Currently I am learning French, spoken in 29 countries its beautiful verbs and conjunctions make it an excellent (not to forget romantic!) language. Comparing to other languages such as Russian and Latin French is not a hard language to learn. The same goes for programming, learning easier languages at first is much more efficient. Learning HTML (the simplest of markup languages) is the way to go before jumping into languages such as Java and C, even if you don't have an interest in web applications. Today time is limited and our lives are ever more getting busier and busier. As engineers we need to be efficient in learning languages thus we can sooner get onto fixing problems. Grasping the many different (perhaps difficult) perspectives of C syntax is time consuming. Why not start with an easier language, master it and then shoot through C having a better knowledge on the simplest of concepts so you can focus on the harder ones. To me, it makes perfect sense.
You can search the internet and without looking far you can find common questions people are asking such as "What programming language(s) should I learn?", "What is the easiest language to learn" and so on. All languages are different and thus have their different advantages and disadvantages. Some are easier to learn but not as powerful and others have hard syntax, have many headaches such as time required to compile and debug but are extremely powerful rapidly expanding the amount of problems you can address with the language.
I was inspired by Java, although I was only interested in this for a while although it definitely inspired me to learn programming. Easing in gently was everything to me, I didn't want to ruin my passion and incentive to learn. I began with a markup language HTML5 and CSS which opened my view to how web applications such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook were made. Learning HTML & CSS was very beneficial to learn the very basic concepts and feeling of programming, although strictly speaking HTML & CSS are not programming languages.
After exposing myself to these the command shell and Git was a definite must-learn followed by Python which was the real eye-opener to programming concepts (and still is). I plan to master Python then debate on either to learn PHP or C++, both remarkable languages. As stated in my last blog post Python is a language that should be learned in modern day society. If you browse for Google Jobs one of their specifications Python is now a must, but many companies will employ expecting you to work with any language regardless if you know it or not, its the process of learning one language that you benefit from and if you've done it once people will believe you can do it twice.
The best way to learn languages is by applying. By creating simple 'Hello World' programs in the proposed language is the best way to remember. Read a few good books, try dismantling programs and see how they operate and the reliability of internet sources are rapidly soaring. But if you don't want to keep staring onto a computer screen all day (like me) keep with books.
Everyone has their own preference for languages for those who would like to follow in my steps (or similiar) I have constructed a list of excellent learning resources that I myself have used:
Note: All sources are free except the very first and last source.
HTML & CSS
Python
- Python 3 Documentation
- A Byte Of Python (Highly recommended, Harvard University uses this)
- Dive into Python 3
- Learn Python The Hard Way
- Python Class (PAID)
