Hello, I'm 14 and the current high school I'm attending offers no computer programming course at the moment (nor do I think they will anytime while I'm there), but I really would like to learn. I have no prior knowledge in any language, so I'm starting from scratch. I believe the best way to learn for me would to buy a concrete book teaching me how. I prefer to use Linux but I do have a Windows 7 partition (IDK if this matters). So, I was wondering if you guys could possibly recommend a website where I could buy a book and what language to start with?

Hi,

Welcome to YC!

Unless you want to code something in particular that might require something special from a language (unlikely), I would recommend that you start of with Python. It is easy to learn and can be used in a variety of situations.

Look at BeginnersGuide/NonProgrammers - PythonInfo Wiki for some tutorials for beginners. After you are comfortable with the basics, "Dive into Python" is very good tutorial - a compulsory read according to me!

Hope this helps!

I haven't tried python (I probably will sooner or later) but I don't like scripting languages that much. Well, my friends (coders) like it pretty much so probably it's not as annoying as some other scripting languages, IDK, I have nothing against it.

I would say you should learn some simple languages like Basic, Pascal or go for C/C++ instantly (but if only you know you can manage - if you're not sure, leave it to learn in the future). I cannot recommend any book as I always learn from documentation, tutorials and friends (unluckily I've reached what my friends can do and can't learn from them anymore). But it's just me. Some people learn from examples and trying while some people learn from books.

So, to sum up, I would say go for Basic or Pascal. They are really simple and still powerful enough.

About Linux and Windows. C/C++/Python/Pascal... They are cross-platform. It makes no sense for you which OS you are using. Only libraries may differ. Or you can pick up cross-platform libraries. But libraries are more advanced. First learn the language.

Most people say that Linux is more comfortable for coding. And I would be one of them. First of all - I love terminal. Windows have the terminal as well, but it's not as good as the Linux one.

__________________

How to set up portable C++ IDE (Dev-C++)

Writing in C or C++ is like running a chain saw with all the safety guards removed," — Bob Gray.

To be very honest here, I didn't expect myself to like Python as much as I do now, before I began to learn Python. If you haven't tried Python as yet, I'd suggest you better do - you will almost certainly enjoy coding in Python. Since you already have a background in programming, I'd suggest you go straight to "Dive into Python"!

Thanks a lot guys, I'll try to learn python

This is just the thread I needed haha I read several pieces of literature that said I should learn JAVA first but then I read ESR's articles about how he used to recommend JAVA but he now thinks Python should be learned first.

language: Java
book: java complete reference by herbert schildt
IDE: netbeans

can be run on windows or our favourite(linux).

the other stuff you need "sun jdk" from www.sun.com for windows, or just run in terminal if you have bash "sudo apt-get install netbeans".