Okay I'll start off by saying I had dived straight into C++ at first, I got a decent amount of the way but realized that there wasn't much documentation I could find for people who didn't already learn the common-programming-concepts from higher tier programming languages. So now since I have lots of time to read (Both books and online) I am looking to find a language that is very well documented for conceptual learning (Learning concepts, etc) There is also a Basic class in my high school, I'm going into Senior year next year of high school and can possibly take the 1st part of the 2part series of classes, although I'd like to learn now (So I can hopefully learn a lot by the summer). I'm a speed learner, and I learn by reading just as much as I do by doing. The only programming I've really had pleasure in doing before was rather light, but I had much fun doing it, and would really like to pursue further into programming. I was thinking along the lines of Basic? DarkBasic? Java? Oh and I forgot to mention I happen to know some &#106avascript (Not much, I pretty much hate JS actually, mostly because of the environment in school I script in though), and a friend said it was almost identical to Java, if that's the case would it be easier to learn through &#106avascript and move to Java? Is Java well documented on the web? It's easier for me to print out articles, etc and read them in class. I'm hoping this goes here, as it is the "For Beginners" section, anyway thanks in advance. :]

Java is a good choice, but my recommendation would be Python. It is well-documented and easy to use. It also supports more styles of programming than Java, so it may teach you more concepts. It has a great community, so you should find plenty of help when stuck.

BTW Java does not have much in common with &#106avascript at all (just the syntax really).

Quote:Original post by Simian Man
Java is a good choice, but my recommendation would be Python. It is well-documented and easy to use. It also supports more styles of programming than Java, so it may teach you more concepts. It has a great community, so you should find plenty of help when stuck.

BTW Java does not have much in common with &#106avascript at all (just the syntax really).

Thanks! I'm gonna check it out, hopefully the IDE isn't blocked at my school. I've had Python before, but I never really did anything with it besides compile something I was given. I'm taking it for a test run and I really hope it works at school. I finished everything to do in my web design course, so I just sit there on a computer with nothing more to do than read things and try new things out.

Ruby, Common Lisp, ML.

In that order.

Wow thanks Roboguy! I'm going to go with that order most likely, after looking around at Python sites I found tons of information, and after asking a few friends on MSN and such they told me that they learned Python easily (Even though they haven't moved deeper). Haskell seems great too since Wiki's usually mean a good amount of information is stored. As for Common Lisp, I'm not sure if I wanna go into that, but by then I'll have made up my mind.

I'll look into ML as well, thanks Nathan Baum. Ruby seems great too, I've seen a few books that were easy to understand on it. I had actually heard somewhere (Forgot where) that it's a common set of rules for syntax and is usually just to get people into correct programming habits since it's strict. Just wondering can anyone clarify this?