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I'm thinking about learning how to program.

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superboyac:
Well...the tug is becoming a bit much.  I think I'm ready to start learning how to program slowly.  I feel too limited by my current computer skillset and I'm having way too many ideas and becoming too frustrated with how to deal with it.  I'm thinking of getting into dot Net and C sharp.  I think that's a good beginning for a newbie and the combo will mean fast applications I think.

I've held off on this for years.  I'm totally the kind of person that is drawn to programming.  I've become such a software geek over the years, I know exactly what I want in programs.  I programmed the TI calculators back in high school and got pretty good at it.  I took an introductory class in my freshman year in college for programming.  I did very well in that.  I've just never plunged in because of my other hobbies and I knew it was the kind of thing that would suck me in in a dangerous way.

One thing that I've learned over the years about taking up new things is to just dive in and do it.  I'm inclined to study a lot up front and ask a lot of questions before even getting my hands on something.  But as an adult, that can prevent you from actually starting and I end up in a perpetual state of learning and never doing.

kyrathaba:
I'm thinking of getting into dot Net and C sharp.  I think that's a good beginning for a newbie and the combo will mean fast applications I think.
--- End quote ---

A good choice, I think, as long as you don't mind that you'll be coding primarily for Windows machines.  Mono isn't far enough along to compare favorably with .NET Framework just yet.

I myself am a novice programmer.  I got my start with C# back in '06, and am still going strong.  I have some tutorials here on DC that'll get you started.  The only thing outdated is that I refer to Visual C# Express 2005 edition, rather than the 2010 edition ;)  And I'd be glad to answer any newbie questions, or to at least research it (if I don't know the answer) and point you in the right direction...

mouser:
In terms of advising people on first languages to tinker with, i think Python represents a pretty good choice, and is probably a more gentle way to get started than C#, while still being fairly good in terms of teaching good programming habits.

MilesAhead:
If you are interested in C# it wouldn't hurt to mess around with some compiled C and C++. Once you are programming with classes and inheritance the compiled stuff isn't that much harder.  The main annoyance in C/C++ is you have to deallocate memory instead of just letting the garbage collector handle it.

Just a thought. :)

kyrathaba:
Yep, all good advice, super. 

The only caveat I'd add would be that if you have no programming background, you probably don't want to jump immediately into C++.  I tried that, and was very frustrated.  Backed up to C# and was delighted.  Delphi isn't a bad choice; however, having programmed in both, I can opine that C# is, to me at least, a more succinct language.  But there is .NET support in Delphi now.

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