Which programming language to learn first

How old is he?

Java for cross-platform. Visual Basic.NET for Windows. Good start-up languages, I'm doing them in college.
 
Python is a good, easy start. Have a look at "Learn Python the Hard Way". I believe there's a PDF version available for free from the author, though that may have changed since I last saw it.
 
Learn java. Everything else is pretty much the same from that. If you can do java, it is not difficult to "get" others.

For example, being completely competent in Java allows you to pick up things like python, MatLab and XAML very quickly. Do java with SQL classes and you can pretty much do anything already. That being said, moving from python to java will not be that easy, since java is very fussy about how you put it together, whereas python is much more forgiving.
 
Khanya said:
How old is he?

Java for cross-platform. Visual Basic.NET for Windows. Good start-up languages, I'm doing them in college.
Click to expand...

VB? Seriously, start the guy of on a dead language.

I would go Python or C# wither of these would be very easy to start with.
 
Java, C#, etc bad first languages (Seeing namespaces, when you want to do a hello world app is crazy. Learn the basics first)
For learning to program, PASCAL is famous as a teaching language.
Otherwise, Ruby is your friend (It also has really nice learning/teaching tools)
 
How about concentrating far more on the logic of programming? Loop structures, abstraction, OO etc.

lol, I remember at school we learnt on Pastel with a output to a logo program to draw things. Tertiary was taught c and c++ and then during work career have learnt VB, C# and java but if it's one thing I learnt is languages are pretty similar in structure, syntax varies but far more important to understand the logic of what you are doing.

I came accross a article on code project a while ago about learning development while coding games. I think thats a great idea and I'm sure the more old school of us can remember the days of "coding" your game before playing :D
 
Kosmik said:
How about concentrating far more on the logic of programming? Loop structures, abstraction, OO etc.
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Agreed. Language comes later. Learn the basics first.

Excellent programmers can work in various languages. At the end of the day it's all the same.
 
Messugga said:
Python is a good, easy start. Have a look at "Learn Python the Hard Way". I believe there's a PDF version available for free from the author, though that may have changed since I last saw it.
Click to expand...

I'd second that. My mate teaches introductory programming courses at high schools and university and has had the greatest success using Python.
 
Learning to program is not a once off thing, its more a path you walk, hence:
C#, which will lead him to learn the .net framework as well as the basics of programming
1. Learning C# and the .NET framework opens him up to more advanced stuff, ASP/WPF/WCF/SQL server/Windows Phone etc
2. Visual studio express is free and works great

Disclaimer :Purely my opinion
3. If he enjoys programming and pursues it as a career, there is no shortage of C#/.NET related jobs
I would not "waste time" with learning python etc first. It will be easier to learn C#/Java if you know python but you could have spent that time just learning C#/Java. Do a search on itweb/careerjunction etc and see the amount of .NET jobs vs python
 
Kosmik said:
How about concentrating far more on the logic of programming? Loop structures, abstraction, OO etc.

lol, I remember at school we learnt on Pastel with a output to a logo program to draw things. Tertiary was taught c and c++ and then during work career have learnt VB, C# and java but if it's one thing I learnt is languages are pretty similar in structure, syntax varies but far more important to understand the logic of what you are doing.

I came accross a article on code project a while ago about learning development while coding games. I think thats a great idea and I'm sure the more old school of us can remember the days of "coding" your game before playing :D
Click to expand...

Think you meant Pascal as in Turbo Pascal, no? ;)

I followed pretty much the same path, agree with your point.
 
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