If I wanted to learn programming

Where would I start? I see most people learning C++.

I'm no programmer, but on one of Uber's PA streams, neutrino recommended starting with a simple Tetris clone. There's probably a tutorial or two for whichever language you're looking to learn.

That's gaming programming. Prolly 99% of programming is something completely different. Anyway, no matter what language you learn, chances are you're going to start by echoing "Hello, World"

It's definitely a lot easier to learn in a project based environment, like Nickles said. First thing I ever made was a Notepad clone.

First, learn the basics of the language you choose to start out with. I always recommend C++ because although it's harder (and, as some claim, messier) than languages like Java or C#, you learn a lot of important details that carry over to other languages. Also, it has the unique position in that you can choose to use the object-oriented features or not, whereas other object-oriented languages require it. OO programming tends to be challenging for those starting out, so making some basic sequential programs and working your way to OO programming is probably the best way to ease yourself into it.

Whatever language you choose, start out by following tutorials online. There are plenty of great ones online, and for C++, I tend to point to the ones on http://www.cplusplus.com. Once you have the basics of the language down, assign yourself a simple project and work your way through it. For example, when I was teaching a friend, I had him make a simple text-based adventure game. I set the goals each week, and he had to implement them. His final product was pretty darn good.

I don't recommend jumping into writing GUI's or graphical games too early on. It's best to get familiar with the basic libraries before doing that stuff.

Strongly suggest learning lua or python before c++

I don't. You should learn what a scripting language is based on before doing anything with it.

from what ive heard, colleges teach a form of c++ first. though at my college they taught java first. I don't know if that's still the case. I quickly found out my passion was not in code.

How old are you? High school? College? Old guy?

18 and plump and juicy like a starburst

Computer science degree if you ask me.

There's a job crisis going on (in the US at least) with not enough software engineers. Job outlook good.

Ruby or bust.

I wouldn't jump into it straight away. It might be harsh of me to say this, but it has to be said; CS takes a certain type of mindset, so definitely familiarize yourself before making that choice. You have this upcoming summer to learn a bit of programming and you can use that to judge if it's something you might do as a career. Once you start college, take some classes if you're interested and go on from there.

I say this because I've seen far too many college students forcing themselves to major in CS due to job prospects, when they really don't like the type of work it entails.

I agree with sylvester mainly because I am like what he described. I got out of it because I really didn't enjoy it at all. I wanted to excel at it - I really did - but it just wasn't for me. It wasn't what I thought, I didn't enjoy it, and I wasn't good at it.

Still, keep on fightin' the fight!

Agreed entirely. I'm an IT guy, but **** coding. Not for me. Ugh.

In college though, you can usually take foundation classes as elective credits to see if you like it.

I'm Quark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hdiuRMK3UQ

Hm I had to cram a lot of programming in for a short period of time last summer, I got a handle of the very basics using the codeacademy websites.

I already had some C++ under my wing at this stage, but the lessons are very easy to start of with, aimed at beginners so you will be fine.

You could continue with JS or switch once you feel you know basics.

I personally think Java is nice to learn after and is also widely used. Pythons nice as well. Don't touch C or C++ for a while.

EDIT: Although I do commonly hear that C/C++ are sometimes the best to start off with....really depends on the person I think, you might just get fed up very fast. Also if your programming in windows your gonna need to do some a bit of configuring to stuff in C.

Java or something beginning with a C.

Don't do Ruby or Lua... while I ******* love languages like that for the clever things you can do in a single line; clever things on single lines don't teach you to be a good programmer.

If I had to teach someone to program, I'd start by not teaching them OOP. I'd start with something procedural (like bog-standard C). Once someone understands what variables, functions, and flow are... then I'll introduce abstract concepts like objects and classes. Which makes C a good start, because then you can jump to C++ without a terrible great deal of trouble.

You should probably start with something like C++ or Java which is somewhat simpler regarding object orientated programming and memory allocation(oh god), like others have said concepts in both carry over easily to other languages. Really what I would do is just read up on the language of your choice, and then think up of a project that you think you can create with what you've read, and then move on from there, reading stack overflow on anything you need help on.

I would also recommend Java (especially since you can use Eclipse. It's free, and makes programming easy). After you understand Java, I'd move on to C++. (Of course, my College had us do about three-quarters of the work in C, because they hated us). You might also want to try HTML. While it's not really programming per se, it's still very useful, very sought after and very easy to learn.

On that note, if you find you like programming, pursue it. There is no better career prospect. Getting the degree is an ever-lovin' pain in the ***, but it's worth it: dinking around on a computer all day and getting paid for it.

Good Luck!

Learn the logic. I can't stress that enough. Anybody can type out long segments of code from a book but it won't do you a bit of good unless you learn the concepts and ideas behind the code. The syntax won't carry over from language to language, but the logic will.

Python is a great place to start due to the simple syntax and, if you want, I've got a .pdf of a book on my computer I can probably send you.