I've been meaning to learn a programming language for a

>>56505547
Scratch

>>56505547
make your own language. its really easy. here are some tutorials:

http://createyourproglang.com/

http://blog.ppelgren.se/2015-01-03/DIY-Make-Your-Own-Programming-language/

http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Programming-Language

C++, idiots will tell you to do something like Python but like I said: idiots.

>>56505547
So you want to learn programming?

Pick a starting language. For beginners, there are generally two recommended "programming families" that you can choose to start learning:
-Dynamically typed/interpreted programming languages, such as: Python, Perl, Ruby
-Statically typed/compiled programming languages, such as: C, C++, C#

These are amongst the most popular languages in use worldwide, including 4 from the top 5. Both approaches are perfectly fine, and well-documented.
-Dynamically typed programming may be a bit more flexible, convenient, and forgiving. It is more popular in academia.
-Statically typed programming is a bit more suited for making general applications. It is more popular in industries.

Cannot decide? Flip a coin.

If you choose statically typed/compiled programming, you may want to start with C, then pick up C++. C is very well documented, and teaches many universal programming concepts. C++ is based on C, and adds new concepts. Sources:
For C:
The C Programming Language (K&R)
C Primer Plus (Prata)
http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial/c-tutorial.html
http://www.learn-c.org/

For C++:
http://www.learncpp.com/
http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/
http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial/c++-tutorial.html
http://en.cppreference.com/
https://isocpp.org/faq

If you choose dynamically typed/interpreted programming, you may want to start with Python. It is very easy to pick up. Here are some good sources:
http://www.learnpython.org/
http://www.codecademy.com/en/tracks/python

>BUT I WANT MORE SOURCES!
Read: https://wiki.installgentoo.com/index.php/Programming_resources

>BUT I WANNA START WITH [language x] INSTEAD!
Sure, if you like. But the languages above are considered good for beginners.

>BUT I WANNA MAKE A COOL WEBSITE!
Learn HTML, CSS, and Javascript.

>BUT I WANNA MAKE iPHONE GAMES!
Learn Objective C and/or Swift.

>BUT I WANNA MAKE ANDROID GAMES!
Learn Java.

>BUT I WANNA MAKE PC GAMES!
Learn patience.

>>56505547
Assembly, Fortran or C

>>56505586
>Learn patience.

The game patience? Or the concept of patience?

>>56505659
Yes.

>>56505659
Of course.

>>56505547
Javascript is the most used language for the web. It's stupid not to learn that first.

If you were going to do it, you'd be doing it and not asking us about it. Go back to playing video games and watching anime.

>>56505586
Thanks, this came in handy. I mostly want to learn for personal use and to be able to read code

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>>56506064
Hope it helps.

>>56506126
kys?

>>56505562
Would rather kill myself with fire than work with Scratch again.

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>>56506518
Absolutely haram?

>>56505547
>What would you recommend to a total beginner like me?
Do you have any particular projects you want to work towards in the not-too-long term? Some types of project demand particular languages; for example, android apps are written in java, and you have no choice in the matter. If your desire to study programming is driven by an application demanding a particular language, study that one.

If not: do you have a friend or other contact with programming experience, who may be able to help you out with any questions you will certainly have? If so, pick a language they can help you with.

If neither apply, then choose whatever is convenient; >>56505586 has a good overview of considerations on that score.

If that still leaves you bewildered: tl;dr use python, it's great and wonderful and easy to learn.

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>>56507094

I don't have any particular projects. I just want to have an understanding of code and be able to read it to an extent, maybe code some things to help me on a day to day basis. But mostly i just want to pick it up as a hobby.

>>56507393
If you ejected into space in a spacesuit and just got left out there, would your body skeletonize? Or would it mummify or just turn into a soupy mess?

Python. It's simple and effective enough to introduce you to programming, but limited enough to make you want to learn more afterward.

If you ever need to learn web dev, you should learn a more advanced language first (C is an obvious choice) because you need to understand for yourself why these langs are completely horrible to avoid being taught horrible things.

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>>56507515
I don't know. I just like this kind of pic

>>56505547
Read SICP. No, I'm not meme-ing. It's a bit heady with it's prose, but it covers major aspects of programming, and how to think about programming.

It's really good for learning the core aspects of programming.

However, it *is* focused on functional programming, so it's methods don't apply 1:1 with procedural languages.

The best book for procedural programing, imo, is C by K&R.

>>56505547
Protip: don't come to /g/ for advice. I'm currently learning Swift 2.2 right now and quite enjoying it. The amount of documentation is huge considering how new the language is and its syntax is clean and very readable. If you're interested you should check out one of the many available online courses and learning platforms (Codingame). You don't need a Mac to learn Swift, you can use Linux or IBMs swift sandbox.

>>56507393
Since you want to be able to read code, I'd argue that the C approach >>56505586 might be right. Not only is C a very useful language that is available for pretty much any platform imaginable, but several popular languages (such as C++, C#, Java, javascript and PHP) derive a lot of their syntax from C. Basically, by learning one of these "C-style" languages, you gain (some) literacy in all of them.

>>56505547

My normal recommendation is Python.

Very readable for someone with no experience, interpreted so you can run a REPL to play and get immediate feedback on what works, and a large standard library so you can make something useful quickly.

/g may scoff, but I found sites like CodeAcademy were good for getting my feet wet without being overwhelmed by possibilities.

After you have the basics down and you can write valid code without looking things up every 10 minutes, then you want to shift to more conceptual topics like algorithms.