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Learn Python.
Writhing python is fun
It is simple, high level (powerful), does tons of stuff, google loves it (and has an awesome class on it that you should watch the videos of, it is only 2-3 hours + exercises), has an awesome community, and is fun
Because you don't need to do anything for a profession, why would you write c++?
Further more, do what Google does with python. Each time you find yourself doing something redundant/boring, write a python script to do it instead. Ex. I wrote a script that pulled data (album, artist, song name, etc) from a music files title moved it into tags, then renamed the file to just be the song name. Then I ran it on 1000 songs. Felt pretty cool.
Oh, and it is lightweight. By that I mean, the time between starting a new script and running it is tiny. You don't need an IDE, you don't compile it, there is no boiler plate code to execute a main function to get the program off the ground.. It is pretty liberating.
Oh, and it's cross platform, including the huge standard library.
Lastly, Majromax recommends it earlier in this thread, so everything he says is more reason to choose python.
Lastly, really this time. Python has an awesome, super helpful and friendly (like TL Friendly) community and lots of resources. Including python's great official documentation and documentation built into the language itself.
As you might be able to guess, I Highly recommend python.
Edit: There are actually even more good things.
Python's most popular web frame work, Django, described as a web frame work for perfectionists with deadlines, is extremely powerful. You can have a simple website up and running, including all database interactions, HTTP crap, etc, in half and hour. Really, there is a tutorial to teach you how, and I have personally done it.
So if you are interested in web programming, Django and Python might be the perfect pair for you.
Want to do some GUI programming? Want it to be cross platform and use the OS's default widgets (so that windows on Windows look like Window's windows, and Linux windows look like Linux windows, etc)? wxPython. Bindings to wxWidgets from c++.
Want to do some low level 3D graphics? pyOpenGL.
Want to do some higher level 2D games? pySFML. Though I admit, the current bindings are, lacking, the bindings for the upcoming SFML 2.0 look much more promising.
Wish python was run-able everywhere java was? Jython, a python interpreter written in java, runs python code anywhere java runs.
Basically, you can do pretty much anything with python.
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I am doing exactly what the op decided to do. I was in college for 2 years studying to become a programmer. I have a very specific way of learning and I felt like college was holding me back. So i decided this past semester to drop out and sort of figure things out. For fun I go to thenewboston.com and learn different kinds of programming languages to see which I perfer more.
Ive been meeting with local programmers and network admins to see what goes on in their worlds. Its been a lot of fun so far, but am quickly going broke(had no job in college and cant find one now). So as of now, I am getting certified in a few IT areas to become... you guessed it an IT pro. Good luck to you and finding what language u want to learn!
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Start with Java or C#
Both are the standard OO programming languages these days. Once you know either you pretty much know JavaScript (and other languages, vb.net, python, and even c++) and programming in general will become far more simple.
P.S Don't start with JavaScript, that would be a terrible idea.
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TossFloss
Canada606 Posts
First figure out what you want to create then figure out which languages are best suited for the job.
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Had some long post but never mind - comes down to what TossFloss says. Why are you trying to learn programming? Pick a language that let's you do some project you're interested in, it's way more fun then just picking up a textbook and learning something.
Java has a really really REALLY easy to use API and lots of tutorials and let's you get into Android.
C# also has ease of use like Java, I've never used, but let's you do asp.net (web), games (XNA), and windows programming.
Python - good for web? Idk what standalone apps you make in python and just doing random textbook assignments is pretty boring imo.
Objective C- let's you do iPhone stuff? Always cool to make apps. Need a mac though, as was previously mentioned.
C++ - honestly idk what you'd do in that (not as in there's nothing, I just don't know)
Web stuff - let's you get deliverables out pretty fast, maybe try learning ruby on rails? Seems pretty fun.
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If you want to start with C++, you're going to need one of the two mainstream compilers (the MSVC compiler or GCC) and an IDE to use it with.
The MSVC compiler is the one that ships with the Visual Studio software, and GCC is actually a compiler collection for all kinds of languages, and it usually ships with all major and even minor distributions of linux.
Then you need an IDE to use it with. There are tons of IDEs out there, so for ease of use I suggest you simply take Visual Studio (the express version is free and, for C++, can be found here.
You just install it, start it, create a new empty C++ project and you're good to go.
In terms of resources to learn from: I suggest you simply google "C++ tutorial" and get to know the basics.
Most online-tutorials teach total and utter crap when it comes to style and details for C++, but that doesn't matter for you now. What matters is that you get to know and use the languages in its most basic form. You can learn about actual good programming later on.
You could also look for some beginners books, but I can't give any advice on that.
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On February 04 2012 17:07 teamamerica wrote:
Had some long post but never mind - comes down to what TossFloss says. Why are you trying to learn programming? Pick a language that let's you do some project you're interested in, it's way more fun then just picking up a textbook and learning something.
Java has a really really REALLY easy to use API and lots of tutorials and let's you get into Android.
