Software engineering question

Hello everyone, please feel free to share educated knowledge only. Okay a little bit about me i am a freshmen college student currently im only doing math courses. i love computers in general i use to be a web designer 5 years ago but i lost the touch for it because now i am more interested in the language of computing and the idea behind applications and software development.

lately i have been doing a ton of research on Microsoft and Google code websites. I've been thinking where to start as a new software engineer i have some little experience with C++ is a really fun program to work with. So my real question here is where do i began for a career in software engineering. What is a good program to begin with and become familiar with the idea of computer science to help me understand it more in order for a successful career in computer science major.

What would you like to do? Each sub-industry has its own language (or set of languages). Health care uses older languages like fortran (though not exclusively). Manufacturing/robotics use C. Research uses more abstract conceptual languages like lisp. Desktop application programming use C#, C++, Java. Web programming uses PHP, JSP, C#. Embedded systems (toys, TVs, cash registers) use C.

What does your school recommend? Are you allowed to choose your track? My school forced everyone to learn C++, Java, and PHP (1-2 semesters each). I further took courses in assembly, C, Perl, and Lisp.

Very interesting. sounds like you have a lot of experience, my personal interest is Desktop application programming and software development. what program do you recommend to be the most useful and efficient

from what you said seems like any aspect of my career on what i do will require C# ? is it a standard program to learn?

No, C# is simply very flexible, it can be used on the desktop or on the web (much like Java with JSP).

If you want to focus on desktop application development, you'll have to choose a desktop language. If you want it to run on windows-only, then I like C#. If you need it to run on mac and linux, it has to be Java.

i see, cool.
i know my future classes will teach me c++ and c#
would you recommend i learn python for on my free time while i attend college? i have no experience any of these programs

Python is a fantastic language that's very powerful. It's well loved by the people who use it, and it contains a lot of really great features. However, relatively few businesses use it unfortunately.

-Dan

Have you ever used python or c++ ?

since you are in the process of starting, i recommend that you do not focus on a certain programing language, just get to know as much as you can, the more you know the more you will be more comfortable with different techknowledgies

in 5 years time, the whole tech world should change, and what is considered good to learn now might be obsolete .. , or at least a new thing might out shine it.

Yes, I've used both Python and C++.

bobf12x is right though. Note that you asked which language to learn, and I responded by saying that I learned SIX in college (and in reality I learned more than a dozen between the ages of 12 and 23).