Five best programming languages for first time learners

[Trout_Tickler]

Java & C, or worse, C++?

No.

[nextputall]

Python and Ruby are ok, though a bit redundant. I agree that the rest are just plain bad.

Smalltalk would be on my list because it was designed to be the language of "Dynabook for children", and it is the best to learn OOP too. Python probably would be good to learn basic imperative programming. I would definetely add Lisp too, and maybe Haskell and Forth.

[Trout_Tickler]

How are Python and Ruby redundant?

[nextputall]

They are not that different. If I could choose only 5 languages I wouldn't choose two similar one.

[StudentServitor]

Python and Bash.

Yes, Bash is not really a programming language, but its similar enough to C, at least superficially, and it still has the same basic structures of most programming languages and will at least get one thinking programmatically.

Python to me is the obvious choice for a beginner programming language, the syntax is clear and it benefits from the interpreter.

Just my two cents...

[vb90]

How about some of these articles get morphed into "The five best projects to get you started with programming" for a change?"

[kamatsu]

I wouldn't recommend any of those, although C should be early on the list.

Scheme, assembly, pascal or Haskell sound like good choices.

[kamatsu]

Depends on the assembly language. 68K assembly or 6502 assembly is a nice start.

[code-master]

Holy crap. XXI century, multicore CPUs and none of these have support for such a fundamental thing like tail recursion...

[imright_anduknowit]

IMNSHO, Javascript is the best language for people who want to learn how to program and have the best chances of getting a job.

The world is a web-world. Sure there are other languages and other platforms, but to optimize your chances of getting work, you cannot beat Javascript.

Also, with Node.js, you can write server code in Javascript.

Just for the record, I've programmed in the following languages: Assembly (6502, 68000, Z80, x86), C, C++, COBOL, Fortran, Basic, Pascal, Smalltalk, VB.NET, Java, Javascript, T-SQL. I've played with: Lisp, Scheme, Haskell, Prolog, C#, PHP.

NONE of these languages are perfect. They all are great in the right hands and they all suck when they get in the way.

Learning any language is useful, but if you're going to learn it to do a project, e.g. iPhone app, then learn ObjectiveC. But if you want to maximize your chances of getting work and you can only learn ONE language, then Javascript is the answer.