«

[Japo]

One of the most discussed questions about programming is which language is best to start, and people have strong opinions on it. I myself am not sure there's an answer to that, even for a particular person or purpose. Actually I do think no language can be a wrong choice as the first one, and there will never be any harm in learning something. Prior knowledge enables you to learn further, I don't think it can limit what you can learn thereafter.

It doesn't matter if the language is object-oriented. Of course no matter the language, you will have start with the basics. Even in C you would start writing your first program in main() without any other functions, and later you can learn what functions are and how to use them. If you're using a language with objects, later you can learn how to define your own and what they're for, only later you'll learn about inheritance, later about polymorphism... But even if a language is object-oriented, meaning that it doesn't let you do anything that's not an object, I don't think it's a bad choice to start. I'm not saying the opposite either, any of the suggestions so far is good.

I could never understand objects until I had to use them. I have always found that every explanation about them is worthless, because they say that programming objects are like real objects and that's why they're useful, and in my opinion that makes no sense and isn't the case. I think any explanation of object-oriented programming should point, with examples, how they're a solution to problems that arise when you try to write the same program without using them.

My advice is that the time you spend deciding a language will be lost. Just start coding in whatever you find accessible. You can learn other languages later. Use whatever your friends use.