Young Programmer

I'm only 16 years old, and in the future I want's to be a programmer, I have allready looked into Perl and simple stuff like JavaScript.
My question: Wich programming language should I go for, wich will be popular in the future, (where talking languages like Java or C++ etc.)......

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SwEdE[oelbal]n

Java, Perl, and XML

If you know those, just about every language after that will be very intuitive.

I believe Java,C++ are good for application programming (my school is teaching that now!)

For web programming, I love PHP and PERL (just learn it myself)

PHP looks very good, while in PERL, its code is quite cryptic!
Anyway, it depends on how much you like CS!

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Son

C/C++ and Java will take your career in programming as far as you could possibly want to go. C is old, but still widely used, especially with server side applications and lower level applications. C will give you the rudimentary principles of programming. C++ and Java are both object oriented and as a programmer you should become fluent with the principles and design of Object Oriented Programming (OOP) These two languages are very popular and will continue to be for sometime.

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Jason Woods
http://www.bon-fire.com
jasonw@bon-fire.com
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If you want to start fairly soon, learn PHP or Python. If you want to start right, take a Community College class "intro to programming" which will no doubt learn C++. Once you learn C++ you will much more easily learn other languages, such as the ones mentioned above. If you aren't going to take a class then find a book/tutorials.

The PHP Community is pretty friendly to newbies. Perl, well, Perl is not a good first language imho.

I'd agree with philip - try an intro community college (CC) course.

Some good ideas:

- many CC classes transfer when you go to college full-time (advisable).

- check to see if the college has an intensive course, one which would be finished in half the time. This would get you up to speed faster as many CC intro programming courses are _very_ slow (my wife is taking one right now).

- don't be surprised if the CC uses Visual Basic for its intro class! The one I'm attending does VB for the intro class then you go on to separate classes for VisualC++, VB and Java.

- consider continuing on to an associate of science program at the CC, maybe two classes per semester if you can afford it or have the time.

- my wife is currently taking the intro class along with an Oracle class (just to give her something practical with it), then in the spring she'll take another VB class and a C++ class, then next summer the advanced classes of those two. After that she'll probably take a Java class or two, after I teach her PHP, ASP and CF that is :-)

If you want to learn programming yourself, start with either PHP or Python. PHP has lots of good tutorials online (hello!), so you may have an easier time of it. If you are going to go with Python I'd suggest starting with the v2 beta as you'll get used to some of its new features which are standard in other laugages.

I'm 16 now, but back when I was 12 or 13 I started getting into programming. My route probably isn't the easiest, but I had a lot of experts by my side in case I had questions. I first bought one of those $50 books on learning Perl, which was a solid base for me as a web programmer.

I would suggest learning C or Java for sure. I don't know either, partly because I don't have the time and partly because I mainly stick to internet applications, but I wish I would have started with that.

Good luck man, and btw I think I've seen something like "SwEdE[oelbal]n" done in a Robert Frost poem, I'm not sure..

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Aristotle concluded that those who admit their stupidity are truly wise.
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Gil Hildebrand Jr
4atcost.com Senior Web Developer

Some Object-Oriented language like Java or C++ will be good choice. I think that Java is easy to learn than C++, but C++ is most used in Windows programming. It would be better start from OO language, because it's very different from not OO. If you learn one OO language in right way, after that it easy to learn some other languages.

I see most everybody is recommending Java and C++. Please do not begin there. I have been programming for 12 years and I have some slightly different advise. Most colleges start you out in an easier language (Basic or Pascal when I was in college, now it is usually Visual Basic). That is to get you started thinking like a programmer. Unfortunately these "starter" languages are not much use in the real world. I would suggest trying PHP first. It is extremely easy to learn and has all the features necessary for learning programming while still allowing you to use what you learned in real-life situations. Then I would move on to the absolute best programming language, Perl. I would not try Java unless you are planning on programming client-side applications. I would not try C++ unless you are programming for Windows. Both Java and C can be used for server-side web applications, but both take much more time to develop and will kill production time. At runtime C is only slightly faster than Perl and Java lags way behind. After being exposed to many different languages, I have stuck with Perl. It is an excellent all-purpose language. If you are going to use OO, then try Java. It will get more popular as computer and internet connection speeds increase in the future.

Per an earlier post: XML. Not really a language, but the whole world will revolve around XML before too long.

"the whole world will revolve around XML before too long" that's what they said about Java :P.

I would have to agree with bhamon, I've been programming for 4 years. If you jump in to lower level languages like C, C++ or Java will likely confuse you. If you want to probram Windows Applications, I would start with VB or Delphi (Delphi is much better but nobody uses it), if you are interested in serverside web applications the PHP is the only way to go (it takes the best of Perl, Java, C and ASP and combines it in to one)

I guess I can throw in my two cents.

I agree with previous responders that learning C, C++ or Java immediately could be quite painful. However, I think that learning sound programming fundamentals is just as important as learning the nuances of a specific language. I think learning sorting, searching and other algorithms, decision structures and data structures are essential for every programmer. Why you may ask. Because they are present in just about every programming language you will ever come across.

I would also like to point out there is a learning curve in starting anything new (unless you are brilliant). And programming is no exception. There are traps or quirks in any programming language that make learning certain features difficult. We all learn differently. What may be easy to understand for you may not be easy for me. Contact a CC to find out what material they use for Introduction to Programming course and why. And you don't have to buy books now to learn new languages (the internet and local library are great resources).

And finally. Two things to consider before making your decision to learn any new programming language:
1) resources available -- documentation, discussion groups, books, sample code, etc.
2) application usage -- (why use COBOL for an OO application or Java for small sysadmin utilites).

I'll have to agree with Steve regarding XML. Imagine the entire web as one huge database ... Some say XML is just HTML on steroids, wrong. It's an amazing concept that hopefully isn't ruined by *cough*, corporate greed. XML is 'where it's at' but anyway, what was the question again? Oh yeah, learn PHP as it's the simplest to learn , pretty powerful and it deals with XML nicely URL

If you learn Java, go ahead and learn ASP and JSP..... They are enough alike to make it easy.

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Hartmann

GIL...

SwEdE[oelbal]n is not in a poem....

For everybody else, I've just started with C++ and I thinks it's great.

Excuse my bad english, but I'm from sweden.

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Excuse my bad english, but I'm still from Sweden.