C# also has ease of use like Java, I've never used, but let's you do asp.net (web), games (XNA), and windows programming.
Python - good for web? Idk what standalone apps you make in python and just doing random textbook assignments is pretty boring imo.
Objective C- let's you do iPhone stuff? Always cool to make apps. Need a mac though, as was previously mentioned.
C++ - honestly idk what you'd do in that (not as in there's nothing, I just don't know)
Web stuff - let's you get deliverables out pretty fast, maybe try learning ruby on rails? Seems pretty fun.
For an actual website...
https://www.djangoproject.com/
As far as apps, I don't know if you saw the thread but someone made a web app that ranked pro gamers by attractiveness, the same way girls were ranked in The Social Network (and the same way players are ranked in SCII ladder).
Python is the third most popular language on github, and there are 238 projects that use django hosted. It is a pretty popular way to do web programming.
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First year of cs major here. We're learning java and it seems like a good foundation. I've tried to learn python before, but to me it was so simple that it just felt strange, especially the structure of the program. The best part of it is that we're using probably one of the better books than most colleges use: http://introcs.cs.princeton.edu/java/home/. I was in your boat a year back, and I pretty much got similar results: learn either python, java, or c#. Personally, I wouldn't go with python since java and (I'm guessing) c# are fairly easy to begin with.
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My recommendation is to just get on a project and start building. As long as it is object oriented and you give yourself enough time to learn, you will be able to build some cool stuff, get an awesome job, or at least find out where you want to go next. I personally prefer ruby for its elegant syntax, active community, and a little thing called rails. Don’t get too hung up on the language choices - if you are comfortable using C++ as a starting point, go for it. The fundamentals you learn will be applicable to other languages.
Every application is made up of simple primitives that can be reasoned about, so it is very important to start with something simple enough to be successful at and to build confidence on. For some people that means creating a server of some sort, or a library to read data out of a file, or writing a method to print 1,000 numbers from the Fibonacci sequence, or simply assigning a variable and printing the result. It does not really matter how trivial it may seem, or how worthless you may feel compared to others, just drop down to the smallest unit of code that you can fully understand and control. Start there and inch forward, understanding what is occurring at each step of the way.
It is easy to get stuck early on, so building a network of people who can support you is very important. You can find people on forums, irc, and other places like github, just do as much as you can to get in contact with smart people. Joining an existing project or volunteering is a great way to meet people. My project’s and many others put a big focus on learning and connecting people with mentors. Code reviews are also very helpful.
I would start online once you know what language you are working with. There are a lot of getting started guides, tutorials, screen casts, and the overall quality of online documentation is constantly improving. It is an awesome time to be a developer so have fun with it 
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On February 04 2012 15:10 Vilonis wrote:
Learn Python.
Oh man I cannot stress this enough! I program in C and C++ because I'm in school to become a professional programmer for a company like MS, but as hobby programming Python is by far the most fun. The syntax is extremely clean and readable, and there's a lot of documentation and support out there. There's even PyGame, I've spent many hours writing games in PyGame back in highschool!
If you want to be a professional software developer for real-time applications, ground yourself in C, then switch to C++. That's the most solid way according to professionals I talk to. If you want to program more as a hobby and perhaps someday as a profession, Python is perfect.
So you need to let us know what you want to actually program!
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At the end of the day, if you're going to be a professional it's almost irrelevant on which language you learn. Being a professional is about having the skills and capability to write maintainable, relevant, and effective code in a reasonable amount of time and adapt to your environment. Starting off learning language X vs. Y will make certain things easier to pick up on, but, in my experience and the people I've seen, there's almost no correlation between the top developers and the bad ones. Not to mention that languages and platforms move, so you'll probably need to have the skills necessary to learn at least 1 more language in your lifetime (probably more!).
Good programmers understand the environment and problem they're solving and solve it in a way that's both effective and maintainable. I've seen "whiz-kids" at work produce some garbage code that does awesome things. Subsequently I've spent all weekend refactoring and rewriting it because it was, again, garbage.
In the end, focus less on the language you learn and more on learning how to be a good programmer.
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United States24701 Posts
Well to give an update a lot of you (as well as people I spoke to online) were pushing python, and given my reputation from broodwar as the king of python, I went with it.
I've gone through a little over half of this for a warmup: http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/
I'll attach a little program I wrote before dinner for fun:
def factorial(base):
if base > 1:
return base*factorial(base-1)
else:
return 1
xmin = 1
xmax = 10
xvar = []
f_of_x = []
xvar=range(xmin,xmax+1)
print "\nf(x)=x!\n\n",\
"The Domain is:", xvar, "\n"
f_of_x = [factorial(x) for x in xvar]
print "The Range is:", f_of_x, "\n"
raw_input("Press Enter to Exit")
There were a couple of parts that I spent 2-3 lines on. A couple of people on IRC gave me some suggestions and I condensed it to take advantage of some of the advantages of python over C++, apparently.
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EPT
