I want to learn a programming language on my own since i am idle while waiting for my NYSC call up and i am wondering, which programming language will i learn? i have tried java and it was interesting and easy till i tried developing GUI's, that's where i gave up, am good at MATLAB but its not a general programing language, its just for engineering. So i am asking you guys to help me decide on which one i will go for based on:

[list]
[li]Difficulty (of course i will like the ones that will be learned easily)[/li]

[li]Popularity[/li]

[li]Relevance (related to computer engineering)[/li]

[li]Avaliability of tools[/li]
[/list]

***********************************************************************thanks guys****************************************************************

java is a good one. They are all good

I will liken it to a crawling child, he sees everyone walking and thinks it's an amazing feat.
he keeps trying until he is a sprint master.

with programming, you dont relent, you need to sacrifice a lot of time and concentration.
when i say relent, i mean, be ready to spend 14 hours/per day for weeks trying to figure out how GUI works,
and dont stop until you get it to work.

Thats d part i love, when i finally get it to work, i always reward myself in my own little way.

thanks for the advice webdezzi

Programming is certainly challenging and nobody will tell you it's easy. As already suggested, starting with Java is a good idea. You are going to run into road blocks, you just have to work harder to overcome those hurdles.

Frm d basis;C and C++

Hmmm, i'm seriously considering going to java. thanks bossman and blueteeth. But blueteeth, if i should star with the basics, shouldn't it be Paschal?

Frm what i knw,PASCAL is not good 4 large programs and dat puts it at a disadvantage compared to C,which it is still very similar to.so instead of going 4 pascal,just start with C,but have it at heart dat the three most porpular basic programs are;C++,basic and java.also,note dat C and java are optional.So dat's why i say start with C,C++.forget about pascal.

As of late I've been doing a little bit of Java.

I am starting to like it a lot.

Java has PHENOMENAL libraries!

Any functionality you want, there is bound to already be a nice library you can use.

I don't like the verbosity though.

Overall, I think it is a fairly decent language to start with.

I'm also a huge fan of Ruby. Very nice language. Concise and powerful, but not an ugly mess to read (like perl, for example.)

alright blueteeth, i'm considering that. once again, thanks for the advice.
ekt_bear, that is my problem with java: "it's verbose" and even with netbeans, i cant still develop a GUI. for simple programs

If you want concise, use a scripting language like ruby or python.

Doesn't really matter which of the above you pick, both are good.

Just pick one and master it though, I think.

please i want to learn programming on my own and i don't know how to go about it. please brothers put me through. thanks

Hey,

I am using PHP as programming language,
And definitely i preferred it,

@ nevya please how can i go about it? i will like to learn it myself without going to all this IT school the guy i use to consult to help me do some site application just speak too much and collect whole lot of money. please help me

Hey,

@ eoatech,

You can learn it at your door step, No need to go anywhere to learn this, There are many sites available on internet with detail video tutorials, I have also learned from there,

Please learn Python, it's the easiest of all the languages. The Google boys built their empire on Python and they still use it extensively. Once you know Python, it will be even easier to jump to Java and C++ and most others.

@ piniki. please how can i learn that on my own? do you have maybe video tutorial or e-book. so i can learn it?

eoatech:

@ piniki. please how can i learn that on my own? do you have maybe video tutorial or e-book. so i can learn it?

Information is freely available, just type "learn python" in google search bar. Pick and choose out of the many e-books and tutorials, all of them have some value.

I learned Python 1st year at Rhodes University in SA using this:
http://www.cs.ru.ac.za/courses/CSc102/

Download the Python programming environment listed under "recommended resources" and download the textbook then you are good to go.

They teach Java and C++ in the 2nd year
http://www.cs.ru.ac.za/

Thanks guys especially paniki for the links, java is giving me the creeps. lol.
@ekt_bear, i haven"t heard of ruby before now. how's it like?
@navya, i think php is a scripting language for server-side web applications can it be used for general purpose programming?

Ruby is basically the power of Perl, minus the ugliness, lack of maintainability and readability.

Read this free online book (which will also tell you how to download/install Ruby). Spend a few hours on it. Tell me what you think when done.

I think you'll like it better than some of the alternatives.

If you need something simple and relatively faster than especially Java and very powerful, go for Visual BASIC 2010.

@ekt_bear, thanks 4 the link, ruby looks promising but I'm just starting though
@nairaplus, is VB really more powerful than java??

hello,after viewing all the above post,i will advice you listen to this.
1:learn a language that is flexible
2:learn a language that works well with an IDE(integrated development enviroment).
3:learn from someone who understands the language up-to the level of writing a multithreaded application.
incase you are wondering im a java tutor,with applications to my credit.

so biaimahjak, you are advising java? the thing is that i want to lean on my own.

ya,the reason im advising java is,programming used to be top bottom design,meaning you would have to worry about things like garbage collection,overloaded methods e.t.c but with java all that is been taken care-off.but you will face difficulty in understanding the rudimentry aspects at first,it all clears up later just start nd ill put you through upto th point when u can develop the simplest nd yet functional programme.

any one with the video tutorial or e-book for the java? please

@braimahjak, alright, thanks bro. like i said in the begining of the post. i know a little of java. i can actuall develop workable command line programs but when it comes to GUI programs, everything starts sounding alien. thats my problem with java

first of all,what java IDE are you using?you need to understand how its error reporting works to know what imports are not working.gui is a delicate aspect of coding as your main method is hardcoded to ur buttons your problem is probably an unimplemented interface'an example is CLASS PROGRAMME EXTENDS JFRAME IMPLEMENTS CTIONLISTENER now ur buttons will work,tell me if you have this area under controll.

i use netbeans ide

hello been busy working,netbeans is good but at your level you need eclipse if i may recomend yo need the stanford university version.thier version has an internally built-in run method so you can work without using main methods.

i think you should go for application development but i dnt know which of the languages i can actually decide for you. but remmba you should be good in logic and reasoning sha

I said ruby before, and I stand by that.

One big downside with ruby is that at least judging from NL, it doesn't seem to be very popular amongst Nigerians. So if you like being able to get programming training in Nigeria, meet others in naija etc, there are less resources available than say PHP.

However, since presumably you have internet access, there is a big international community and tons of documentation you can access.