[Question] Easy language to learn.

azzeretti

As the winter months get nearer I am looking at taking up a programming language. I have very little experience outside shell scripting/batch files and some HTML, CSS and very basic ASP/PHP.

I am considering Perl but wondering if anyone knows how this would rate on the "difficult to learn" scale.

Any other languages you might suggest?

Evil Phil

Python, you can use it for shell scripting on linux too.

fasty

Saw thread title, was about to come in and suggest Python.

Manach

Having experence of both Python & Perl, the former easier to learn the latter a tad more handy for scripting.

The_B_Man

ASP.NET?
PHP5 with the objects?
C++?

noxqs

perl is not easy to learn because of some technical reasons (such as what is the current execution context?). It is a handy language for many tasks but it is definitely not for a beginner.

Python is good because it is object oriented and easy to read.

But I might sound like an old fart, but I learned to program using assembler, and it might still be relevant. When you understand how the CPU works, why datastructures and formats matter (at the cpu level) working your way up to higher level languages every concept abstracted in these languages _makes sense_. And having this in the back of your mind is probably the greatest thing you can teach yourself.

I would still recommend it. Although Python and other high level languages, like Ruby or even C# has more of an instant gratification feel to it.

jk86

Python is a nice language to learn. I'd also recommend C#/asp.net if you're looking to do weby stuff

azzeretti

Cheers for the replies. Gives me something to think about alright. I have looked at Python before, very briefly, but didn't take to it too well.........maybe I'll revisit!

Evil Phil

You could try C. Don't worry to much about the pointers stuff at the start just get a hang of procedures, control statements, and variable declaration. Once you've mastered that you can move on to the more technical stuff. C is a technical language theres no getting around that, and might not the easiest to learn, but it is a small language (well ANSI C is) which is a benefit to the beginner.

However, once you got a hang of C, learning other languages will be much easier.

DonkeyStyle \o/

As you're already into html/css, I'd say learn javascript if you haven't already.
You're then prepared to play with JQuery and html5 canvas, there's a lot of interesting stuff happening around this area and enough to keep you busy.
I think it'd complement your current skills pretty well.

p

Have you a particular type of programming you're interested in getting into. That'd help advise you a bit better.

Processing is a Java based tool for creating animation & interactive art. It's designed to abstract some of the more confusing stuff at the start. Take a look at the site and if you like what you see it might be good to try (processing.org)

dvpower

azzeretti wrote: »

As the winter months get nearer I am looking at taking up a programming language. I have very little experience outside shell scripting/batch files and some HTML, CSS and very basic ASP/PHP.

I am considering Perl but wondering if anyone knows how this would rate on the "difficult to learn" scale.

Any other languages you might suggest?

Depends on why you want to learn a language, but if its to put on your CV, I'd recommend a mainstream langauge like C#, VB.NET or Java (or even C or C++).