Best choice

[camhabib]

I had someone ask me today what I thought was the best language for a person who has never programmed before to learn. They are pretty computer savvy and know their way around the computer, just not the programming world. I recommended Java or C# but had reservations in saying either one. I'm interested in hearing what you would have recommended as a beginning language (other then visual basic).

-Cameron

 

[M4A1]

You are correct! I would say Java, too.

 

[furtivefelon]

i wouldn't recommend Java.. As it teaches you OO is the only way to program.. whereas it isn't the only way at all.. OO is fits nicely with a very small subset of problems.. It is extremely hard to do it any other way in java.. as recently there has been a rise of Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP).. to make it work in java, it involves writing the whole parsetree from compiler level.. and i have no idea how that turned out :|.. to learn something as your first, you better make sure you learn something flexible, allow you to choose, instead of the language forcing a style on you python does a fine job.. Though, i personally like lisp exactly for it's flexbility it takes a library written in portable Common Lisp to integrate AOP into the language, if ever it arises, lisp will be the first language that supports it out of hte box mm.. to sum up, i recommend you start with either Python (google "Python", homepage will give you alot of resources), and Common Lisp (google "Practical Common Lisp")

 

[Alex81388]

Object Oriented program was a good choice in my opinion.

Either of the two you recommended would circle around it.

I would have given Java before C#, just because I would say learn C++ before C#. Also I like Java better .

 

[M4A1]

I personally enjoy C++, but you can do more with Java. Draw pictures on applets! MMM. (I'd rather do it on MS Paint)

 

[zap]

java all the way

 

[gab00n]

Start with python, then go C, C++ and Java. If he wants to be an engineer he should also study fortran.

 

[warrior1981]

we can do wonders in java ........
but its very unusable until it becomes very stable and it really kills time while loading the aaaaaaaappppppppppllllllllllleeeeeeeettttt
thats how it is
but once its stable
we can do wonders

 

[Iron_Cross]

Damnit, I've said it before and I'll say it again...

IT ALL DEPENDS ON WHAT HE WANTS TO DO WITH PROGRAMMING

Now for a first language, that doesn't quite matter, because you're just wanting to get the idea of programming. In which case I always suggest Python, it's simple, easy, and teaches good programming practice, not to mention it's Object Oriented. But where he goes after that ALL DEPENDS ON WHAT HIS ULTIMATE GOAL IS.

So, if you tell us his goal then we can give you a reasonable, logical answer. Not just "I think you should go wtih this language because it's l337, and it's my f4v0ritz0rz because it's the only one I know!!!!111one"

I mean honestly, when people give you advice about which language to choose, and don't even know what you're wanting to program, that's ludacris. You have to know why they are wanting to program to be able to help them authentically.