pick up c++ or something later... shrug depends what your goals are i guess

[Phoenix]

Hi gaf. Any easy to learn programming language that someone can just learn on your own? I suck at programming c# btw, and have forgotten most of the codes. Any free websites , etc for easy learning? or even .bat "Programming"?

I would first sak why you're trying to learn programming. I've found it easier to work with people learning a language when they have a goal in mind - helps them to measure their progress. Otherwise all languages have their easy points and hard points.

[H3xum]

Most certainly python

[Zoe]

ColdFusion I learned it in 2 days.

Sure... if he wants to pay out the ass for it.

[Eiolon]

Python is the easiest I've learned.

But, IMO, learn the concepts, not necessarily the language. It's easy to look up a command, it's harder to know how to properly implement it.

Also, it may sound daunting at first, but get OOP down pat. Procedural programming is the way of the dinosaur.

[spandexmonkey]

C# and visual studio. It's easy to branch out after that.