What programming language should I learn?

Question

Hi, in the past I learnt a bit of Qbasic and I used to do some simple text games and applications, I never got into another language since then. Now I want to go back to programing and start with an idea for a specific type of game, but I am completely lost as which language should I choose. What I want to do is a sort of text game but instead of just going back to Qbasic I want to make it a windows application, so the text appears in a window that I can format, menus, etc.

But the key problem is that I want to make it so it can be expanded in the future to show graphics, nothing extremely fancy, 2d sprites (but that would be for the future, I just want to know that it can be done).

About the possibilities I saw that nowadays the recommended languages to start off with are Python or Ruby, but I really got lost on how to make windows applications with them so I don't know if they are the best for that. What would you recommend that's easy to learn to do this?

Answer 1

Definitely go for Python. It is very flexible and will enable your future programming endeavors to go much more smoothly from its ease of use and great development environment.



If you're looking to make GUIs, you'll definitely be needing tkinter, but a great beginning graphical interface is called "graphics" that is made specifically for readers of the text book Python Programming: An Introduction to Computer Science, John Zelle, Franklin Beedle & Associates, 2004. The link in my source is to their website. This graphics platform is very simple and will ease you into making graphics in Python. For making games, Python has something called pygame, which is very popular. Definitely try Python out, I'm sure you'll love it.

Answer 2

Since you already know some QBasic, the next easiest language to learn would be Visual Basic. It generates true Windows applications, and is very similar to QBasic.



Be aware that Microsoft now has VB.net, which is a wonderful extension of the older Visual Basic, but may represent a steeper learning curve.

Answer 3

He might be trying to say that you need to learn programming techniques and logic, rather than languages. This really is important, too. For instance, being able to hold a conversation in 15 human languages doesn't mean you can write an outstanding work of literature in any of them; and a really well written program is much like a really well written book, in that it needs to have many parts that fit together in non-obvious but effective ways.

Answer 4

Two easy-ish and popular languages: Java and Python. Python's graphics toolkit is called 'tkinter'. Java's is 'swing.' Either one would be a sufficient starting point for what you would like to do (although Java may be faster.)



Bonus: Java and Python are platform-independent, unless you add in windows-specific libraries. That means you can let your friends with Macs play your games, without extra work!

Answer 5

It depends on what you want to do.



If you want to do systems programming (especially LINUX or POSIX operating systems), then head towards Perl, Python, or Ruby (in that order, Perl is more important).



If you want to write stand-alone Windows programs, then head towards Microsoft C Sharp (and avoid Visual Basic).



If you want to write enterprise or web programs, then head towards Java, CSS, XML, Javascript, AJAX, and SQL Queries.