Programming Discussion Thread

[AnyOldName3]

I'd recommend Python as a first step to learning to program - it's not great for actually writing programs, but you can learn the basics of how you might without getting bogged down in anything complicated. For a day-to-day language, despite being mostly a Java guy, I'd recommend C#. As I see it, it's Java's younger, prettier, sexier and more intelligent sister. It can do everything Java can do (i.e. be powerful without giving you the opportunity to shoot yourself in the foot), but has nice things like operator overloading, pass-by-reference and a template/generic system that is helpful. It's main disadvantages are because it's a bytecode language, so can end up creating slower programs than C++ (although a good JIT-based runtime can sometimes make it go faster), and also isn't great for interacting directly with hardware. Until something like Go or Rust takes off, you're basically stuck with C++ for that.