What is the best programming language for a complete beginner programmer to start learning?

I have never programmed before and I am keen to learn. I am fairly competent with PC's and have always been able to do everything i've tried on my psp etc but i have never programmed before.

What is the best programming language for a complete beginner programmer to start learning?
Firstly find out why you want to program? What you want to do? Do you want to program internet services? Databases? Do you want to create stand-alone applications?





The point I am trying to make is that there are many languages and it really does depend on what you are trying to do. If you want to program on the Internet I would recommend ASP.NET or PHP 5





Programming Databases - SQL





Applications - C++, Visual Basic





JAVA can be used to program on the web and make stand-alone applications.





If your learning to get a job in programming then you would be better of completing a computer science degree as most employers will not take you on without one.
Reply:python-2.5


is the best programming language to start with


its kinda easy


but programming is not


the best programming language is C++


good luck :]
Reply:BASIC or Visual Basic (VB) would be what most people start out learning. Pascal is another 'learners' language - Although nowadays everything is Object Oriented (basic is more procedural) - You may as well start at the top - the most useful, powerful and widely used language of them all - c++ - if you know c++ well you will be able to pick up any other language pretty quickly.
Reply:probably 'visual basic' is one of the easiest languages to pick up and it can be applied to creating macros in microsoft office programs as well as creating 'real' standalone software, BUT learning this basic language first may hinder you if you later on to progress onto something more 'meaty' like c or java.





i'd say try and get 'c++ for dummies' from your library or cheap off ebay, and begin working through that first:


http://www.amazon.com/C%2B%2B-Dummies-St...





if you find that easy to work with, stick with it. if you don't, consider dropping back to visual basic or another language.
Reply:I would not recomend a visual package or object orientated language to begin with. As a starting point HTML with a bit of Javascript might be a good idea, then try moving onto an imperative language. I found Ada is a good one to start with but is not very common. C is probably the most common but you should be carefull as in C you can write direct to memory so be carefull with what are called "pointers." I think the internet is proabably as good a source for information as a book.
Reply:I would try python





You can download python for free it's very easy to learn. And there are a lot of examples on the internet if you get stuck with any code.
Reply:I reccomend Visual Basic.Net, its a great langauge for beginners, and best of all its free. Go to google and type Microsoft Visual Basic Express Edition 2005, and you can get a free IDE.


You can get a book or go to google and search for code, also its a simple to drag and drop but your stuff will not do anything, but you just need to learn a bit and you can do more powerful things in VB.net in a day than in a few months of C or C++.


I've been working in VB.Net for about 7 months now and I can make a media player in 30 minutes, its that easy. I self-taught myself and got one book that I've not used much.


go to my website http://www.zenox.co.nr/ to see some of my work, especially Zenox Notepad its my best creation so far.


I will happily help you in starting Visual Basic.Net if you email me (click on my username and email me from there)
Reply:Like everyone said vb is easy, also if you are looking to do web development, PHP is the easiest, with php you can easily go into jsp and asp.net (well easy enough).
Reply:I think that the best start is C++, not because is a good programming language, but because You can to learn the basis of computer programming, without wizard, without a RAD environment.
Reply:I would recommand C++, If you have done this you will be able to switch to JAVA, VC++, C#, VB...anything.
Reply:Visual BASIC or Pascal